Hear about Kaetlyn's College Visits!

I have been away the past week touring colleges in New England, and I found myself frequently using Guided Path in ways I hadn’t before throughout my trip. So I’m here to share some ideas with you…

As you might know by now, touring colleges—though very exciting and fun—can be long and arduous. After 4 or 5 colleges, they all begin to blur together: the campuses all start to look similar, the programs and opportunities appear to be the same, and its hard to remember specifically what you liked and disliked about every school. I found myself leaving each school with a very general feeling: Either I absolutely loved a school, I liked a school, or I found myself asking why on earth I would apply there. Halfway through my trip when I tried to compile a list of schools from favorite to least favorite, I couldn’t. I could only give groups of the schools I absolutely loved, the schools I liked a fair amount, and the schools that I hated. This becomes a problem when you are trying to find one school—the school you would hands down choose over any other school—to apply to Early Decision. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I found the ‘Discussions’ feature to be very helpful during the college touring process—I’d like to share some ways I took advantage of this tool, as well as several others, this week.

Interviews. It is always wise to have some knowledge about the school you are visiting, because the interviewers will undoubtedly ask you questions about why specifically you like their school. They will also expect you to have questions about the school. The discussions tab is a great way to store any questions and information you gather about the school. I found it very convenient to read over the Fiske Guide before my interview and then click over to the discussion tab and jot down any questions that came to mind.

Pamphlets. You acquire so many little pamphlets and information books and calendars, etc. throughout a college tour and they become very cumbersome to lug from school to school. This week, I found it much simpler to find the information I was actually interested in and to plug it into Guided Path. This way, I didn’t have to carry a suitcase full of papers around New England. This serves as a great organization tool, because all of the information I received at one school is compiled into one list on Guided Path.

Business Cards. Just like the pamphlets, I found myself collecting dozens of cards of people I can contact should I have any questions. Rather than having to keep track of all these cards, I could easily put their contact info information into the college notes section for easy access.

Pictures. Just something I thought I would mention--pictures were extremely helpful in the college touring process, because as I mentioned earlier, things start to blur together after a while. Even just taking one or two pictures of each campus helped me to distinguish my thoughts about each school. I always took one picture of the campus, and one picture of the campus coffee shop—I absolutely love coffee shops. Though you could send pictures to your advisor using messages, I prefer to just keep them for my own benefit. Just thought it might be beneficial to encourage your students to do so!