Road Trip! Visiting Campus

Is there anything more predictable than the pre-senior-year college-campus road trip?

If you're like most rising seniors, you've probably already talked your parents (or a friend) into a marathon campus visit--typically as many schools in as few days as you can squeeze in. The classic itinerary is the New England loop--maybe starting with Harvard in Boston, looping through New Haven to pick up Yale, then into the countryside to visit Dartmouth... at which point you realize that, as long as you're in Boston, you might as well hit Boston College, MIT and Boston University, and heck, Amherst is just up the road a little, and as long as you're in Massachusetts, New York is nearby, and you can see Cornell, and....

(By the way, for the really lazy, there are actual companies that just do college campus visits. Because the best way to visit a college is via tour bus with other high school students who lack the initiative to visit on their own...)

Before you join the mass migrations this summer though, is it even worth it? If so, should you focus on only a few, or visit as many as possible? And, if you're going to commit to visiting, what should you focus on seeing or looking for? And, perhaps most importantly, does it make sense to try for an on-campus interview?

Should you visit?
The most basic question is whether visiting campus is even worth it. After all, once you've done two campus tours, you'll realize they're all the same--the student body is always "highly engaged", the faculty is always "accessible and on the cutting edge", student life is always "a good balance between academics and social life", and if you've seen one immaculately manicured quad, you've seen them all.

So should you even bother visiting?

In my experience, yes. There's something about setting foot on a campus that you can't get from a website, a glossy brochure or by talking to alumni. Every school has its own unique culture and vibe--and only by seeing it first hand can you get a sense for what a place is like.

Don't go overboard. By this point, maybe you have a list of 30-40 schools that you're interested in, from having seen their websites, material and from talking to friends, teachers and family. If a school isn't even on that list, it's probably not worth going out of your way to visit it. Likewise, if you're serious about a school, but it's cost and time prohibitive to visit, decide whether seeing it in person will really change your perspective.

One caveat: When you're applying next fall (and particularly when you're interviewing), having visited a campus will give you a perspective on it that you can't get elsewhere. It will also make seen as a more serious applicant. I always ask students I'm interviewing whether they've visited campus or not--and although not having visited is not a reason for automatic rejection, if someone tells me that my school is their dream school, which they've wanted to attend since they were six, they lose all credibility if they haven't even visited.

(A final note on whether you should visit or not... if you're applying to a school that's in your backyard--if you could visit it over a weekend--you should visit, for at least three reasons: First, not visiting will make you seem like a less-serious applicant ("You want to go here, you live two hours away, and yet you haven't even visited? Really?").

Second, visiting will give you a better feel for the school, which will help as you fill out your application.

Third... come on, it's your college experience we're talking about! If you're applying there, you should at least see if it's somewhere you'd like to live for the next four years. Particularly if it's easy to visit.)

How many campuses should you visit?
This is more up to you and how much time and money you want to spend visiting campuses. I think you should visit any campus you know you want to apply to. You should probably visit any campus you're strongly considering applying to. And maybe visit the ones you're 50/50 on, if they're easy to add to the schedule.

But again, don't go overboard--if you visit 50 schools in New England, chances are that they'll all become one big blur of ivy-covered buildings and picket fences, defeating the goal of visiting in the first place.

What should you do/look for on your tours?
There's a surprising number of tour checklists on the web--some of them useful. (Sallie Mae's is surprisingly good... another with decent questions to ask is here.)

My advice? First, know what you're visiting for--it's probably to get a feel for what it'd be like to be a student there (and whether you'd want to go there or not), but maybe it's more specific--you want to see whether their research facilities are world class, or you want to meet some faculty or students in the department you're most interested in. If you know what you want to get from your visit, it's much easier to plan accordingly (and leave with useful information).

Assuming it's a general visit--"do I like this place, do I want to go here?", then I'd recommend:

• Take the tour. They're scripted, cheesy and somewhat interchangeable between campuses, but they're good starting points. Also, what they tour focuses on (athletics, school history, proximity to downtown, etc) will tell you a lot about what the school values and how it sees itself
• Sit in on classes. Sometimes the admissions department can arrange for you to sit in on a lecture; if so, do it. If not, chat up a random student and ask if you could go with him/her to their next class (student tour guides are a great resource for this). Some schools even offer extended visits, where you get paired up with a current student and get to sit in on their classes, go with them to parties, etc. If you've got the time for it, there's no better way to get a feel for a school.
  
• Tour the dorms and other student facilities. Ditch your tour group and poke around campus yourself--what do the dorms look like? What does the cafeteria look like? The gym? Those are going to define your day-to-day happiness with your future school. Go take a look.
• Observe. Watch the current students. Are they happy and outgoing? Do people look stressed-out and sleep deprived? Are they all wearing their school's t-shirts, or t-shirts from school they'd rather be at? Can you see yourself being in their shoes a year from now? Would you want to be?
• Take notes. How is this school unique? What does it think sets it apart from its peer universities? (and do you agree or not?) Are there specific encounters or experiences you had while visiting that encapsulate why you want to go to that school (or that struck it from your list)? All of these are extremely valuable for your application process--and particularly during your interview. I had an interviewee once who explained that he hadn't been interested in my school until his parents made him visit. The ecology lecture he sat in on was engrossing, and mid-way through he looked around the lecture hall and realized that everyone there looked like people he'd be friends with--a little nerdy, super-smart, laid back and easy going, but curious and engaged in what's going on around them. He felt like he fit in. He was sold. And so was I--I rated him highly, and he got admitted.
• Finally, make sure you spend time wandering and absorbing the campus atmosphere. Every campus has a unique feel, which you may miss if you're on a highly scheduled visit. Give yourself enough downtime to get a feel for the place. And again, keep asking yourself--would I be happy here next year? No level of "prestige" or anything else is worth being miserable for four years.

Lastly, keep in mind that the easiest time for you to visit--summer--is also one of the worst times to go, since classes aren't in full session and most students are gone. Decide whether you'd rather wait until September, when students are back but you may also be in school, or just deal with a largely vacant campus.

Should you do an on-campus interview (if available)?
Many of the top schools don't offer them, so you don't have to worry about it. My general feel about on-campus interviews is that they're high risk/high reward. Whether you should try for one is up to you.

Pros:

• The person you're meeting with will likely be the person deciding whether you get in or not--there's no intermediate filter, so if you impress this interviewer, you're likely to be admitted. If you're a rock star, you can leap to the top of the pack.
• This interviewer will know more about the school than most alumni interviewers, so if you're already struggling deciding between colleges and specifics matter highly, you'll learn more than you would in most interviews.
• You can knock out a portion of the process in July and won't have to worry about it in the fall.

Cons:

• This will be a tough and discerning interviewer. While you might get an alumni interviewer who is just impressed that you showed up on time and can talk in complete sentences, feel guaranteed that the bar in this interview will be (much) higher.
• This is likely the first (or one of the very first) interviews you'll have done. Are you really ready to tackle one of the toughest you'll get first?
• The very best students typically interview on campus (some by invitation), so the immediate group of students that the interviewer is going to compare you to (consciously or not) is going to be very competitive.
• This will not be a stress-free, casual interview. Because the admissions officer is extremely busy, you'll likely be held to exactly 30 minutes (or, in some cases, 15) and that's it. Don't expect any chit-chat--your interviewer will ask you the critical questions he or she wants to know, give you a perfunctory chance to ask a question at the end, and then you're out the door.

If I sound down on the on-campus interview, it's because I think it's too risky for most students. Even the very best applicants need to get in the interview groove to excel at interviewing and chances are that you're not there yet in mid-July.

At schools where you have the option of interviewing with someone on-campus or an alumni, there's likely only a slight advantage to interviewing on campus--and that advantage only exists if you blow your interviewer away. What's the likelihood you're going to knock the socks off someone who's been professionally evaluating high school students for 20 years? If you think it's high, then go for it!



Have fun on your campus visits, and take advantage of the opportunity they provide to evaluate prospective schools first-hand. Be an informed consumer and look at each school with a critical eye. If you're like most students, after your visits there will be a handful of schools that rise to the top of your list--and knowing which schools you're most serious about will help you plan and prioritize during the rush of the fall application season.

But most of all, make sure you have fun--this may be the last great road trip you get to make with your folks before leaving home next year. Enjoy it! ----CJ