College Visit Preparation Tips

If you’re serious about a particular college or university, then you need to visit it sooner or later. Making sure you get all the information you need while on campus can be stressful if you don’t have a plan going on. Thankfully, the college visit preparation tips below will help you out tremendously.

Besides traveling to them, you need to have a game plan for your college visits. Use these college visit preparation tips to make the most of your on-campus experience.

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Do Your Research First

Don’t visit any campus unprepared.

Campus visit quality is all dependent on your effort; the more effort you put into preparing for them, the more you’ll receive there. That’s why you need to go online and do research before booking your visit.

Go online and look into things like:

Academic programs they’re well-known for
The surrounding area and demographics
Campus tour availabilities and programs
Alumni reviews

With that info, you can create a gameplan of what questions to ask, what areas to visit, and who you should see in-person. Only then should you start making travel arrangements.

Book An Actual Campus Tour

Let a school official or guide show you around.

There’s nothing preventing you from traveling to campus and wandering around it all by yourself. However, there are several benefits to booking a spot on an official campus tour with a student guide.

These benefits include:

Asking questions to a full-time student
Getting a thorough walkthrough of the campus’ layout
Learning facts and tips that aren’t otherwise available online or in brochures

Having someone show you the ins and outs from experience will maximize your time and get the information you want faster.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Questions

Here is the time to ask everything you can think of.

When on campus, whether it’s at an information session, campus tour, or just wandering around the admissions department, don’t be afraid to talk. Speak up and ask all of your questions!

Remember that campus guides and officials are there to help out with anything you need. They know that everyone has questions and have been asked enough to not be stumped by most.

If you have questions about programs, housing, tuition, campus life, whatever, this is the time to ask when you can get an immediate response.

Visualize Yourself On Campus

Imagine yourself on campus as a student.

When walking the grounds on a campus visit, imagine yourself actually there attending classes and living on site. Ask yourself questions:

Can you see yourself walking to these lecture halls?
Would you mind eating your meals in the dining halls?
Are the dorms comfortable enough for you to live in?
How is the weather here?

The more you can visualize your actual life on campus, the easier it is to figure out whether you want to make that vision a reality.

Pros And Cons List

This step takes everything you’ve seen into account and weighs schools against each other.

After visiting all of your prospective campuses, sit down and make a list. A basic pros and cons list will help you decide, based on your newfound experience, which school is the right fit for you.

Ask questions like:

Do I like the campus location?
Does it offer the kinds of programs I’m interested in?
Was the housing situation tolerable?
Are there things to do off-campus?
Is the school in a safe area?
Does it have pleasant weather?

Your answers will determine which schools you finally apply to afterward.

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