Legs of group of students with backpacks walking down campus road

Great Campus Visit Tips, From One Student to Another

After all her campus visits, one student learned there are a few things you can do to make sure your time is well spent. Here's her best advice!

I was a sophomore in high school when my mom dragged me on my first college visit. I didn’t want to listen to admission counselors or walk around a snowy campus, let alone even think about college. But at the end of the day, I realized college wasn’t as scary—or as far away—as I thought. Despite not initially wanting to go, I learned the importance of the college visit and want to share my advice and experience with other students hesitant about putting in the energy.

My extensive personal experience

College visits were something I learned could master with a little bit of practice. And so practice I did! Over the next year and a half, I visited six Midwestern public universities—Winona State University, University of Minnesota, University of Iowa, Iowa State University, South Dakota State University, and University of Missouri—as well as one private college, the University of Northwestern—St. Paul. After all those visits, I’ve learned there are a few things you can do to make sure your time on campus is well spent. I may not have all the answers, but I’ll share with you what I know, prospective student to prospective student.

Campus tour tips

Campus tours are meant to be an opportunity to learn as much about a school as possible in a single day, so soak it all in as best you can. If there's anything I've learned from my many campus visits, it's these five big lessons. 

  • Bring questions. Take some time to write out your campus visit questions as well as who you intend to ask (an admission counselor, financial aid advisor, professor, or current student). Make sure to write down the answers while you’re talking to them too, or you’ll forget what they said!
  • The best place for asking questions is in private meetings. Colleges are happy to schedule appointments ahead of time with people you’d like to talk with. They can usually arrange them on the day of your visit too.
  • Be prepared to share what you plan to major in. If you don’t know for certain, pick something you’ve thought about or a general area, such as the medical field. The college will tailor your visit based on your tentative major, and it’s a lot easier to analyze a school if you have an idea of what you want to major in.
  • Walk at the front of your tour group. You’ll have an easier time hearing what your tour guides say, viewing places as they talk about them, and getting their attention if you have a question.
  • Create your own campus profiles. After you visit several schools, each one’s details will get all mixed up in your head. To avoid this, compile the most important information onto one notebook page or spreadsheet. Keep a similarly formatted page for each school so that comparing them is fast and easy. Write down details that matter most to you when choosing a college, which could be the price tag, how strong it is in your major, student body size, housing options, or distance from home. Also include relevant information for future reference such as application deadlines, fees (including which ones are refundable if you change your mind), and contact info of your admission counselor.

A few tips about public universities

While each school has its own quirks, I noticed that there are a lot of things they have in common. I mainly visited public universities, and, in my experience, the following is true for the majority of them.

  • They’re always under construction. Don’t be swayed by fancy facilities—especially the top-of-the-line gym your tour guides brag about. Almost every school I went to boasted a brand-new exercise building.
  • The earlier you apply, the better. Some schools give out housing based on when you applied for admission.
  • The staff can’t tell you much about which scholarships you might get. Aside from those that are automatically awarded upon admission, you’ll just have to apply (early!) and hope for the best.
  • Career placement programs and internship connections are important. It’s hard to get a job right out of college, so find a school that will help you.

Related: What Life Is Really Like at a Big Public University

These are just the basics—but that doesn’t mean they’re unimportant. Knowing the basics and the key things to look out for on a college visit is crucial. Explore some more college visit advice to get even more ideas of how to make the experience great. You’ve really got to experience a school for yourself to catch all the little things that make it unique—and those just might be the things that make or break your decision to attend.

Need a break from reading blogs? Check out the advice and other fun content over on the CollegeXpress YouTube channel!

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About Ruby Redekopp

Ruby is a music-loving high school senior from Minnesota. At school, she’s involved in student council, choir, musicals, and Key Club. When she’s not hanging out with friends from youth group, Ruby juggles three jobs: newspaper intern, piano teacher, and janitor. She’s visited seven different colleges and plans to pursue a degree in print journalism.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information.
Swipe left if you're not interested.

SUNY Maritime College

Throggs Neck, NY


Tinuola Dada

Tinuola Dada

$2,000 Community Service Scholarship Winner, 2015

I am very excited to be this year's recipient of the Multicultural Student Community Service Scholarship. This scholarship will bring me ever closer to my academic and professional goals. CollegeXpress has been an exceptional resource to me, and I recommend it to all rising seniors as they begin to navigate the college application process.

Farrah Macci

Farrah Macci

High School Class of 2016

CollegeXpress has helped me in many ways. For one, online searches are more organized and refined by filtering scholarships through by my personal and academic interests. Due to this, it has made searching for colleges and scholarships significantly less stressful. As a student, life can already get stressful pretty quickly. For me, it’s been helpful to utilize CollegeXpress since it keeps all of my searches and likes together, so I don’t have to branch out on multiple websites just to explore scholarship options.

Sonny Harris

Sonny Harris

College Student

For the entire year before college, I spent a lot of time deeply considering what major I wanted to go into and how to fund my higher education. After a lot of research, I came across CollegeXpress, which helped me ultimately find a ton of scholarships for which I could apply—and some of which I received! If it weren’t for CollegeXpress, I may not have found those scholarships as they didn't appear on any other scholarship search forum. Additionally, I learned more about the options I had been considering for my major through CollegeXpress’s resources. In the end, I chose to major in Computer Science, as it seemed best suited to me and the careers in the field seemed enjoyable, and I've never been more excited to move into my future! Ultimately, I want to thank CollegeXpress for offering their services. I received enough financial aid in scholarships to fund my entire freshman year of college and even got some money refunded which I used to purchase a new laptop, and I bought all of the books I needed for the semester!

Heaven Johnson

Heaven Johnson

Back to School Scholarship Winner, High School Class of 2023

I’d like to thank everyone on the CollegeXpress team for their generosity. Not only have I been awarded this scholarship, but CollegeXpress makes it easier to apply and gives amazing tips for schools and scholarships. I am extremely grateful as this will help with my schooling and allow me to be able to enter into the field I’ve been dreaming of all my life. 

Asia Stockdale

Asia Stockdale

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress helped me overcome a huge hurdle. Because of the small town I live in, I felt like I would never achieve more. I felt like I could never go beyond because of costs. I feared I wouldn’t be able to find scholarships. I had no idea of where to start. With CollegeXpress, I easily found scholarships—they came to me. It was a helper, and I was instantly matched with opportunities to go above and beyond educationally.