Tips for Campus Visits
Read the Reviews (learn from current and former students)
When you receive thousands of results searching for "college tours," it can be a challenge to know which site to trust. Willard Dix, former college admission officer and private school counselor, narrowed it down to four websites that will help you learn more about each college.
He pointed to a New York Times article called "Skipping the College Tour" by Erica Reischer who suggests that psychologically, campus visits "may hinder students’ ability to pick a college that will further their interests and goals." She goes on to write that students may not be able to separate imagination (what might happen on campus) and experience (what actually happens on campus). It's the Ideal vs the Real.
Reading what the "experience surrogates" (current students and recent graduates) share will give you an unvarnished look at campus life. Dix recommends that you "ignore the worst reviews/comments and focus on the most balanced" kind of like Yelp! While he is not endorsing any of the sites (neither am I), he is listing them for your information.
When you receive thousands of results searching for "college tours," it can be a challenge to know which site to trust. Willard Dix, former college admission officer and private school counselor, narrowed it down to four websites that will help you learn more about each college.
He pointed to a New York Times article called "Skipping the College Tour" by Erica Reischer who suggests that psychologically, campus visits "may hinder students’ ability to pick a college that will further their interests and goals." She goes on to write that students may not be able to separate imagination (what might happen on campus) and experience (what actually happens on campus). It's the Ideal vs the Real.
Reading what the "experience surrogates" (current students and recent graduates) share will give you an unvarnished look at campus life. Dix recommends that you "ignore the worst reviews/comments and focus on the most balanced" kind of like Yelp! While he is not endorsing any of the sites (neither am I), he is listing them for your information.
- RateMyProfessors.com. The name says it all, with reviews often going to some brutal extremes on the negative side. It's created some controversy over the years because of that, but if you want to hear some unvarnished student voices, drop in.
- niche.com has a college search section that includes student reviews. It's the best designed of the several sites I checked, and the reviews seem fairly even tempered. Because Niche is a large site dedicated to helping people find places to live as well as schools and colleges, I suspect it keeps a good eye on reviews to keep them informative, not cutting. You don't have to register to check them out, but if you want to make a list, you do. There's other relevant college information as well. Not as "busy" as some similar sites.
- At the other end of the design spectrum is studentsreview.com, which has the worst designed pages I've seen since 1998. Reading its homepage is like trying to read the bulletin board in any college's busy student center. But if you're patient you'll be able to find the eponymous student reviews and again, some unvarnished perspectives.
- For parents, there's the Parents' Forum at College Confidential, run by Dix's professional colleague Sally Rubenstone. On the site you can read discussions on different topics related to college, financial aid, and more. (If you want to participate, you have to register.) The commentary is freewheeling and idiosyncratic, so don't take any one person's experience as gospel, but it's interesting to see what other parents are commenting about and it's likely you'll see some of your own questions dealt with there. (There's a lot more at the site as well.)
Show Interest (it may increase your chance of admission)
Many colleges consider a student's demonstrated interest when making final admissions decisions
Technology has simplified and streamlined the application process allowing students to send applications to multiple colleges - which doesn't take into account a students preference. Dallas Baptist University received an unusually high number of applications from seniors in San Antonio (about 300 miles away). DBU officials learned that students were asked to apply to multiple schools, including a private university, and DBU was their choice out of 37 in Texas.
SOURCE: Want to get into your first-choice college? Better book a plane ticket (Deirdre Fernandes, Boston Globe, August 2017)
Many colleges consider a student's demonstrated interest when making final admissions decisions
- campus visits
- show genuine excitement
- show if you're willing to take the time to visit, then you're willing to pay to stay
- give parents of first-generation students assurance that their student will be taken care of
- can be a challenge for low-income, out-of-state, and international students)
- emails (with relevant questions about commitment and cost)
- contact with professors (with relevant questions about study and style)
- college fairs (visiting with a representative)
- some view demonstrated interest with the same importance as the application essays or family who attended the college
- 50% ranked demonstrating an interest as considerably or moderately important
- research suggests that the more money students spend on showing their interest, the more likely they are to be admitted into the school, especially if they have good SAT scores and are applying to a competitive university.
Technology has simplified and streamlined the application process allowing students to send applications to multiple colleges - which doesn't take into account a students preference. Dallas Baptist University received an unusually high number of applications from seniors in San Antonio (about 300 miles away). DBU officials learned that students were asked to apply to multiple schools, including a private university, and DBU was their choice out of 37 in Texas.
SOURCE: Want to get into your first-choice college? Better book a plane ticket (Deirdre Fernandes, Boston Globe, August 2017)