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Plan School Visits - At Least One
HEAD Start
To figure out how a school really feels, the best thing is to visit the campus. These visits will allow you to see the best and the worst of a school, and you'll be able to make your own judgments about what it would be like to go there, and how you might fit in.

HEAD Lines
Talk to your parents about when you can start scheduling visits. If you are planning various small trips, plan your first soon. Here's how:
  • Go to the school's Web site to see when they offer information sessions and tours. Register if necessary, and put the date on your calendar.

  • Build in additional time around the sessions to wander the campus and ask questions (and to find parking and get lost on the way!). At least half a day per school is best.

  • Think about the questions you have for students and admissions officers and your goals for the visit - make a list inspired by what you see on the Web site.


Betsy F. Woolf
College & Graduate School Admissions Consultant.

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Plan school visits - at least one by Betsy F. Woolf
My juniors say that deciding where to apply is confusing - until they visit a college or two! Visiting gives you a sense of what you really want and don't want in a school. What does "big" mean to you? Five thousand students? Ten thousand? Twenty-five thousand? Do you like the vibe on a traditional campus or the rhythm of street life at an urban school? Can you imagine yourself hanging out with the students you see? Those are just some of the things you can't learn in a book or online or at a college fair.

The views expressed herein are those of their authors alone, and do not necessarily represent the views of Hundreds of Heads or of IECA.

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From Other HEADS
NEVER VISIT ON A WEEKEND MORNING. Several of the colleges were dead when I visited. No one was on campus and there didn’t seem to be any atmosphere. Then it hit me: Everyone was still asleep. Now that I am in college, I completely understand why everyone is sleeping. The most important time to visit is later in the afternoon on a spring day. There are more people on campus and I could get a feel for what the school was really like. Spring is amazing: people lying in the quad getting sun, everyone is happy. That is the best time to visit.

-- ROB FEHN
LAFAYETTE COLLEGE


VISIT YOUR NUMBER ONE CHOICE LAST. That way you can compare it to the others with an open mind. If you go to your number one choice first, your opinion of the others will be tainted because you think you have seen what you want.

-- BETSY LILIENTHAL
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE


Web Resources
Bookmark the colleges' Admissions Web sites if you haven't already.

HoH Tip
Depending on your schedule and on where the schools that interest you are located, you might prefer to do a slew of visits all at once during Spring Break or over the summer - or you might just visit schools here and there on random weekends.


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