College. The word strikes fear into the hearts of many rising juniors and seniors who have yet to delve into the process of college applications. What does it mean to go to college? Where should they start? Where should they apply? To alleviate this initial fear of the college application process, some students choose to visit college campuses.
Campus visits can prove useful when students are building a list of colleges to potentially research and apply to.
“It was that realization in my mind as I’m searching up all these colleges, and as we’re driving [for more than] four hours, that [I was] about to be a senior,” said senior Christos Makropoulos. “[I was] about to be applying [to] colleges.”
During his junior year, Makropoulos visited more than 20 colleges across California.
“[I realized that] I’m about to [leave],” Makropoulos said. “[Visiting colleges] was much more beneficial to get a breakthrough, an icebreaker of sorts, when it came to college.”
The experience of a college visit can be different for everyone. For some, it means attending a tour, where a guide points out key features of the campus. This was the case for junior Evelyn Cisneros, who visited the University of California Merced, Fresno State University, UCLA and Loyola Marymount University with her Advancement Via Individual Determination class.
For Cisneros, the campus and tour guide’s impressions were critical to her perspective and overall experience.
“If the tour guide explained the college, I felt more inclined to like the college,” Cisneros said. “If the college doesn’t strike me as welcoming [and] I don’t feel connected to that college, [then] I’m not going to apply to it, even if it’s prestigious.”
For some students, college visits were essential not only to learn more about what the college offered, but also to get a sense of its atmosphere.
“If you want to apply to a college, you should go see it first in-person,” Cisneros said. “Seeing it [in] photos is different than seeing it [onsite]. For example, in pictures, Fresno State looks really nice. But [when] visiting, it didn’t strike me as good as UCLA or Loyola Marymount. The design felt too plain. [The campus] felt closed in.”
When visiting college campuses, many students pay attention to whether the campus feels inclusive.
“I was excited to apply for Chapman’s film program,” Makropoulos said. “The one thing I wasn’t psyched about was the whole Catholic vibe of it. It is a Catholic private school with a lot of money. The deciding factor was, I looked at the campus, and it didn’t feel right. It completely shifted my view on how [much] I actually wanted to go. I would probably prefer a more open college, with a surrounding city, but Chapman was secluded.”
“In the end, there are many aspects of a school to consider when applying, not only the campus”
The surrounding of a college can impact the experience for some. While Chapman’s isolation deterred Makropoulos, the surrounding town of Cal Poly SLO attracted his sister when they visited California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. An experience with a current student at San Luis Obispo shaped their perspective on the campus.
“She told us everything we needed to know about San Luis Obispo,” Makropoulos said. “It was very exciting for me that, not only was this a college experience for me, but my sister, who was a freshman back then, was already like ‘San Luis Obispo is kind of cool!’”
However, college visits may not necessarily be determinative of a college’s appeal to some students.
“In the future application process, the visit might serve in giving more clarity and perspective to how the campuses looked and felt,” said junior Sannie Wan. “[But] in the end, there are many aspects of a school to consider when applying, not only the campus. For example, one of the colleges I like the most is Harvey Mudd, and it’s actually ‘one of the ugliest campuses in America’ and its mascot is unofficially a concrete block.”
As a potential first step into the process of applying to college, campus visits can provide more insight on what it means to go to college and students’ potential choices.
“There’s a lot of choices of colleges, especially in Southern California,” Wan said. “Along the way, I researched the colleges more. It got me more interested in the college process and exploring what I find attractive in colleges. Not only in appearances, but in the emphasis they place on different areas of study. I did a bit more research after that trip because I got a chance to see all the different colleges.”
The college application process can be overwhelming for students. For some, visiting college campuses can help ease anxiety and allow them to feel excited about applying to college. For others, college visits are just one factor of considering which institutions to apply to and potentially attend.
