College visits

[monarchsfan16]

Any of you here already been through the college search process? I'm going to start visiting colleges over April vacation, in 2 weeks, and was wondering what to expect. Also, anyone have any advice? I probably should have started looking sooner, since this is my junior year, but I didn't. So now it's a little overwhelming.

 

[DisneyGirl421]

For when my sister started lookin, we started fall of her junior year. It's alright that you started now, but i should warn you... if you visist during the summer months, it doesnt give you the full effect of the college, since there are no students. and look around for junior open houses. My sister went to one (i think it was may of her jun year) for Muhlenberg College. She fell in love with it and did early decision there...
I'm a soph and already kinda know where i want to look (cuz of all the places i went wit my sis... and i kinda want to go to muhlenberg too! lol) So yeah... hope i helped!

 

[Stephanie218]

i just went through the whole process, so i can give you a few tips ---- look at a lot of schools, go when they're in session, visit once again after you're accepted, don't worry too much about the essay, spend time making a good resume, get good recommendations....look for all different kinds of schools to decide what you'd want.

i visited over 15 schools i think, and i applied to 9, got into 8 (damn boston college lol).
but i'm going to stonehill college next year.

good luck visiting, pm me if you have any questions

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

I am just about done with my freshman year of college so went through this last year.
I did not visit after getting accepted. I visited the school that I am at now and knew within minutes of stepping on to campus that I belonged here.
If you do get that feeling don't shrug it off because it can change your entire college search.

Don't be afraid to go far away from home. Most of my friends stayed withing 2 hours of home and hate it while I went 20 hours from home and love it.

Don't be afraid to ask the questions that may seem silly or stupid because those can be the most important questions to ask.

Someone said they visited 15 schools...DONT do that. Do not overwhelm yourself with so many schools. I visited 2 at a time and then at the end of the night wrote notes on both. My friends who visited lots of schools and applied to lots of school had a lot more pressure than I did..I only applied to 4.
If they have Early Action use it because you will get accepted sooner giving you more time to make a decision. DONT do Early Decision unless you ar 100% absolutely sure that is where you want to go.
And get your applications in as early as posisble. The sooner you get them in the sooner you get an answer back.

 

[disneyangel7488]

I am a soph in high school and this is something that I have been thinking about lately. I already know what I want to do and what to major in, and I also know that I definitely want to go away to a college.

For those of you that are in college or will be going into college next year: How early did you start looking at colleges? What college do you go to/ are going to and what are you majoring in?

 

[wdwgirl03]

I am also a college freshman (Marquette University, majoring in Elementary Education), and my sister is a junior in HS. I went on my first "college visit" (umm, more like a sports weekend at University of Michigan!!) my junior year. I also took the SAT and ACT at the end of my junior year.

I did a lot more my senior year, going on a few visits. One thing though that I would do over if I had to is get my applications in earlier. And if possible, do your applications online- it is a lot easier!

Does your HS have representatives from colleges come visit? If so, try going to those. It's a good way to get information.

Another thing that I have to say is don't let money influence your decision. If you really like a school that costs more money than another place, don't settle on the cheaper one just because of that. I know one girl from my HS really wanted to go to this one school, but didn't even apply because it was too expensive for her. She was a really good student and probably would have gotten in and possibly been able to get some scholarship $$.

But this is the opposite of something that someone else said. Don't feel that you have to go to a school far away. My house is really close to the Marquette campus, but I still live in the dorms. I have heard from my mom (who has talked to mothers of kids from my class) that a lot of my classmates from high school are homesick and are ending up transferring back to schools in Wisconsin.

And if you want, you can PM me too if you have other questions!!

 

[monarchsfan16]

Thanks for the advice. Yes, some reps come to my school, mostly in the fall. I didn't go to any this year though, because at that point, the schools that were showing up weren't ones I was interested in. Now those same schools are. Go figure. I've been to a couple college fairs, which were pretty confusing, overwhelming, etc. So we're starting to visit soon. I think the worst part is that I was pretty sure of what I wanted to do, but after this year, I have no clue anymore. I do know though, approximate boundaries of locations for the college. So I guess that will help somewhat. That's one of the reasons we have to visit over vacations. A lot are a 5-6 hour drive.
How exactly did you know it was the school for you? Was it the layout? Social life? Academics? Sports? What made THAT school stand out?

 

[KingKobra]

One piece of adive: If you are undecided, don't apply as undecided to the college. pick a major that you are at least somewhat interested in because if you put undecided on your apps is screws up your class schedule. You can always change later. i got waitlisted at one school because I put undecided and if i had just picked a major i would have been accepted.

Also I recommend visiting the schools you are applying to. i visited one school that i was interested in and after visiting found out that it wasn't the place for me. It will save you $ and grief if you find out whether the college is for you before you apply.

 

[SDAngel101]

Don't let money stop you from getting a good education. Apply for those scholarships if your family needs the money.

I went on a college trip my junior year, and visited I think 10 colleges. I got to see the campus' and the areas around them which is pretty important. Know what you are looking for, so you don't spend time going to schools you dont even want to go to. Do you like the city? or do you want to be in the country? Do you want to go to a big school? or a small one?

I applied to 8 schools, and got accepted to 5 of them. Make sure you have a safety school that you can get into for sure, just incase you are rejected from your top choices. I didn't even visit the school I am going to now untill I sent back my letter saying I was going there. But I would say for you to go and visit the schools you are accepted too, because there is the chance that you don't like the campus or something. I knew right when I got to the school that I wanted to go here.. Cal Poly Pomona majoring in Animal Health Science.

 

[Princess Aurora45]

Although are system is probably different for yours I can offer some tips.

I only looked at 2 unis which I had applied to although I had been accepted by all of mine(in the UK you apply to 6 unis and then if you get accepted you get invited to look around). The 1st one I looked around was the one I really wanted to go to but I didn't like it that much - only purk was that my sister worked there. The second one I looked at was the one I loved. So I decided to go there (mainly because it had palm trees in it). To cut along story short once I got to uni I hated it. I was on a different campus than the one I was shown and the halls I am in are really bad (we have rats and no showers). I am also only 11/2 hr from my home so I go home all the time which makes it really hard to settle (it has taken me 2 terms to get into it).

So my tip is get as far away as you can - you become more inderpendent and youdont have the temtation to go home all the time. Also spend a lot of time looking at the uni and the halls and also the closest town (Southampton is a really dump and dangerous) - do some exploring by your self you can get a real feeling for the place then.
Also look at the courses carefully - I had to change mine just before I arrived and I cant stand the one I am doing - it is a royal waste of time (I do 7hrs a week for a degree which is useless).

Good luck - I hope you have better luck than me.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

I've been a campus tour guide for our admissions office for the past 3 years. The biggest advice I can give is ask questions. Too many times, I'll be giving a tour, and all the students are silent for the whole time. The parents ask questions, but the students don't.

Most times, the type of questions your parents ask won't be the questions you'd be asking. The tour guides will be throwing information at you, and there's a lot of information, but we can't possibly cover anything. If you're worried about what your parents will think about your question, come up after the tour while your parents are using the restroom or something. Or ask for the tour guide's email address.

Plus, getting questions makes our job more interesting. On a busy month, I can end up with about 15-20 tours/month (average is more like 8-10). If nobody asks questions, then I'm repeating essentially the same speech 15-20 times. That can get real boring real fast, and it has an effect on the overall quality of the tour. If the guide is bored, are you really going to want to go to that school?

(if you're planning on applying to Syracuse University, send me a PM (for what it's worth, if this affects your decision, Syracuse is about a 5 1/2 hour drive from Manchester, and it's a fairly easy drive))

 

[disneyangel7488]

What types of questions should the students ask?

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

Originally posted by disneyangel7488
What types of questions should the students ask?

Anything. I've gotten questions ranging from weather, to how well the laundry machines work, to how comfortable are the mattresses in the dorms. I just encourage questions because I know that no matter how thorough my speech is, I can't possibly cover every question people might ask, because I don't know every question that MIGHT be asked, unless you ask.

 

[monarchsfan16]

We don't have to interview and tour on the same day right? Like we can just tour places we *think* might interest us, and then go back in the fall if we decide to apply, and interview then?

 

[wdwgirl03]

None of the schools I applied to required interviews. But I'm sure you wouldn't do them the same day.

What schools are you looking at?

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

Some schools will let you schedule the interview the same day as your tour, if you want to. Others will let you interview at a different time, if you want to. Interviews aren't necessarily required at every school. For example, Syracuse doesn't require interviews, but rather, they're recommended.

 

[monarchsfan16]

That's good, about the interviews, because since I'm totally clueless as to what I want (I'm the oldest kid in my house so we haven't been through this before, as I'm sure everyone can tell) I don't know that I'll ever want to do an interview at some of the schools.
Next week I'm going to be looking at St. Michaels, University of New England, and University of NH. At some point probably this summer (only time we can) we're going to swing down through Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia and look at some down there (Penn State, Cedar Crest, Lafayette, James Madison, Mount St. Mary). I also plan to look at UMass Dartmouth and St. Lawrence at some point too. We may also at some time check out University of Rhode Island.