Is College Tour Worth It?

Are College Campus Tours Important for High School Students?

Photo by Erika Fletcher on Unsplash

College is just around the corner for many students, and while underclassmen may think they don’t have to worry about it for a long time, they’re wrong. The complicated time of perfecting your college essay to debating whether attending various universities is worth it in the long run will be here faster than you think. Embedding yourself into the glimpse of college life at the beginning of your high school career will significantly benefit students when the application process begins. Thus, touring school campuses will allow students to get a better hold of their future.  

There are plenty of benefits and advantages to visiting college campuses, but probably one of the most prominent ones is the real feel that being at a college campus brings. High school students get to single-handedly view the college for themselves when they tour campuses in person. By traveling to colleges you may be interested in and getting a professional tour, prospective students can see many  aspects of the school and experience different kinds of activities that you would never see until you attended. This exposure and familiarity with the school is far greater than what can be gleaned simply by perusing the website. It is crucial for high schoolers to experience walking around college campuses, visiting the dorms or walking inside the classrooms to really visualize themselves living and thriving at a certain college and decide if they want to spend the next few years of their lives there. 

Not only does visiting college campuses help with personal decisions about whether a college is a good fit for you, but showing interest in colleges and taking the time to go over and have a tour can help increase your chances of getting in. A recent study found that students who both apply and visit a school have a 40% higher chance of getting admitted compared to students who don’t visit a school campus at all. Among this, there are several other ways that students can show their true interest in a college that can give them an advantage to getting in. By visiting college campuses, reaching out to professors and showing interest in all the school has to offer, students will show admissions officers that they are serious about applying to the school. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, 25.5% of colleges rated that showing an overall demonstrated interest in the school is highly important in the freshman admission process, and thus should be taken seriously by every high school student that is wanting to extend their education further. 

Another factor that makes touring college campuses beneficial is that students may ask any personal questions to tour advisors or admissions officers, as well as any of the hundreds of college students that already attend the school. By walking onto various campuses, students get a more personalized and real answer coming from first hand-sources rather than  vague generated answers from the internet. Student leaders and officers are trained to answer a wide variety of student questions ranging from school history all the way to academic performance. While students may want to look on Google for easy access, asking questions in person on a school campus will allow for a much more thorough and genuine response that has a more significant impact on high school students. 

Although there are many positives to physically going to a college campus, not all high schoolers believe that making the trip will be worth it or have the interest in seeing the schools at all. From taking test after test to get their grades up, to staying up till midnight trying to fill out the common app, students can get extremely stressed out during the college process and may lose sight of what really matters- if they will actually love the college they’re trying to get into. While touring college campuses will not automatically get you into your top school, going to see different colleges with different majors, values and student life is incredibly important for high schoolers and therefore should not be skipped out. 

At the end of the day, it is really a personal decision on whether or not a high school student wants to visit a college campus. By doing so, students can get a different perspective on the college experience and get a better feel on what schools they think will have what they need to succeed later on in life and be the best fit for them and their well-being. Visiting college campuses opens up for a more large and meaningful conversation to be made among teenagers and gets them thinking about their future. A student should end up in a school where they feel welcomed and comfortable and where their needs are met, which a college visit will undoubtedly assist with.