College campus visits are a ritual. A rite of passage. A requirement. And they also are mostly a waste of time and money unless your student (a) does some research ahead of time, (b) has some criteria in mind as to what is important to them, and (c) sets realistic expectations about what they will learn from an admissions talk and campus tour. We don’t discourage our families from touring colleges. But, we want them to have an action plan in place otherwise they aren’t worth the effort.

As a new school year is upon us, the Great College Advice team has been busy debriefing our students and their parents about whatever summertime college campus visits they have done in the past month or two. While my colleagues and I have done hundreds of campus visits as a way to research colleges, our families are embarking on these adventures for the first time.

In our conversations, here are some of the things that families tell us that we wish the admissions offices around the country should hear.

Information Sessions Are Virtually Identical From School to School

The father of one of my juniors said the other day, “After three of these sessions, I could have given the information session myself.” The canned presentations. The gee-whiz videos. And the obligatory references to “undergraduate research opportunities,” “our robust study abroad program,” and “the surprising accessibility of our professors. The recent addition to prepared comments in 2025 is the unique clubs offered by every college. Well, a Cheese Club isn’t cute, fun, and differentiated if every school now offers one!

It’s true: I hate sitting through these presentations. Every once in a while an admissions officer is able to channel something fresh. Or genuine that helps his audience understand the essence of the school. But mostly these are just superficial, once-over-lightly overviews of college life. It’s virtually impossible to differentiate these presentations. And it seems that admissions directors don’t really want to. They want and need to be relatively generic and run-of-the-mill.

Why? Because they don’t want to say or do anything that might deter a student from applying. They need to hit all the major highlights–which happen to be the major highlights at the school across town or across the state or across the country. They have to appeal to the widest audience.

Because the more applicants they get, the more selective the institution can be. This will help raise the college’s ranking, which will then drive more applicants and continued improvements in the ranking.

Thus if the admissions office said something really distinctive about the university, that distinction might not appeal to certain people. So you have Jesuit universities that downplay their religious nature to broaden their appeal (“everyone is welcome!”). You have super-geeky institutions that play up the amount of fun kids have (“We have 106 different clubs!”). You have campuses where the overwhelming majority of students belong to fraternities or sororities but emphasize that Greek life is just a small slice of the social scene (“There are all kinds of non-Greek events on campus all the time!”). Or academically non-selective schools that emphasize their academic research programs (“Seriously, lots of kids participate in this program”).

Information sessions have to promise all things to all people. So they end up not being very informative. And there is very little variability in the presentations from one school to the next.

So why spend the time and money on a college campus visit if all you’re going to get is a bland, repetitive, uninformative presentation?

The Student-Led Tours Are Scripted

And so it goes with every campus tour in the land. The senior staff of the admissions department puts together an itinerary and outline of the campus tours, and the students hired to deliver them are told to memorize the itinerary and outline, and given a test to make sure they know what is expected by the employer. It’s really no different than any other job: know the “standard operating procedures” and implement them dutifully. Do the job as expected, and collect your paycheck.

But ultimately pretty boring for the students and their families who have traveled sometimes hundreds or even thousands of miles to get the grand campus tour. And pretty darned identical to the tour given at Williams, Bowdoin, Yale, or the University of North Dakota (where all those North Dakotan students apparently stayed). Just change the dates, the names, and the name of the college student giving the tour, and you have an identical experience at any college.

Oh, and don’t get me started on jokes the tour guides make as they begin to walk backward. It’s the same joke everywhere you go.

Prospective Applicants Mistake Fellow Campus Visit Participants for Current Students

This one is going to sound crazy. But it’s a real problem.

The other day, one of our students mentioned that he had taken a tour at a small, very selective, liberal arts college. He said he was surprised at how many kids and their families were also on the tour. I asked him how he liked the tour.

“I hated it,” he sputtered.

“Why’s that?”

“All the other kids on the tour really weren’t my type. I found them really annoying.”

And I had to stifle a chuckle.

I had to remind this young man that the other kids on the tour actually were not representative of the students who attend this particular school. They are looky-loos, just like him. These tour participants, however annoying they may be, haven’t even decided to apply, and the admissions office certainly has not invited them to join the student body. They are just sleepwalking from campus to campus, attending the repetitive information sessions and shuffling along behind the well-trained tour guides–just like he is.

Again, this may seem downright silly for a high school student (a smart one at that) to mistake fellow campus visit participants for the sorts of students who attend a particular school.

But think about it: the information sessions and the tours do not really provide opportunities for prospective students to interact with current students. Tour participants may view “real” students from afar as they walk to and fro across the campus. Or they may passively observe “real” students in the dining halls or libraries. But interact? Not usually. At least not as a part of the official college campus visit.

So what else does the poor prospective student have to go on to make judgments about the campus “vibe”? Only on what he is experiencing–and that is the “vibe” of the tour group, itself.

Is the tour guide nice? If yes, then all students on that campus must be nice. If not, then all students on that campus must be annoying.

Are the other kids dressed like me? Do they behave similarly? Or do they seem to value the same things I do? Do they seem like people I’d want to be friends with? If so, then this campus is perfect. If not, get me away from these goofy people.

Parent-Child Conflict on College Campus Visits

And then there is the parent-child dynamic that also messes things up. Kids trudge through the tour in silent mode (which is mostly a reflection of their utter terror in choosing a college), while eager-beaver parents ask myriad annoying questions about things like “Where can my daughter do her laundry,” or “Are the beds all extra-long,” or “where can my son park his car on campus.” 

The bottom line is that these tours generally do nothing to give prospective students a sense of what the community is really like. Admittedly, this is a very difficult aspect of a school to put a finger on in a short, one-day (or more usually, two-hour) college campus visit.

Different schools definitely have different personalities. But you’re probably not going to get a good sense of that on your college campus visit.

Prospective Families Don’t Know What to Look For During College Campus Visits

Quite often, as soon as a family hires us as their college counselors, mom or dad calls us up and asks, “So which colleges should we visit?”

Everyone knows they should visit campuses. And everyone knows how to make travel arrangements: book the flights, pick the hotels, reserve the rental car. It’s also easy to figure out how to sign up for those tours and information sessions.

So let’s GO, already!

But wait.

What, exactly, are you hoping to find while on that tour? How will you know you’ve found the right campus when you see it?

What are the criteria by which you plan to choose the right college for your student and your family? And how will the college campus tour help you to ascertain whether the college fits those criteria? 

Use a college consultant to help with college selection criteria

One of the primary reasons to hire a college admissions consultant is to help nail down the college selection criteria. The process of choosing a college can be very emotional. And while it’s true that a lot of subjective factors and plain, old gut instincts do play a strong role in how most of us choose a college, it’s also true that the enormous expense of college requires that we try to keep the decision as rational as possible.

This is why we spend so much time evaluating the factors–the criteria–that will drive the college selection process. What are those factors? Well, there can be a whole lot of them. We have an exercise that includes nearly 120 different criteria to consider. But really they boil down to these six categories.

• Finances: does this school likely fit your budget?
• Academics: what are the curricular structures, degrees, majors, and other academic programs you seek?
• Activities: what activities are you now doing–or hope to do–that will be part of the selection process?
• Campus Culture or “Vibe”: social structures, political activism, religiosity, political persuasion, diversity, etc.
• “Atmospherics”: geography, campus setting, architecture, landscaping,
• Admissibility: how likely are you to be accepted?

As you review this list above, how many of these can be ascertained in ways other than the college campus visit?

Virtually all of them, in fact.

How can you evaluate a school without a college campus visit?

You can figure out whether a particular school fits your budget by doing research both on the college’s website and on third-party websites that publish basic financial aid data.

Also, you can have a very strong understanding of the academic opportunities offered by a university simply by spending enough time on specific pages of the college’s website.

You can research what activities are offered at the school, and you can easily connect with others (students, coaches, administrators) who can help you gather more information about how you might get involved.

Campus culture or “vibe” is perhaps the most difficult for prospective families to get a handle on. But as I mention above, the admissions office and its canned tours aren’t likely to help much. The best is to try to connect with as many current students on campus as possible–which frankly can be done online these days as many colleges offer up their students to interested potential applicants.

In terms of how a college actually physically looks? That is what virtual tours are for. Also, perusing a college site shows you all those pretty pictures of beautiful buildings in beautiful weather surrounded by beautiful students that you can find on every college website.

And admissibility? Do you really have to traipse all the way across the country to learn the admissions statistics or look up the statistical profile of the kind of students the college generally admits? No, all of that information is available with a few clicks of a mouse.

Research a college BEFORE you go on those college campus visits.

I have actually worked with quite a few students over the years who NEVER visit a college campus before they submit their applications. Of course, I don’t generally advise this approach, for there are other, very important reasons to visit a college campus as a way to give you a better chance of admission (this is called “demonstrated interest,” which you can read about here).

But it is undeniable that the Internet has mostly obliterated the usefulness of the campus visit as a way to gather helpful, objective, and otherwise unobtainable information about a college or university. You really can find it all online.

[Which is part of the problem, to be honest, and why so many families find it hard to make solid college lists and discern which college might suit them best. Sometimes too much information is actually much more confusing than too little of it. It is the surplus of information that helps to keep professional college advisors like me in business–because we help you sift through the information to find the stuff that is relevant to you and your family.]

Before you do your homework, however, you have to know what it is you are looking for

Thus we come back to developing that list of criteria. You will not find your criteria by zipping around the country and looking at schools. Rather, you will find your criteria by looking in the mirror. By having a family conversation about what aspects of higher education are most important to you. And by taking an inventory of your needs, wants, and aspirations. By being honest about things that are simply irrelevant to your own decision-making process. And first and foremost–by getting real about the costs and sticking to your budget.

Decide what it is you really want and need. Then develop a list of colleges that satisfies those criteria. Do your research in the comfort of your own home. Narrow the list. Then visit only those that really care whether you visit (see that stuff about “demonstrated interest” referenced above).

And remember that the college campus visit–by itself–is not going to be overly useful in helping you make a rational decision. The visit may give you a “feeling.” You may have a “gut reaction.” Your “instincts” may take over.

But don’t trust your gut until you have exhausted your ability to use your head.

Will College Campus Visits Help Me Get Admitted?

The answer here is more nuanced. It depends. 

Some colleges are very interested in students who demonstrate interest in their college. They want students who are excited about attending. Students who know what they are getting into–and embrace the challenges of joining that community.

Similarly, colleges like to know that your family has the money (and time) to traipse to their campus. Admissions officers know that it’s a pretty big financial commitment to travel from New York City to visit a college in California. And that commitment indicates a willingness to spend big bucks to pay tuition, room and board, and every other expense associated with attending that college. 

So for those schools–and there are a lot of them–your visit is definitely going to be a helpful addition to the overall evaluation of your application.

However, other schools–including the most highly selective ones like the Ivies, Stanford, and many others, it really doesn’t matter if you visit. These schools have plenty of kids who are demonstrating interest (sometimes they demonstrate too much interest!) and who would flourish. These schools also do not lack for paying customers–some families would pay two or three times the cost of attendance for that admissions offer. 

The most highly selective colleges simply do not care whether you visit. They review applications from thousands of kids every year who have not had the opportunity to visit their campuses. And these applicants are accepted nonetheless.  

Of course, a visit to one of these campuses could help you decide whether or not you would really fit at an Ivy League school, which might be valuable. But the visit will not be a factor in whether or now you are admitted.

You Can Do College Campus Visits the Right Way

Campus visits are an important part of the college selection process. And most families will do them at some point. But make sure you don’t waste time or money. Here’s what you can do:

1. Establish college search criteria first. Don’t leave home on the Grand Tour until you know what you are looking for.
2. Do your homework before you go. The web is a treasure trove of info on colleges. Use it.
3. Remind yourself about the limitations of the information session and the campus tour

Need Help Developing Your College Selection Criteria?

Do you have questions about how to get into college? Let the experts at Great College Advice help you navigate the complicated and sometimes confusing world of college applications. We have several tiers of services we can provide that can fit any budget. With our years of experience in the world of college applications, we’ve helped thousands of students get into the college of their dreams. We can help you, too!

Contact us today for a complimentary consultation.

The post 4 Reasons College Campus Visits Are a Waste of Time and Money first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

What is demonstrated interest in college admission?

Demonstrated interest and the business of higher education

Why do colleges care about the yield rate?

How colleges improve their yield rate

How to show demonstrated interest in the college admissions process

The general rule for demonstrating interest is to do anything and everything that will indicate to the admissions office that you are a serious applicant and that you have a strong desire to attend.  Your goal is for admissions officers to believe that if you are accepted you will likely attend. With that general guideline in mind, here are the ways to demonstrate interest. 

Apply Early Decision 

An early application indicates your demonstrated interest. Of course, ED is a stronger demonstration of interest, but even an early action (EA) application indicates you have put that school toward the top of your priority list. Of course, as ED is binding, please make sure this is truly your top choice and that the cost to attend is not prohibitive for your family. 

Sign up for the admissions mailing list 

Right on the admissions page of the college’s website is an invitation to receive more information about the college. This is absolutely the first thing you must do to express interest. By sharing your name, address, email, and phone number with the college, you are telling the sales and marketing department (i.e., admissions) that you are truly interested in learning more about the college. This act of giving the college your contact information allows it to activate their enrollment tracking CRM software. 

Visit the college’s website 

Now that you’re in their enrollment management system, colleges have tools to be able to see what pages on their website you visit and how long you spend on those pages. So, spend time on the site. Visit lots of pages. Take your time to read them. Take a virtual tour. Register for virtual information sessions. Demonstrate that you truly are interested in the college by exploring the website–often and in-depth. The side benefit is that you really will begin to learn whether this college is for you by spending the time to really read about it in detail. 

Attend an admissions event 

Colleges are expanding their reach to try to attract more and more applicants. These are marketing events (remember what I said is the true function of the admissions office?).  But they also provide you an opportunity to learn more about the college–and to earn some demonstrated interest brownie points. 

Whether the event is online (a “virtual information session”) or in person at a college fair, take the time to attend.  Your registration is a signal of your interest.  And at a fair, the effort you take to stop by the college’s table or booth–and fill out their contact card and leave it with the sales representative (a.k.a. “admissions officer”)–will be recognized in your electronic file that you established when you signed up for that mailing list! 

Visit the college to show demonstrated interest 

You have two opportunities to visit a college. First, you can do so in person (for more information about how to get the most from your college visits, read this post). Or you can do so virtually by signing up for a virtual tour. These online experiences can either be automated or they can be scheduled, live events whereby you visit the school on video with a student and to ask questions in real-time. You can do one or the other. But if you really want to go the extra mile to demonstrate interest, do both! 

Communicate with an admissions officer 

The best way to communicate with admissions offices is via email. Find your local representative and introduce yourself while asking specific questions about programs that interest you. You can also ask to be put in touch with students who share your interests. For example, if you want to learn more about the debate team, ask the admissions officer to put you in touch with the team captain. For more on how to communicate with admissions, read this post. 

Follow colleges on social media 

Instagram. Facebook. X (formerly Twitter). YouTube. TikTok. Every college has multiple channels through which to communicate its marketing messages. Following a school on social media is just one more way to demonstrate interest, and more than likely, they will link your social media presence with your email and other information from when you initially signed up for the mailing list. 

Demonstrated interest is an important step in college admission

Need help with the college admissions process? 

The team at Great College Advice has years of experience working with thousands of students as they navigate the college admissions process.  We can help you prepare, select, and apply to colleges to give you the best chance of being accepted to your top choices.  Of course we can help with demonstrating interest, but we will also help you with every other aspect of this process. Want to learn more?  Just contact us on this form and we’ll set up a no-cost, no-obligation meeting so we can learn more about you and discuss how we can help make the college admissions process more successful and less stressful. 

The post 7 Ways to Show Demonstrated Interest first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

A campus visit priority: test for the best college food

Do you plan to eat in a campus dining hall during your college visit? Maybe you should! Students, and parents, are increasingly paying more attention to the food options on college campuses. As families decide where to send their students to college they are no longer just considering a school’s offering of a particular major, location, or physical beauty. They are also considering how well their student will be fed on campus.

When visiting colleges, take the opportunity to have at least one meal–maybe two–while on campus. While most students will be paying for their meals with their campus IDs (which double as debit cards at most schools), you can pay with cash or credit card.  Money is money!

Our favorite meal on campus is dinner, though most families only stick around campus for lunch.  Why is dinner a better meal? Because students tend to be more social and relaxed at dinnertime.  They have finished their classes and labs for the day, students are coming off the sports fields showered and ready for a meal, and many are getting ready for the evening’s activities (which probably includes studying, but probably other things like music rehearsals, club meetings, and visiting lecturers). Dinner is a good time to observe the social scene.  Lunch, on the other hand, is often all about business.  More students dine alone, staring at their books, checking their schedules, making appointments to meet up with peers, or just downing some food to keep things moving through the afternoon.

And breakfast? Forget about it. Lots of college students simply skip it:  they don’t get up early.  And if they do have some breakfast, it is usually on a “grab and go” basis.

Campuses compete to offer the best college food

College officials pay attention to how students perceive campus meal offerings. They know that students (and their parents) are paying a pretty penny for campus dining, and administrators want to be sure that they are offering value for money.  As American palettes and priorities change, campus officials and catering companies want to provide what their customers–the students–want. Campuses are making sure those “foodie” needs are being met. Colleges are offering nutritionists, accommodating allergies, and focusing on a green dining movement. In addition, colleges are supporting students who choose to be vegan, vegetarian, and eat organic. Essentially, colleges are keeping up with what the students want.

Many colleges, including the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Community, have moved to a restaurant concept. Today’s students are excited to see fresh and healthy options in the dining halls. While students will tell you that eating healthy is extremely important they also crave variety. To meet those needs some schools are offering up everything from sushi to burritos while still keeping those dining hall staples such as burgers, pizza, and macaroni and cheese on hand.

Campus dining:  a corporate affair

Most students and families don’t realize it, but only a handful of corporate catering companies serve the vast majority of meals on college campuses. Some of the biggest national names in catering serve hundreds of campuses across the country.  These include Sodexo and Aramark.  One smaller company, Bon Appétit, prides itself on serving quite a few of the top universities in the country, as well as many of the most exclusive liberal arts colleges.  The fact is that colleges can actually save money by delegating the responsibility for managing numerous dining outlets to a single company.

So if you have a meal on campus that you either liked or disliked, remember that it is likely that the catering company serving grub on this campus is probably the same company serving students down the road (or three states over).

Just because a campus is served by a corporate catering company doesn’t mean, however, that the food will be bad. Even when managed by a single company, there are likely to be several different kinds of food outlets on campus (e.g., a sandwich shop, a coffee shop, a late night snack shop,, as well as the full-service traditional dining hall.  Some campuses, as mentioned, might also have restaurant concept outlets or food courts.

Further, larger campuses might also operate franchises of other corporate restaurant companies, such as Starbucks, Taco Bell, or Domino’s.  In these places, at least, you’ll get exactly what you expect from these global restaurant conglomerates. And you’ll be able to pay for the meal with your student ID (thanks, mom and dad!).

How do you know it’s the best college food?

The problem in going to the dining hall on your campus visit is that it can be hard to know whether the meal you are being offered is typical. So you might ask yourself, “is the food always this mediocre, or am I just hitting it on a bad day?”  After all, menus change all the time and your meal may or may not be representative.

To find out, ask.  Whether you are loving or hating what you’re eating for that particular meal, ask some other students questions about their own dining experience. Here are some questions you might ask.

• What do you think of the food here?
• How often do menus rotate?
• What sorts of things are offered at every meal?
• Are dining administrators responsive to student requests and feedback?
• Have you noticed an improvement or a decline in the quality of food services, or has it pretty much stayed the same since you started as a student here?
• Where else do you go to get food on campus?
• Which cafe or restaurant or cafeteria offers the best food on campus?

Special dietary restrictions

If you’re vegan or vegetarian, you might want to gather more information about the dining options.  Similarly, if you suffer from Crohn’s or celiac disease, you might want to have a conversation with the dining manager, or at the very least talk about your dietary concerns with an admissions officer. Also, if you have dietary restrictions related to your faith (e.g., kosher or halal), ask. Again, because campuses compete to offer satisfying and nutritious meals to their students, the odds are that they are thinking about these special circumstances, too.  When in doubt, ask.

The best college food:  a summary

Food is an absolutely critical aspect of the college experience. You’ll likely want to sample the fare while you’re on the campus visit.  But do keep in mind that any food establishment meant to serve hundreds if not thousands of customers every day is unable to offer unlimited variety.  No matter where you go to college, you’re likely to experience the fact that dining on campus can become fairly routine.  After all, meals are provided not just to tickle your tongue but to nourish you through all those papers, exams, labs, and problem sets you have to do. And if you’re ever in need of a special treat, you can always investigate the off-campus dining options!

Trying to decide which college campus is right for you?

The expert college counselors at Great College Advice can help you navigate the college selection process.  Whether food or anything else is your priority in choosing a college, our admissions consultants can help you find the colleges that fit you best.  Give us a call or contact us for a free consultation.

The post Using Food as a Decision Factor in the College Search first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Sometimes students will also sit in on a class or two, in hopes of getting a feel for what the educational experience will be like. Only a few, however, consider direct contact with professors during the visit.

Why would a visit with a professor be important on a campus visit?

Explore majors

Many students are still trying to learn about different majors as part of the larger decision about what college to attend. What better way to learn about an unfamiliar major than to talk to an expert? A professor in the department can give a first-hand account of what one is supposed to learn in that department.

Most professors are accustomed to “selling” their discipline to undergraduates, and most are willing to take the time to talk with prospective students and efficiently introduce them to the department. To give a concrete example of this, a student of mine was trying to decide whether she was more suited for a business and marketing degree, or whether she was more interested in psychology.

She had taken some introductory courses in both in high school, and she liked both. But she didn’t quite understand what the difference would be in terms of the courses she would be required to take. The format of those courses, and the career implications of both disciplines. So when she recently toured three campuses, she talked to two professors on each campus–one in marketing and one in psychology.

Upon her return, she had developed a very clear idea that while she wanted to take a few more courses in psychology, she was absolutely sure that she would be a marketing major in college. This self-awareness came through well-organized discussions with experts. Not only will her applications be stronger for having made this effort, but she is more certain of her academic path in college.

Establish contact with someone who shares your academic passions

If a student has a particular interest in (for example) the history of the Cold War and believes that he would like to focus on that period while pursuing a history major, it makes sense to learn more about the individuals in the history department who share that passion. And there is no better way to learn about that professor as a person than by sitting down in his office for a few minutes. By establishing rapport as an applicant, it will be easier to build on that rapport once you matriculate.

Gather information that will help on your application

Admissions officers all want to know why you have chosen to apply to their college. If you have taken the initiative to meet with a professor, and you can clearly articulate what makes a particular department stand out, or that you want to pursue advanced study with a particular professor (of Cold War history, for example). Then you can make a strong case for why you are academically suited to this school. Meeting a professor demonstrates that you are doing your homework and that you are really considering the academic fit between your interests and college offerings.

How do you prepare your questions to ask professors on a college tour?

If you decide to include a visit with a professor during your campus visits, you need to be prepared. Not only do you need to think about what sort of questions to ask, but you need to think about the practicalities of asking to meet with a professor in the first place.

It’s really not so hard to connect with professors. In many cases, they are really hoping to teach students who are genuinely interested in the academic subjects to which they have devoted their lives. They want to meet you.

Of course, this is less true at the most highly selective colleges. They are inundated with requests by applicants to meet with them. And don’t be too surprised of professors at these competitive schools refuse to meet with you. They just don’t have the time or interest.

But at schools that may be just a bit less competitive, professors are eager to help recruit bright-eyed and bushy-tailed students who want to learn the subject that they teach.

So how should you go about asking professors for a meeting while on a college tour?

Tips for contacting professors on a college tour

Identify the appropriate professor

For some purposes, you may want to start with the department chair. If you are hoping to talk to a specific person (because you share their academic interests), then go right to that faculty member. You can find full lists of faculty in every department on a college or university website. Make sure you find their bios, their teaching responsibilities, and perhaps even links to the courses they teach. Do your homework before you initiate contact. Remember: faculty members are teachers, and they like students who do their homework.

Start with an email

Explain briefly who you are, when you will be on campus, and why you want to meet with the professor. Address the professor formally, and respectfully (i.e., not, “Hey, professor!”). Set the tone by demonstrating that you are serious. The note does not have to be dull, but it has to be formal. Sign your name at the bottom and give your email and phone number. Also, your parents should not do this for you. The email must come from you. Professors have even less patience for parents than admissions officers.

Establish your goals or agenda for the meeting

Are you trying to learn more about a couple of different majors? Do you want to learn about research opportunities in a particular field or sub-field? Do you want to understand more about this professor’s research and teaching interests? How well your particular interests can be supported in the department?

Did you read about a particular program or curriculum element that interests you, about which you want to learn more? Don’t just say “I’d really like to meet you.” Tell the recipient of your email why you want to meet. Refer to specifics in the course catalog, the professor’s publications, or the departmental website.

Follow through

If the professor recommends that you contact someone else, thank her for the guidance, and then immediately turn around and follow that advice. I repeat: do not forget to say “thank you.” If the professor does agree to meet you, make sure to write down the appointment (and tell your parent or whoever is accompanying you on the campus visit), and then call and/or email the professor the day before to confirm the appointment.

Be prepared with questions to ask professors on a college tour

Come to the interview with three or four pertinent, relevant questions that relate to your agenda. Remember, this is not an admissions interview. You have asked for this appointment to gather information. So make sure you know what your questions are. Come with a pad of paper and a pencil, and be ready to take a few notes. Since you are asking for advice, be prepared to receive it. Furthermore, your notes may come in handy when you have to write that essay, “Why I want to go to College X.” You can make some specific references to things your new professor friend taught you.

Don’t be afraid

Just because someone has the letter “Ph.D.” after his name does not make him particularly scary. Professors are people, too, and they actually like it when students take an interest in them and their work. Most have chosen this profession because they enjoy students and genuinely enjoy dispensing advice. So if a professor agrees to meet with you, it’s because he wants to, and because he takes his job seriously.

Don’t invite your parents

As you explore a campus–and the people who inhabit it–you need to act independently. Professors expect you to act like an adult. Nothing will make you seem more juvenile than having Mom and Dad in tow. Of course, Mom and Dad may like to hear what the professor has to say. But this is your journey of discovery.

This relationship is one that you need to build yourself–adult to adult. So gently remind your parents that you are perfectly capable of handling this meeting alone and that you will meet them at the front door of the building in thirty minutes. While some parents may be a bit miffed not to be invited to this meeting secretly They’ll be impressed by your demonstration of your maturity and independence.

Need Some Help in Developing Questions to Ask Professors on a College Tour?

The expert college admissions counselors at Great College Advice can help guide you in coming up with your own list of questions to ask professors on a college tour. It’s not easy to think through what it is you want from your college application. It can be even more daunting to think about sitting down with a professor in his office to ask about your academic interests.

If you feel like you need some professional guidance, give us a call or contact us.  We’d be happy to talk to you about how we can help you map your college journey.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Tour at University Of Washington

So today I’m on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle. Beautiful, comprehensive university, 29,000 undergraduates, fantastically beautiful campus, trees. Of course it’s January, so they’re not in bloom, but I’m sure in the springtime it’s absolutely gorgeous here. I want to talk a minute about taking tours at large schools versus small schools. Yesterday, I was at the University of Puget Sound, which has about 2,300 students, and here there are 29,000 students. And it’s such a different experience going on a tour here.

There are probably 30 or 40 people on the tour today. And it is very scripted. The tour guide was terrific; she was very, very personable and very well, very knowledgeable about the school. But it was clear that we had a series of stops. And every place she would talk about specific things. So in one place, in fact it was just right over here, she was talking about academics, and she talked about majors. And then in other places, she pointed out housing options and dining options. And then the next stop was something about student clubs, and how to participate in student life here.

Tour At University of Puget Sound

The contrast was that yesterday when we visited the University of Puget Sound, really there were only two of us on the tour, and there were two tour guides, and it was very, very, very, very personal. So the two student tour guides really wanted to know about us and what we were interested in learning about, and then they kind of tailored the tour to whatever we wanted to do. And there were a couple of places that we passed by a building, and it looked kind of interesting, so we just went in, right? We didn’t have to take the whole thing. We didn’t have 40 people on the tour.

There is really no way that your individual interest can dictate what you’re going to learn on the tour. You’re going to learn what the tour guide has been told to tell you, and at this particular stop, at this particular place, and about these particular topics. Again, not really one is better than the other, but it helps to highlight how important it is that no matter what kind of school you go to, that the tour is only a small part of what you can and should learn about the university that you want to attend.

Ask Questions!

So if there are things you want to know about the campus that are not on the tour, then it’s your responsibility to learn that, to find out if there are other resources on campus, other people, other offices that you need to visit, or if you need to be looking more on the web for certain kinds of details or things that you want to know about the opportunities that you are looking for.

The tour is helpful, but it is certainly not the only thing you should do when you’re on a campus. And that is very true, probably the most true, on these large campuses where the tours are very scripted, very rigid, and perhaps less helpful because they’re just, they can’t be very personal. It’s the law of numbers. So again, think about what it is you want to learn about the campus before you even come, so that you can have the most productive visit possible.
 
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Transcript:

So today I’m on the campus of Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, of course, and it is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the United States. Now Jesuit refers to the Society of Jesus which was founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola way back in the olden days to, as part of the Catholic Church, to educate people. So our current Pope Francis is a Jesuit, and again the idea of these Catholic schools is to educate people.

Athletics and Academics

One of the hallmarks of their education is mind, body and spirit. So you are educating not only your mind, but they also are very big into athletics. Most of the Jesuits are very big into athletics. Seattle University just went back to Division One athletics. Almost all of them are big basketball schools, like Gonzaga and Georgetown University. And then spiritually they also are promoting the idea that part of being an educated person is to give back, to participate in community life. And community can mean a lot of different things. It can mean your local community.

It can mean the world at large. So the Jesuits really do have this focus not only on really great academics. They almost always have business schools, they almost always have engineering schools, this one has a law school. So they are very academically focused. But at the same time again they have athletics, the body, and they are talking about the spirit.

Jesuit Versus Not Jesuit

Now, what is different about the Jesuit schools from say one of the other schools down the street here, Seattle Pacific, is that there is no requirement that the students and the faculty and the community have a particular kind of faith, or that they even be Christian, much less Catholic. So it is very possible for a student who is either a non-believer or has some other faith, to fit into a Jesuit community. What is required really from the student is to want to have a conversation about humanity’s role in the community, in the world at large. Why are we here? So students are required at Jesuit schools to take a combination of philosophy and theology.

You can see behind me here the chapel here this is an architectural gem. It’s a beautiful chapel on the inside, very modern, very interesting. Very stark in comparison to many Catholic churches, gorgeous. But students are required to take some sort of courses, a couple of courses—it depends on which school—but they are required to take some course in religion or philosophy. Now, they don’t have to take Catholicism. They don’t have to take anything about theology, Christian theology. Also, they can take Buddhism.

They can take religious ethics. They can take philosophy. Again, it’s not so much about believing in a particular thing except believing that being educated also gives us a responsibility to our world. So the Jesuit schools like Seattle University, they are all over. Georgetown is perhaps the most famous. Marquette, Gonzaga, the Loyolas in Chicago and Baltimore. Great universities and interesting heritage with religion that you probably want to consider as you are deciding which college to attend.
 
Mark Montgomery
Expert Educational Consultant

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Transcript

I’m here now on the campus of Lawrence University up in Appleton, Wisconsin. You know a lot of people ask me, “What is the best time to visit a college campus? Is it summer time? Is it spring break, fall break?” Actually, I think probably the best time to visit Appleton, Wisconsin is in the winter because it’s really cold. And it will give you a better sense of what the campus life is really like while students are here on the campus and in session.

Despite the cold this is a really, really vibrant, active place. You see students walking across campus. They’re not afraid of the cold; they’re dressed for the cold. Okay, maybe a few of them are wearing, you know, a little bit too skimpy outfits, they’re parents might be, you know, a little bit upset. But they all deal with the weather.
So, one of the best times to come visit a college campus is when students are in session, and wintertime can be great. Especially in these cold places, you’ll get a better sense of what really happens here.

Mark Montgomery
Expert Educational Consultant

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Here are a few of the interesting tidbits I learned while there:

– Founded in 1874, the campus actually started in Elko. However, Elko didn’t quite have the “boom” officials hoped and thus the campus was moved to Reno.

– The University of Nevada’s mascot is the wolf and they refer to themselves as the “wolf pack.” However, this idea translates beyond just the sports arena. The campus looks to build a strong community, or what they call “one pack”, along the lines of their wolf pack idea.

– A quick walk through the art building (thanks to our tour guide who was a art major) allowed us to see a full stairway whose walls are designated as a “free expression art wall” for students. Students can truly leave their mark here (see pictures above of the wall, and a self-portrait by our tour guide!)

– If you are chosen to be an honors student you get to register first for your classes. Not only that, if you get a 4.0 through your whole career as a student (nothing below an A) you get your name on the special Honors Pillar.

– Do you believe in luck? The Mackay statue on campus is supposed to bring luck during finals. Each year students decorate with all sorts of their belongings and treats (see statue above).

– What other campus has a 24 karat gold water drinking fountain? None that I know of!

– Interested in becoming a judge? The University of Nevada Reno is home to the National Judicial College.

– What does the first floor of a library look like when you ask students to give their input? It turns out looking like a Starbucks (see last picture above).

– We didn’t have time during our tour but I hear a visit to the mining museum (mining engineering is big on campus) is worth a look.

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