Traps to Avoid When Visiting Colleges

By Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP

Assuming that one student represents the entire student body - When your son or daughter goes on a college tour, generally their tour guide will be a student. At some schools, the tour guides are employees of the admissions office. While tour guides can be a great resource for information about the academics and social life on campus, it is a good idea to get the opinions of other students on campus too. Hearing others’ opinions and gathering information from different sources will allow your son or daughter to better decide whether or not the environment on campus is right for them.

Rushing to judgment - Give your child time to internalize what he or she has seen and heard. Give your child time to think about the school before asking for their opinion. Remember that each school is a new experience and they will need time and space to put what they have seen and heard into perspective. Teenagers might not be able to express their thoughts as clearly as you might like.

Voicing your opinion first - As a parent, you want what you think is best for your child. This may be in conflict with what your child thinks is best for him or her. Do not, either with words or body language, tell your child your thoughts before he voices his opinion.

Not listening to your child - It is very important to respect what your child tells you, even if it sounds ridiculous. Often teenagers have a hard time articulating their feelings and they may draw seemingly peculiar conclusions. Do not get annoyed. Think about what your child is trying to say. One young woman told her parents that she didn’t like a particular campus because the students weren’t wearing shoes. What she really meant was that the campus felt a bit “alternative” and the students were not the type of students she wanted to go to school with.

Not allowing your child to change his or her mind. Do not be so quick to agree or disagree. This is the time for you to listen. As students continue to visit colleges, learn about colleges and mature, their thoughts and opinions might change. They need to feel secure enough to say so.

What High School Students Should Consider When Visiting Colleges

By Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP and Jana Jett Loeb

A high school student’s view of whether a college campus is the right place for them can be influenced by many factors:

Academic Offerings – Does the college or university offer the types of courses and programs the student is interested in? While it is not necessary for students to know specifically what they want to study, it is important that the school offer courses and programs the student feels are intriguing and want to learn more about. Students also need to think about how they learn best. Is it in small or large classes? Students can get a sense of academic offerings and size of classes by sitting in on a class. Sometimes, admission offices post a list of approved classes students may visit. If this list is not available students need to contact the admissions office directly to determine which classes allow visitors and how to be approved to visit a class. Students should be sure to observe the students in the class as carefully as they do the professor; how the students interact with one another in a seminar or ask questions in a lecture can reveal a good deal about the intellectual motivations of the student body.

Extracurricular Activities – As students tour campuses, they will likely pass bulletin boards and posts with flyers and notices about upcoming events. Students should be sure to examine these. It is one thing to hear in an information session that a school has 400 clubs, but seeing these boards is a glimpse of how student life actually takes shape on campus.

Distance from Home – Whether they drive or fly to visit a college campus can make a difference in a student’s view of being far away from home. Traveling from the East Coast to the Midwest can be a two hour flight or an 8 -10 hour drive. It is important for students to understand the differences between flying and driving as they formulate their thoughts about what it will mean to be living away from home.

Campus Living Arrangements – For some students, where they will live will heavily influence whether they choose to attend a particular college. Students need to think about which living conditions are important to them and ask direct questions about residential life. A few questions that they might want to consider asking are:

• · Are all students required to live on campus for four years?
• · What housing options are available?
• · How are roommates assigned?
• · Are there any restrictions in the dorms?

The Area’s Culture – Specific customs, weather patterns, the pace of life, and even language and speech patterns contribute to the culture in different parts of the country. Students should consider their personal comfort level – are they open to differences or do they prefer the familiar?

Tips for Parents Planning College Visits

By Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S. W., CEP

Marilyn’s tips for parents who are planning college visits:

• Ask your son or daughter if they are comfortable having you ask questions during the visit. If they are not comfortable, respect their feelings and don’t ask questions. You do not want your offspring focusing on his embarrassing parents instead of the colleges you are taking the time to visit.

• Set up appointments for the schools that require them. Some schools allow you to do this online while others require a telephone call. Most tours are 45 minutes to an hour and most information sessions run an hour. Colleges usually schedule tours and information sessions back-to-back.

• Always check to make sure the times listed in the guidebooks or on the websites are correct. You don’t want to arrive on campus and find that they are not offering tours and information sessions because it is a special day on campus.

• The timing of your visit can influence how comfortable your child is on a particular campus. Although it is ideal to visit colleges during the academic year, going in the summer is still valuable. Think about when would be best for your child and your family.

• Arrange your schedule so that you are not rushing from campus to campus. Do not visit more than two schools in one day.

• In addition to the tour and information session, set aside time to have a meal in the dining hall. In addition to checking out the food this will allow your child to eavesdrop on conversations, and if they are comfortable doing so, to talk to other students. If your child is concerned about being seen in the dining hall with his parents, gently remind him that you will not be the only adults there as faculty and staff use the dining hall as well.

• If you will be staying overnight near the campus, check to see if there is a sporting event, a theater production or an a cappella concert taking place on campus. If necessary, get tickets. You might need to, once again, gently remind your child that faculty and staff attend these events as well as parents of the students involved so you will not be the only adults there.

Juniors: Plan Visits Wisely

By Marilyn G.S. Emerson and Jana Jett Loeb

It can seem overwhelming to plan visits to colleges when there are so many types of schools to see. There are only so many days of vacation or long weekends, and overloading them with college visits may do more harm than good. If you visit too many schools, especially in too short of a time, they will often run together and it will be difficult to get much out of the visits. So, at the beginning, it is important to choose schools that are different in significant ways in order to maximize the value of visiting.

Some important factors to consider are size, location, academic offerings, and selectivity. If students are unsure whether they would be happy at a large university with a bustling environment, or a small liberal arts college in a rural area, then it is important to visit both of these types of schools as well as schools that fall in-between. Be sure that each school has something a bit different to add to the mix.

Students should not get too caught up in what they assume they want before they have an opportunity to experience different types of environments. It is much better to be able to say that you don’t like something than to say that you wish you had known this type of school existed. Even if a student is convinced he only wants to attend College X, it isn’t advisable to only visit College X and schools exactly like College X. It is crucial to push the boundaries of one’s expectations, and visiting can help students narrow their interests and options. Even if students return from visits just as committed to attending College X or schools like it, that commitment is now more informed by the experience of seeing what such schools—and others—are actually like.

Once you have determined which schools to visit, there are a number of things that students and parents can do to make the most of the visiting experience. Our next post will provide tips for how to make visiting colleges exciting, fun and informative.

Juniors: It's Important to Visit Colleges

By Marilyn G.S. Emerson and Jana Jett Loeb

Visiting colleges in an important element of the college search process. In the beginning, a search means casting a wide net. After students use guidebooks and the Internet to find schools that seem appealing, they should begin to think about visiting schools. Experiencing different college environments will confirm if what they have read and think they want meshes with their campus experiences.

Visiting is important because it allows students to get a realistic sense of the culture of a campus. Visiting gives students the opportunity to sit in on classes, speak with current college students, witness daily life, and get a feel for what a school has to offer. It is also the way students learn how a college wants itself to be seen, a useful indication of what college leadership think is important.

But, perhaps the most important reason to visit campuses is the instinctive way students respond to the experience of visiting. The ‘gut feeling’ is a hugely important factor in directing students’ college preferences; it usually doesn’t lie. A junior touring a campus will often know instinctively whether a campus is a good ‘fit.’ While not every visit will elicit a strong response, some probably will, and those will speak volumes. Stay tuned for our next post about choosing the right range of schools to visit.