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 The
Importance of Campus Visits: We created this
separate page on campus visits to emphasize their importance in
your college search. Indeed, campus visits are the topics of
entire books, so we can't cover the gamut of information on
college visits here. But, at least, we can make you aware of
the real magnitude of this aspect of your college search.
Campus visits should be planned
ahead. If you're going to do this right, you don't just wake
up some morning and decide you are going to drive to a college
campus that very day and look around. Significant time and
expense is involved in visiting campuses. Colleges and
universities arrange tours for prospective students, and you
should inquire about these tours. Some visits can span more
than one day, with an overnight stay in a dormitory.
Parents, of course, are likely to be traveling with you on these
visits. Overnight stays in university housing are usually
provided only to prospective students. But otherwise, the
schools fully recognize that parents will often be participating
in campus visits.
You may be able to meet with faculty
in the subject area in which you wish to major; you may able to
sit in on classes. If you want to play college sports, you
may be able to meet with the coach and/or current team members.
Again, we can't cover the gamut of
campus visits here. You really should borrow or buy a
publication on campus visits. We have identified several
below:
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Peterson's Guide
to College Visits
Pub.
Date: May 2000
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You'll get details on:
- Scheduling
your visit
- Visitor
services
- Where
to stay and where to eat
- School
calendars and tour schedules
- Maps
and parking
- Local
tourist attractions
- Combining
visits with nearby campuses
- Also
includes -- Peterson's Edition of the Rand McNally
TripMaker CD -- Plan a trip and print maps and
directions to any college in the U.S. from your own
computer.
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Guide to College
Visits; How to Make the Most out of Your Campus Visits
with Cdrom
Pub.
Date: August 1999
______________________
| A
college visit reveals the nitty gritty about a
campus. But, planning ahead will maximize your
time there. This indispensable resource tells how
to organize the visit and what to look for. Pack
your bags and make the most of your visits and
on-campus tours at more than 360 colleges. A
point-to-point route planning and mapping Rand
McNally TripMaker CD-ROM gets you there
worry-free. |
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Student Advantage
Guide to Visiting College Campuses
Pub.
Date: December 1999
________________________
Nothing
beats hitting the road and seeing a campus with your own
eyes: sizing up the dorms, eating a meal in the cafeteria,
sitting in on a class, and getting a true-to-life preview
of your next four years. This book's
profiles of the 250 most-toured campuses include:
- Maps and
precise directions to get you there by any mode of
transportation
- Nearby
hotels, motels, B&Bs, and resorts for every budget
- The best and
worst times to visit each campus
- Dates and
times when campus tours are available
- How to
arrange an overnight stay in a dormitory
- Information
on meeting professors, admissions officers, and
coaches
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Virtual
Campus Tours: Ideally, you will visit the campus of
any schools you are seriously interested in attending. And
there's truly no substitute for an actual visit to a campus.
However, if that is not feasible, or you want to gather more
information about a school before making a real visit, then take a
"virtual", i.e., online, tour. What does this
mean? Well, some school Web sites, and some of the
collegiate Web sites we have identified for you, such as the ones
cited above, can help you acquire some familiarity with the campus
by showing maps and diagrams of the campus. CampusTours.com,
as the name implies, is a Web site focused on this concept.
They strive to give you information via webcams, interactive
campus maps, videos and picture. A modem connection speed of
at least 28.8 kbs is recommended this. And, again, some of
this graphical information is available directly from the school
Web sites; if you need help getting their Web address, go to our
page on college/university web sites.
Beyond
the Virtual Tour: In addition to taking a virtual
tour, there are other ways to become more acquainted with a
college, and specifically with the department which is your
primary interest, without an actual visit to the campus. By
visiting a school's main Web site, you may be able to follow a
link to a Web site for a particular department. From there,
look for e-mail addresses or phone numbers of faculty members
and/or department heads. Seek an opportunity to speak to, or
contact by e-mail, someone in the department and ask questions.
Current students at the school are another source of information.
And, of course, reading descriptions of school facilities found
college catalogs/bulletins should give you an image of the school.
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