By Jesse G., Teen Portal Staff Writer
With Spring Break just around the corner and summer vacation just a few months away, some of you may be starting to think about a college tour. Last summer, as a rising senior, I visited four colleges in the Midwest. Here are some of the things I learned:
1. Closely evaluate colleges, and find ones you’re interested in first: Don’t visit a College simply because you’ve heard of it (i.e. Yale, Notre Dame); be sure to do thorough research before dragging you and your parents across the state or country. It doesn’t make sense to buy a Nike Shoe that is 5 sizes too large, and the same concept applies to colleges. Get a sense of your personal preferences; basically what do you want in a school? Does the school have the course you’re interested in? Ss it well-regarded in that subject area? Do you care about going to a big school versus a small school? Do you have a preference for the location? These are all factors that you should look at before determining which colleges to visit.
2. Visit colleges that you can get into: Are your SAT scores within the range of the colleges that you’re going to visit? Can you get them there? A school that requires a 3.5 GPA is probably not going to take an applicant with a 2.0 GPA too seriously. Although colleges are not interested in test scores alone (They also look at your hobbies, interests and activities), you still must have the right credentials to make it to the “under consideration” pile; it doesn’t make sense to visit a college that you have no shot of getting into.
3. Plan your trip strategically: Are your chosen schools primarily close to home? If that’s the case, it doesn’t make much sense to schedule a full college tour. You can visit one or two at a time. If your schools are far away, think strategically about where you would like to visit. Find the general area with the most colleges fitting your interests and then plan a route, sleeping arrangements and, most importantly, tour dates. Schedule dates in advance (Pretty much every college now has some online system in place for doing this) and remember that you can always cancel. But don’t visit some far away area simply because you have your heart set on one college there; you can always visit after you get in and before you make your final decision.
4. If another college is close, visit it as well: Sometimes you may find that a college that you haven’t even thought of is your best fit. Take the opportunity to check out other schools if they are along your tour route.
