Visiting colleges: interesting, exciting, entertaining, informative, overwhelming, confusing, exhausting…

There are good college visits and bad college visits… so before you get out there, here are some ways to make the most of your time at a school and some helpful hints when you hit the road to try to find your new home.

Do your research! Don’t make your whole family pile into a car on a Saturday morning to drive five hours to a school that is closed that weekend for holiday recess! That sounds crazy! Who would possibly do that? Well, it has happened before. Or how about going to a school and sitting through an information session and then noticing… wait – “You don’t offer engineering?” Make a list of schools that interest you, and offer what you enjoy. Then look at their website to find out the schedule for visiting. Go to an information session & tour if possible. Some schools expect you to sign up in advance, so sign up and pay attention to where you should go on campus for it. If you are visiting multiple schools in that area, try to balance your time to take advantage of the programs offered by each admissions office, have a little downtime to feel the campus, and, of course, give yourself enough time to travel to the next campus.

*Travel Hint: If you are traveling in an extremely rural area and map out the time it should take to get from one school to the next as 25 minutes… chances are it will take about 25 minutes unless you get stuck behind a tractor for a mile, or Bertha the cow is stuck in the middle of the road blocking traffic (yes, those are dorky jokes that you are supposed to laugh at). So even though it says 25 minutes, add some time to get lost, to find parking, to find the building that you are going to, to stop at the restr0om before the session starts, etc. Now if you are traveling in an urban area and it is supposed to take 25 minutes to get the school – that means it would take 25 minutes to get there if there was no construction and absolutely no other cars on the road to get in your way. Double the time, triple the time, call the school and see if they have any suggestions… just remember that every city has traffic. And the last thing you want to do when going to a school, is stress out before you even get there about whether or not you will make it on time. Another thing: make a travel soundtrack for everyone to enjoy for the journey.

Once you are there, don’t just physically be a body on campus… actually pay attention and ask questions. When you are sitting in an information session and you are not sure what the speaker is talking about, ask them to clarify with examples. If you really want to know about something on campus that wasn’t covered on the tour, ask the tour guide.

And when you are done with the planned sessions at the school take a minute to relax and get a feel for campus. When I went to schools with my family, we always asked if we were allowed to eat at the dining hall… and we did. Why? Not only do you get an idea of how good the food is, or what the variety is, but you are sitting down with all different students. These students are just eating a meal, just studying, or just hanging out with friends. They are in their true form. So eavesdrop, see what they are talking about, get a feel for if you think you would be interested in hanging out at their table. Majors, minors, internships, research–they are all crucial parts of your education, but so is the student body, the clubs, and the socializing. So don’t forget to take a breather, order some fries, and just take it all in around you.