If the time and money permits, doing a university tour before applying is the best way to truly experience campus life and it allows you to see the place where you could spend the four years of your university career. However, many students make several easily avoidable mistakes that both take away from the tour experience itself and cause them to miss out on a valuable chance to make themselves a more attractive applicant. A tour is both a chance to help you choose between universities that seem identical on paper while also giving you a chance to present yourself as a candidate who has a serious interest in that school. Here are the top five tips for doing a university tour right:
1. Go while the university is in session
This is one point I can’t stress enough as everything else flows from here. While the university offers tours and information sessions throughout the summer, you will never be able to get a proper ‘feel’ of the campus if there are no students around. I had a lot of trouble figuring out where my top choice was but after touring five Ivy League universities during spring break in grade 11, something about Princeton just resonated with me as I walked around the campus and I knew it was where I could see myself spending the next four years of my life.
2. Attend an information session and a tour and fill out the information card
These are the two standard activities of every university tour and will provide useful information regarding life at the university and even what the university could be looking for in an applicant. Take note during the information session about the kind of words they use to describe their students and this will give you a good indication of what they want in an applicant. Also, remember to fill out the cards they give out at the beginning/end of the information session as the university will keep this and your name on file and it will show up when you apply to prove you made the visit.
3. Sit in on a class
While the tour and information session will provide a lot of basic information about life at the university, the only way to truly get a feel for the academics (which is why you’re going to university after all) is to sit in on a class in a department you are interested in. As I was always interested in studying Classics, I sat in on Latin or Ancient Greek classes at every school I visited and this gave me a valuable insight into how lessons were structured, the quality of interaction of the professors with their classes and the general level of the students there.
4. Meet with a professor in a department you’re interested in
Both sitting in on a class and meeting with a professor are above and beyond what students usually do on a university tour and come application time, could help make you stand out. By meeting a professor, you are showing the admissions office that you have a genuine interest in a certain area and that you want to know more about that department. I found on my visit that professors are generally very accommodating and love the chance to chat with prospective students as long as you give them fair warning and set up a meeting well in advance by email. However, be careful to not ask generic questions at the meeting that could easily be answered on the department website or the meeting will be a waste of your time as well as theirs. Dressing presentably and bringing a notepad and a list of questions about the department will both help give off a strong sense of dedication and professionalism and will leave a lasting impression.
5. (Optional) Go on a second, one-on-one tour with a current student
If an alumnus of your school is at one of the schools you are visiting, get in touch with them and more often than not, they will be very willing to show you around or have a friend do so. By doing this, you will get a more realistic description of life at the university that hasn’t been sugarcoated by the official tour guides. Additionally, you will get to go ‘behind the scenes’ and see the dorms, dining hall and other places of campus that are an integral part of the student experience but aren’t advertised on the tour.
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