So You’re a Junior and You Can’t Visit Your Prospective Colleges this Spring: Now What?

Juniors, if this were a normal year, you’d be headed out on college tours this spring. You’d be trying the smoothies at the hip coffee shop just off campus, checking out the fashions on the quad, sitting in on a class or two, and buying fifty-dollar hoodies in the campus shop. But if this were a normal year, I wouldn’t have spent five hours of my life watching Tiger King or labelling the tops of all my spices so I can read what they are from above (it’s actually a huge time-saver). 

The campus visit is an important part of choosing a college; I know lots of folks (myself included) for whom a campus visit either moved a school to the top of their list or knocked it off completely. 

So what are your options now that your campuses are closed? Well, you can hope that by this summer you might be able to visit - but then the full student body won’t be there. You could also plan to visit in the fall - but that would be pretty late in the process.  

Here are some tips on what you can do NOW:

The Virtual Visit. 

Virtually every campus offered this option even before COVID-19. Schools realize that not every student has the means or even the desire to travel to every campus that interests them. Some of these tours are more technologically advanced than others; the U of Oregon, for example, has been sending cardboard VR headsets to recruits since 2018 for a truly immersive experience. 

The school website is the primary place to find these virtual tours, followed by YouTube. There are also websites that specialize in curating virtual experiences, such as youvisit.com and campusreel.org.

Virtual tours, like in-person tours, are produced by the school, so they’re going to emphasize the best and most impressive aspects of the college. That’s good, because you’ll see the high points. It also means you won’t see any of the less impressive facets of a college, which is why you also need to use-

Social Media. 

You use it daily for dozens of reasons; here’s another. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook will all have plenty of content on almost any college, in many cases produced not by the institution but by students and alumni. On the one hand, you have to take everything with a grain of salt (the most idyllic college still has discontented students who will complain loudly on social media), but on the other hand, this is where you will get unvarnished truths about a school from the students who are living them. Proceed with caution (seriously- after about an hour of these you’ll get a little jaded), but nonetheless, proceed. 

Plan C- Apply then Visit.

This may not be ideal, but it has advantages. If you broaden your list and apply to a few more colleges than you had planned on (say, ten instead of seven), you can wait and see where you’re accepted, and THEN go to visit. A visit will have a whole new feel if you show up knowing this is a guaranteed option, and it will save you the heartbreak of visits where you go to a campus, fall in love with the place, and then get rejected. It will also give you the opportunity to meet with financial aid, housing, and other offices that might give you some concrete details to help you make your final choice. Many students choose to make a second visit once they’ve been admitted anyway; make your “second” visit your first, if you have to.

Talk to a Current Student, an Alum, or a Professional.

It helps to know one of these, but you probably already do. Your mom’s cousin. Your doctor. Your friend’s sister’s lacrosse teammate. I doubt you’re more than four degrees of separation from someone who is either going to or who went to each school you’re interested in. It might be a stretch, but people love to talk about themselves and they usually love to talk about their alma maters. Everybody’s so starved for human interaction right now that this is probably the best time EVER to call an almost-stranger and ask about their college. 

In addition, this is the perfect time to start working with an independent college consultant. We know colleges, we visit colleges, we talk to admissions officers, and we go to conventions and college fairs. We’ve likely been through the admissions process at the schools you’re interested in with previous clients. 

This year, Parker Educational has already had clients accepted at Harvard, Cornell, UPenn, UVA, UNC, UCLA, and Vanderbilt (and the list goes on). Those acceptances don’t just happen; they happen for students who start planning in their junior year and work through the summer, and who are working with a project manager who knows the college landscape. 

Interested in learning more about navigating the college admissions process during this unique time? Contact me today for a free consultation.