College visits prove beneficial to students and universities alike

This fall, 47 colleges from around the United States and Canada will visit Aragon. From in-state schools to out-of-state schools, public schools to private schools, selective schools to broad access schools, and schools with religious affiliations to schools without, the colleges that will visit Aragon represent a wide range of higher education institutions all across the continent.

College and career adviser Laurie Tezak says, “Typically we have about 50-60 colleges visiting, and I did notice that they all signed up really fast this year.”

New schools visiting this year include Dartmouth, UCSD, UCSB, and UC Riverside.

In the last few years, the majority of the schools that have visited Aragon have usually been private or out-of-state, leaving schools like the UCs underrepresented. However, more UCs are visiting Aragon this year, since Gov. Jerry Brown enacted a plan that increased the UC state appropriation by 5 percent, or $142 million, which consequently enabled the UCs to visit more high schools in addition to college fairs.

“The UC budget has been favorable and has allowed our office to continue with our recruitment efforts in much of the same way as last year. This year we have been able to expand our efforts in new areas,” says UCSD admissions officer Erica Quintor.

These visits allow colleges to advertise themselves and reach out to students.

Westmont College admissions counselor Maddie Weiss says, “It’s a way for colleges to bring their campus to students, because not every person can necessarily make the trip to the college they’re looking at. It helps me as a counselor because I tend to remember the students that I’ve met in person, and although I can get a lot of information out of an application, it is always nice to connect a face to a name. The face-to-face interaction is really valuable, so this is just one other way to make that point of connection with students.”

Washington University in St. Louis representative Erin Que says college visits also help admissions officers better understand the environment from which their applicants come from.

Que says, “In addition to making personal connections, the college visit can help us better get to know the schools from which our applicants come. When we review an applicant’s transcript, we evaluate the student within the context of his/her school, so the college visit helps us better understand that context.”

Harvey Mudd representative Jamilla Jamison adds that college visits also allow representatives to indirectly reach out to students by connecting with counselors.

“Sometimes, it’s not even necessarily meeting the students, but it’s getting to talk to the counselor and having them learn more about Harvey Mudd, giving them more insight on what the school’s all about, so when they’re talking to students about college options, they know to think of Harvey Mudd, and sometimes, that can actually be more effective, because they can talk to more students than you can ever visit in one day.”

Additionally, out-of-state public institutions like Oregon State University also benefit from visiting high schools in different states. 8 percent of the current student population at OSU is from California.

Christina Nakada, Oregon State University Northern California admissions adviser says, “In the state of Oregon, we’re not as populated as in the state of California, so there aren’t as many high schools in Oregon as there are even down here. There’s just a lot of interest from Californian students, and we’re pleased that they’re interested in our curriculum too.”

Though out-of-state tuition is considerably higher than in-state-tuition, scholarships help lessen the disparity, adds Nakada. “In-state tuition looks around a little over $8,000; out-of-state tuition looks around $23,000 per year for four years, but we see that students who come from out of state qualify for some kind of scholarship money, so we want to make sure that there’s some type of additional help to cut down the cost, and on average, two-thirds of Californians received scholarships last year.”

Historically, colleges have left Aragon with favorable impressions. Tezak says, “We have a really good impression. They like what they see on the school profile we write up and give to them; it gives them percentages of how many people took AP classes, how many passed with a 3 or better, how many APs and honors courses we offer, how many AVID sections we have, what clubs we have, etc. We’re a very diverse school and we have a very good impression out there.”

“Aragon students were eager to learn about UC San Diego. They asked thoughtful questions. The students seemed well prepared as evidenced by the type of questions they were asking. It was a wonderful group of students who had a lot of energy and were very attentive. I will definitely consider coming back to Aragon High School after such a successful visit,” says Quintor.

Students also benefit from college visits because they allow students to garner real-time information about the school and ask questions.

Senior Nicole Bonfiglio, who attended the Oregon State University college visit, says, “I went on Naviance, and I looked up the majors of all the schools that were coming. If they had the 3 majors that I’m requiring, or at least one of them, then I wanted to go to that [college visit] and check it out. [After attending ], I’m now very interested in this school, and motivated to do my applications. [The most important thing I learned from the college visit was] that they do have an honors program, which was very important to me, and that they have a full veterinary medicine program; it’s not just pre-vet.

However, senior Claire Tatlow points out that as helpful as college visits may be, the information provided may sometimes conflict with previous knowledge.

Tatlow, who attended the UCSD presentation, says, “I didn’t know anything about the six-college system[at UCSD], so that was interesting. However, I went to another meeting for writing personal statements, and it seemed like the information about personal essays wasn’t consistent [with the UCSD college visit].

Nonetheless, students find that college visits are also helpful in that they remind students to be open-minded about deciding which colleges to apply to.

Sophomore Taylor Rabbitt, who also attended the UCSD college visit, says, “I’ve never even thought about applying to some of the colleges that visit until I heard their presentations. [College visits] are very helpful because they let you know what expectations colleges have, what the campuses are like, and how thinks work on their campus. Some people might have their minds set, but it’s good to keep your options open.”

More colleges will visit at the college fair, which will be held Thursday, October 24 at Mills High School.