The College Visit

By Deborah L. Carter

If you’re the parent of a college-aged son or daughter, you most likely spent your college years deprived of certain conveniences we now take for granted: cell phones, the internet, bottled water, and the campus visit. Relatively unknown during the seventies and eighties, the pre-application campus visit in recent years has claimed its spot as one of the key tools in the college search and application process.

The benefits of the campus visit are significant, and vary greatly depending upon when in the process the visits are made and how much planning is done beforehand. The timing and extent of campus visits are governed largely by: a) your combined calendars; b) your pocketbook; and c) the relative “health” of your college application plan. Coordinating schedules among parents and students is no small feat, especially during the school year when work, classes, homework and sports commitments fill every square inch of the family calendar. While it’s great to visit a campus during the school year while classes are in session, that’s not always possible, and a summer visit is preferable to no visit. Depending upon your budget, you can devise an approach that combines physical visits with “virtual” online visits. Plan ahead, and include a number of campus visits as excursions to an already scheduled annual summer vacation or family holiday trip. Even if neither your schedule nor your budget allows for visits to all colleges on your Top Ten List, a few well-planned visits can provide much useful information to help decide important basics such as: public vs. private; large vs. small; urban vs. rural; engineering vs. oboe, and so on. Take day trips to in-state schools, even though you’ve driven past them before. Remember that a campus visit can tell you as much about what you don’t like as what you do.

Among all the other more mundane or excruciating tasks associated with the college application process, campus visits stand out as an opportunity for some fun and excitement. Yet, we all have seen the less than jovial faces of parents and students as they collide their way through a myriad of college tours and info sessions. You can increase your chances for a successful campus visit and reduce your anxiety levels by following a few simple suggestions:

The most useful campus visits will be those that are conducted somewhere in the middle of the college search and application process, rather than during the amorphous beginning or the hectic post-acceptance period. Ideally, the serious college-bound sophomore or junior will have done some “due diligence”, using a combination of print, web, verbal and/or professional resources, to compile a preliminary college list. From this, you can develop one or more distilled regional short lists, including potential favorites, legacy schools, and representative examples of the major determining factors such as size, selectivity, cost, location and areas of study. Plot your regional short list on a map in order to determine whether you can plan a special multi-city college swing, or whether visits to a sampling of these schools can be incorporated into already planned business or pleasure travel.

Decide whether your trip will be by air, land or sea, and start to look at some online travel deals, remembering that flexible travel dates will allow for the best fares and rates. Make sure that you are familiar not only with the basic profile information of each school (location, size, selectivity, tuition cost, areas of study, student body profile, student-teacher ratio), but also if and when organized campus tours, information sessions, or admissions interviews are offered. Be aware that, although summer is a popular time for campus visits, every college and university sets its own schedule, and often you must register in advance for your visit. If available, personal interviews or meetings with deans, department heads or athletic coaches will require appointments made as far in advance as possible. Consult college websites for monthly campus tour/info session schedules, or contact the admissions offices prior to finalizing your travel itinerary.

Even if you think that you can get a good feel for the campus on your own, it’s a good idea to go on the organized campus tour and attend the information session sponsored by the college office of admissions. The tour will be led by a well-informed and cordial student representative specially recruited for this purpose by the admissions office. At most colleges, these are very popular and coveted positions among students, and though usually overwhelmingly positive, most student tour guides welcome questions and conversation, especially from prospective students. Ask about class size, relationship with professors, campus issues, weekend pursuits, dorm life and food. The info sessions are part PR, part process and part Q&A. While much of the information can be gleaned as easily from the university view book, application and website, the live info session at a given college provides a valuable peek into the personality, demeanor and attitudes of its administrators. Usually well-attended, this gathering also gives you an opportunity to see who else is considering this school.

While you can compile a multitude of facts and figures about a particular college or university from a variety of locally available resources, there’s no better way to assess the personality of a place than by being there. Whether you develop a series of impressions, rate items on a checklist, or are struck with an image of the perfect fit or the overwhelming desire to strike this one off your list, the campus visit provides you with the tools. So make the most of your visit by entertaining some or all of the following, or think of your own:

What is the nature of the physical plant? Visit academic buildings, libraries, student centers, bookstore, dormitories, athletic facilities, dining areas, parking structures, new construction, roads and infrastructure, parks and gardens.
What’s the “feel” of the campus? Is it architecturally pleasing? Traditional or offbeat? Can I see myself here for four years or more? Does it make me want to take some photos? Assess whether you will be walking across campus, or relying on some other form of transportation? Sure, it’s sunny and 80˚ for the guided tour, but what will the weather be like during the actual school year?
Who makes up the student body? How competitive are they? If they all look like you or none of them look like you, that could be a problem. Are they liberal, conservative, preppy or quirky? What do they do for fun? Is there a good balance between academics and the social scene? Is this place friendly?
How are the dorms? How’s the food? What options do I have other than dining halls? Are people laughing and talking over lunch, or is everyone sitting off by themselves in front of a pile of books?
What is the state of technology? Dial-up, high speed, wireless? Is technology available equally to grads and undergrads? Academic buildings and residence halls?
What are the hot issues on campus? Visit the student center, check out the bulletin boards, and pick up a campus newspaper.
What are the academic strengths and weaknesses? Are undergrads as important as grad students? Are classes listed in the course schedule actually available? Find out what sort of format and class size to expect.
Is faculty accessible? What kinds of relationships do students experience with their professors? Do the best professors teach intro as well as advanced courses? Find out whether you can get access to the students’ evaluation of faculty. See if you can arrange to speak with a professor or an administrator.
What kinds of activities and opportunities are available outside the classroom? Check into sports, extracurricular activities and clubs, arts and culture, community service, leadership and governance both on campus and in the surrounding community.
Where am I? Is there life beyond the campus walls? Is it safe? What kind of relationship exists between the campus and the surrounding community? See if you can speak to someone from the community. A campus security officer? The infirmary?
Is there a strong system of advising, career counseling, alumni support? Find out what recent graduates are doing now.

After each campus visit, record your impressions. Don’t think that you’ll be able to remember details or distinguish among colleges after you get back home. Develop a chart or matrix or journal entry system, depending upon what works best for you. Remember to allow for some sort of rating scale on those factors that matter most to you. Chances are good that you will be creating a new “short list” based upon the input you received from your campus visits. Certain schools will rise to the top, others will fall off the list, and yet others might be added based upon common factors now considered important to your ultimate decision to apply.

Following is a word of advice to parents accompanying their students on the campus visit. As a parent, you certainly will develop your own likes and dislikes along the way, and no doubt will offer your unsolicited opinion. You most definitely will ask a dumb or embarrassing question during the info session or campus tour, and will notice that your student is no longer positioned close enough to you to be identified as your offspring. You might wish that you had actually looked into the cost of tuition at a particular college rather than relying on your student’s assessment that $28,000 per year was well within the family budget. However, in order to optimize the likelihood of success during your campus visits, resist at all cost the temptation to elicit any remotely immediate feedback from your son or daughter. To the prospective student, this is an intensely private activity. The more enamored or excited about a particular school, the riskier the outward expression of desire. So be patient and be confident that with proper preparation and execution, the campus visit can be as useful a tool in the college search and application process as. . .well. . . the cell phone, the internet or that bottle of water. Bon voyage!

Deborah Carter is Director of CollegeConnection, LLC, a company specializing in student-centered college search and application consulting services. Contact Deborah at info@CollegeConnection.cc