You are a junior, and this is your moment. You probably already know this, but junior year matters a lot. Your grades need to be at the highest they’ve ever been, and you are studying hard for the SAT or ACT, and likely taking one of those a few times. College conversations are amplifying in volume at school, and it’s likely that you are hearing from a school counselor, parents, and peers that you need to buckle down and figure out your path.
Visiting colleges is a key piece of identifying and pursuing your path. In fact, it may be one of the most important parts. Where you go to school will shape your future, whether it’s moving to a new geographic location, trying out a new type of community, or pursuing your passion at an exceptional institution. Picking a college is one of the more consequential decisions you’ve made to date, whether it’s focusing in on a perfect fit academically that you wish had a smaller campus, or realizing that you need a particular opportunity or amenity — like a dining program that is exceptional at accommodating allergies — to be able to give your all to the college experience.
These types of discoveries truly come from on the groundwork, touring colleges, talking to students, sitting in on classes, and reflecting on what works and what doesn’t at each school in a focused way. This debriefing is, itself, a crucial piece of the puzzle. We work with our students to glean their most important takeaways from their college visit experiences. We discover surprises, break down disappointments (first-year parking, for one, is a rarity), and help our students balance between their ideal academic environment and all the other things that college is socially and culturally for young adults.
In this post, we are going to break down the four key things that juniors must be making central to their college visit strategy to set themselves in motion for exceptional admissions outcomes. Approaching college visits thoughtfully is crucial to getting into a dream school, so these aren’t simply suggestions. Rather, they should be taken as minimum requirements.
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Now that you are a junior, you are likely planning college visit road trips, visiting local schools that you can reach easily, and talking to friends about what schools you like or dislike. These conversations can be cathartic, but we coach our students to focus in on themselves and less on what other people are saying or experiencing. This leads into the first rule of college visits as a junior.
TRUST YOURSELF
First, you need to trust yourself. You know what kinds of communities you thrive in, and you know where you feel less comfortable. You know what types of places encourage you to learn, and what sort of classroom would totally not work for you. Every student is a different combination of preferences and needs, so don’t think that something is wrong with you if you absolutely can’t stand the idea of a lecture hall, or the reverse and are terrified by a tiny classroom.
Let your preferences be your guide, and invest time in visiting school that match what it is you are looking for socially, residentially, and academically. At the same time, be willing to stretch yourself a little. If a school has a bunch of green flags, like the best program in the country for your prospective major and a beautiful campus, consider visiting so that you can gauge whether the cold winters might be something you are willing to suffer (we like winter, for the record).
HAVE CONVERSATIONS
Having conversations is one of the best ways to see what the true vibe of a school is. When you are on campus for an official scheduled visit, don’t limit yourself to asking questions of the tour guide or the admissions official who runs your info session. Talk to students, faculty, staff members, really anyone that you run into.
If you have the time, try to set up a class visit for a course related to the area you are interested in studying. The admissions office may be able to help with this, so ask. If you have a friend, family friend, or third degree connection at the school, they too may be able to help with a class visit — ideally to one of their classes that is also related to what you are interested in studying.
START A SPREADSHEET
Starting a spreadsheet is a crucial step to ensure that you retain all the information that you learn while you are visiting, in addition to anything important you pull off the website or hear from friends. Even if something feels unforgettable during a visit, write it down. College visits have a bad habit of blending together, so tracking what you experience is important. Write down what you love, and what you don’t.
Pay especially close attention to what the academic programs you are most interested in look like. Yes, a dream-sounding school may have a particular major, but you need to go deeper than that. For example, how many students are in the major, and how many faculty? The size of the program matters because bigger programs typically get more funding and are able to offer more opportunities.
At the same time, the biggest program doesn’t necessarily mean the best. A small program with exceptional faculty can be a better fit, especially if you want to prioritize intimate classroom settings and access to your professors. By putting all of this information into a spreadsheet, you can compare schools that may, at a distance, seem super similar. You can also find areas of divergence where otherwise schools may look the same on their face. This is especially true for programmatic nuances like academic distribution requirements.
Noting these differences and similarities will help you identify your best fit colleges, and ultimately your dream school.
SEND THANK YOUS
Don’t roll your eyes or say, “really??” We’re serious. Writing thank you’s to the admissions of any college that you visit and intend to apply to is super, super important. If you have a specific admissions officer that you met (and took note of in your spreadsheet), write it to them. If you don’t have a name, write it to the office more generally. Then, use this format:
Sentence One: Start with your name, where you live (city and state), and the date when you visited.
Sentence Two: Next, write a sentence about something super specific that you enjoyed during your visit. This should be about the academic program or community on campus. Do not compliment the landscaping or architecture.
Sentence Three: After that, you need to write a sentence that is a specific compliment towards your tour guide. If you can’t remember their name, just say “our tour guide.” If you feel like they actually were pretty crumby, find something to compliment. Maybe they encourage students to ask questions, or shared a funny anecdote from one of their first year classes.
Sentence Four: This sentence should be a specific thing that you want to learn more about as you prepare to apply. You don’t need to frame it as a question, but you could.
Sentence Five: In your closing sentence, thank them for welcoming you during your visit and clearly state that you are excited to apply for the Class of 202X.
The common thread here is specifics. This is one reason why putting notes on a spreadsheet is so critical — you’ll need them to write a compelling letter. Submit via email or, our preference, a handwritten letter addressed to the admissions office. Either works great, though.
Now, it’s also important to remember that you don’t send a thank you if you have no intention of applying. While thank you’s are typically great regardless, the admissions office inbox is overflowing. Don’t take up space if you don’t need it.
If you take anything from this post, though, please visit. Don’t hold off on visiting a school you are ‘iffy’ about if it isn’t hard for you to get there. Especially if it is local, or relatively local, visit. You need to see schools to get to know what you really like.
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