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.


Ida Akoto-Wiafe

Ida Akoto-Wiafe

High School Class of 2022

I wanted a school that wasn't too far away from home and could provide me with a full-ride scholarship. CollegeXpress helped me put into perspective the money I had to pay to attend those schools, which ultimately drove me to choose to attend a community college first to get used to being in college before transferring to the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, one of the colleges I was able to research further on CollegeXpress.

Carlie Cadet

Carlie Cadet

High School Class of 2019

CollegeXpress has helped me learn about an abundance of scholarships available to me and my situation. I was able to do research for colleges in my best interest with your website. I've had multiple colleges email me and offer me multiple scholarships and things of that nature because of this website! Thank you so much for uploading scholarships I didn’t even know existed, even if my life took a huge turn and I wasn’t able to go to college straight out of high school. CollegeXpress helped me a lot in high school to be even more motivated to get into my dream college (which I did, by the way). I'm looking forward to using the materials CollegeXpress has kindly provided me for free to look for scholarships to help pay for college.

Casey Kammeyer

Casey Kammeyer

$500 Refer-A-Friend Scholarship Winner

I love the site CollegeXpress; it has been very helpful finding colleges and getting them to send me information. It has also been very, very helpful with finding tons of scholarships. Also, I told many of my friends about it and they love it as well!

Kamal

Kamal

Student, University of the People

I registered with CollegeXpress and filled all my necessary and relevant information as well as the course I wished to study. A few days later, an email was sent to me with a list of schools offering the course; amongst them was the University of the People, the school I got admitted to.

Ruth Aguilar

Ruth Aguilar

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress helped me by providing me with many scholarship opportunities and information about universities I want to attend. What I love about CollgeXpress is how it provides a variety of information, and as the first child attending a university next year, it has been very essential and helpful. I’m so grateful for this because the information provided by CollegeXpress has also helped me see that there are so many college opportunities, and it always informs me by email. In other words, CollegeXpress has been like a guide for me as a future college student.