College Visits - Then & Now
College Visits Before COVID-19
Campus visits are essential to finding the perfect-fit college, as they provide students with insight into daily life on campus and allow students to gather a non-academic, social perspective of the college. This is crucial as many students often don’t know what type of college environment suits them best until they experience real campuses. Due to COVID-19, these in-person tours are no longer possible in most cases, but colleges are providing alternatives that allow students the opportunity to explore and learn about campus life.
*Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning
Luckily, I began the college tour process during my sophomore year and was able to visit a few campuses in-person. Informally, I visited the University of Maryland and the University of Pittsburgh. I didn’t attend any formal tours or information sessions, but my family and I explored the campuses by ourselves. We went into different libraries and other significant or notable buildings, such as Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning, to merely look around. These visits weren’t significantly informative, but I still was able to get a feel for the campuses.
Formally, I visited Lehigh University, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, and the University of Virginia. The format for these visits was identical at each university: a 45-minute information session about the college followed by a roughly 90-minute student-led tour of the campus. I thought these were excellent. The information sessions provided information that was not only difficult to research, but also extremely reliable since it came from representatives of the colleges’ admissions offices. A typical information session provided specifics such as in-state vs out of state statistics (especially for state-schools), the admissions/financial aid processes for the school, and any unique curriculums that the school uses.
The campus tours were enjoyable, but some of the schools were not in session and practically empty during the summer and spring break when I did some of my tours. While it was more difficult to gauge the overall environment for schools that had empty campuses and minimal student life, I was still able to get a great feel for those campuses. Through the multiple tours I’ve been on, I learned which types of college campuses I personally prefer- my favorite campuses were those that were near a city or metro area, but also had a defined campus to create a sense of identity. I actually opposed city-schools before I started touring, so the tours were definitely crucial in helping me figure out my ideal campus.
College Visits during COVID-19
Since March of 2020, I’ve participated in virtual tours and information sessions for Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and a few others. While these virtual tours don’t quite compare to in-person ones, they are still worthwhile resources for those who haven’t visited a school and would like to see what the buildings and overall campus look like. Most colleges have self-paced virtual tours to be completed at your leisure, and some colleges have student-led virtual tours, which were more informative since the students shared stories about their experience on campus.
Student-led tours highlight important buildings or landmarks on campus and explain their significance. Students usually talk about memories or classes they have at each building/landmark, personalizing the tour. Additionally, I find the virtual info sessions, often delivered via Zoom, are nearly the same as in-person info sessions; there is still a reliable representative from the college narrating a presentation with a Q&A at the end.
It’s not perfect, but the new way of college tours is the best we’ve got for now. I would strongly recommend doing a few virtual tours or information sessions since they’re the closest things to in-person visits, and because they can actually be extremely informative.
Jake Shukan
Jake graduated from the Global Studies Magnet Program at Freehold Township High School in the spring of 2021. He enjoys playing basketball, volunteering, and watching sports in his free time.