THE BOTTOM LINE #2
While the remainder of this guide is about what to do on a college visit, feel free to pick and choose among the many ideas. Your life is probably already filled with enough stress and hassle, so whatever you do, don’t make any college visit into an ordeal.

On the contrary, take it easy and enjoy yourself. Stop in the middle of your visit and have a bite to eat at the student union or a soft drink at one of the campus cafes. Approach the campus with a lighthearted attitude, as if you are spending a few hours at a favorite destination filled with interesting things to do. Make your college visits fun experiences.

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! If you visit a campus when the admissions office is closed, be sure to drop a note to the admissions rep assigned to your high school, informing him/her of your visit. This is a way for you to show interest in a college.

WHEN AND HOW MUCH TIME TO SPEND AT COLLEGES
To get a real feel for a college, it is better to visit it when school is in session, not during vacations or final exams. Needless to say, visiting a campus when classes and activities are in full swing provides you with a much better picture of what life is really like. Try to be on campus during a weekday when classes are running, and if you are serious about a campus, on a weekend day or night when many other activities take place. This is possible if you put together a Friday-Saturday or Sunday-Monday visit.

Often student and/or parent schedules don’t mesh with college schedules. Visiting campuses during summers or during Winter/Spring Breaks or even during finals is preferable to not visiting a campus at all.

If you end up visiting a campus during an “off time,” keep in mind that “what you see is not exactly what you may get” under normal campus conditions. Empty campuses (during vacations or summers) or stressed-out students (during final exams) may not represent actual campus life. Talk with students about what you see and find out from them if this is the usual scene. In other words, be cautious about forming a wrong impression of a campus based on the particular time you are there.

The amount of time students and their families spend at one college campus varies from a fifteen minute drive-through by car (on your way to some other place), to a couple of hours, to a half-day, all day or even a full weekend.

• A good amount of time to spend for a first visit is a half-day per campus.

• The ideal time for a student who is trying to decide whether to attend a specific college is a weekday plus a weekend day and night.

PARENT TIP! Many freshmen and sophomores are not ready for serious campus visits. If that’s the case with your son or daughter, don’t push them. Just driving through a campus on your way to some other destination is a good first introduction.