Carly Risom
News Editor
With senior year just around the corner, many juniors have spent a significant amount of time touring college campuses throughout second semester. According to “College Confidential,” the United States boasts over 2,000 universities, all of which offer an enormous amount of classes, majors, and career opportunities. How does a 16 or 17-year old begin to narrow that down?
Unsurprisingly, there are a number of factors that influence where juniors begin to look. One of the major factors is a student’s parents. Amongst other schools, junior Morgan Sturm is intending to visit Penn State University, where her dad went. “It was important to him that I visited the school that he went to,” Morgan said. “I may not end up at Penn State, but I definitely owe it to him to look there.”
Parents undoubtedly maintain control over where their children end up, as they are the ones to write the checks. Junior Clark Newlove, however, is taking a more independent route. “Neither of my parents went to college,” Clark said. “They’re completely hands-off in terms of where I go, but I happen to know that I don’t want to go out West or too far South,” he said.
Junior Alex Gottlieb had a similar experience while touring colleges out West. “The schools I visited have no correlation to where my Dad went,” she said. “He went to college on the East coast, which is obviously the opposite of California.”
Contrarily, junior Chase Williams’ parents kept their college experience in mind while looking at schools. “My parents always tried to keep a positive vibe about the school while on campus,” Chase said. “It wasn’t until after the tour was over that they would give their opinions. During the majority of my tours, they were very interested in the schools themselves and were intrigued about how they matched up with where they went,” he said.
After selecting a few schools to look at, it’s commonplace to schedule tours and information sessions. Clark tried to put himself in the position of a student at the schools he was looking at. “I really liked this one school in particular, and I ended up spending upwards of 12 hours on its campus, going on tours and sitting in on classes,” he said. “I ate in the dining halls and hung out with former NCHS friends in their dorm rooms and fraternities. I tried to emulate the daily course of events of a student at that particular college, which I feel gave me an opportunity to thoroughly assimilate into the school’s environment,” Clark said.
With every info session or tour, it is inevitable that the individuals speaking aren’t going to include the things the school obviously doesn’t want to advertise, like bad food or crowded freshman dorms. Chase found that general information sessions and tours often avoid some downsides about the school. “The only complaint I have from my experience is that there was never any talk about the bad aspects of the school,” Chase said. “The tour guides especially seemed to narrow in on the good. This can have its benefits and downsides, but looking around the school with the help of a family friend and relative, rather than going to a cookie-cutter info session provided more information about the college,” he said.
Alex also was able to get a more personalized school, which assisted her interpretation of the colleges she was looking at. “At Pamona I went on a private tour, which was nice because I could ask specific questions,” she said. “It was really helpful to learn information about the school that was more tailored to myself as a student rather than listening to the questions of other people on the tour with me,” Alex said.
From the experience of a few juniors, it has become increasingly clear how important it is to do one’s homework. Get on the school’s website before visiting, and try to schedule a tour or information session. From personal experience, it can be hard to schedule a tour or register for an information session, as they fill up really quickly. A lot of schools also offer virtual tours, so you can look at the campus from an aerial view in less than five minutes, too. Good luck!
