College Visits are Important
By Brody Knox
Visiting a college as a junior or senior helps narrow a student's choice of school and future career. Moving to a new home can be difficult, especially when it is a whole new atmosphere, so visiting colleges can be beneficial in narrowing the decision-making process between one college campus and another.
“Students can visualize themselves on campus and identify if that picture meets their needs and expectations,” Pierce High counselor Danielle Goetsch states.
Can a campus visit impact a student’s chance of admission? If thought out, visiting a college campus before admission is like wearing a suit and tie to an interview for a new job. It shows that a student is serious about attending college, and campus visits can sometimes be beneficial in helping get a student admitted, but is not a guarantee.
“Campus visits can impact a student's chance for admission. A campus visit shows the admissions staff the student is serious about the college and is engaged in learning about the college,” Goetsch comments.
When visiting a college campus, one should look at specific aspects such as dormitories and campus housing, libraries, cafeterias, classrooms, teachers, and overall campus diversity.
“Students should pay attention to the location (small, middle, large city), the size of the school and the program offerings,” Goetsch states.
Getting to know fellow peers and teachers is just as important as getting to know what the campus is like.
“Meeting faculty is really important because you are gonna want to know who is going to lecture you; you don’t want to have a bad professor but also do not want to have a lazy professor,” Trayton Christiansen, a senior, says. “Going on college visits will show you how their professors are as well as their students and then you can determine whether the campus is fit for you or not.”
All things considered, going on college visits will be a beneficial experience, whether a student chooses to attend or not. At Pierce, juniors are allowed two college visits and seniors are allowed three. For more information on college visits, contact the guidance office.
