Summer vacation is almost here and many high school students will be traveling to different destinations. If you are planning to visit a country where you would like (or think you might like) to attend university, summer is the perfect time to schedule university visits and campus tours!

Here are our top tips for successful university visits:

• Do not schedule too many visits – You may be short on time or there may be a few universities in one particular city that you feel like you can visit in one day. It will be too much if you try to visit more than two universities in a day. Not to mention, the universities will start to blur together and you probably will not be able to retain as much information. Scale down your visits to the must see universities and take virtual tours online for the others you are not able to make.
• Do not wait until the last minute – Now is the time to find out visiting times for your universities. Summer is the most popular time for students to visit from all over the world, so reserve your space early so that you and/or your family can be accommodated.
• Schedule an on-campus interview – Many universities will give you an opportunity to meet with admissions representatives who are very knowledgeable about the application and admissions process. These people are important to get to know as they can answer specific questions regarding the university. However, another way to get an up-close and personal perspective is to schedule an on-campus interview, if offered. It is possible that you will interview with an alum, current student or even a person from the admissions office. This one-on-one opportunity is great for narrowing your list down and determining if the university would be in your top 10.
• Meet with a professor – While summer vacation is just that, vacation, there are professors who stick around campus for the summer. If you know which field of study you are interested in, contact the admissions office or contact the professor directly (if their information is online) and request a time to find out more about your specific program and the types of courses you would be taking within your major. Many professors are glad to speak with prospective students and their families and may even remember your visit, which may be helpful later on.
• Enjoy the campus tour – Yes, it may be hot in some places or the tour guides are loading you up with quirky facts about the university, but the tour is one of the most crucial parts of the visit. It allows you to imagine yourself as a student there. As you walk from building to building, or through the quad on a campus, imagine that this is a typical day. Do you see yourself eating in the dining hall or hanging out in the student center? Take advantage of your surroundings and determine if this is a place that could “feel like home”.

DCB Class of 2017 excited about their new university lives ahead

If you are unsure about the type of university you want to attend or you think it doesn’t matter if it has a large or small population, visit different types of universities within your field of study in a specific city (large public, small private, liberal arts, research based). That way, you will find out what you must have and what you can live without.

Enjoy this part of the process and, most importantly, enjoy your summer!

Dulwich College Beijing counseling team offers career and university advice and support to all Senior School students. Preparing students for university start as early as Year 7 (Grade 6). They spend many hours with each student to guide them with admission essays and to make the right choices for university applications. Students’ final choices often reflect the right fit for them individually – whether it is campus location and size or area of specialty, and it is not necessarily based on university ranking.

This post is provided by Dulwich College Beijing. 

Photos: DCB 

How valuable is it to visit a school during the application process? Invaluable! While I have always know this and definitely want all my students to visit the schools that they are apply to, most are reluctant to spend the time necessary to actually get on a plane and drive around from one school to another. Though in the short term the time and money spent traveling to schools may seem too costly, ultimately the positive long-term benefits of these visits outweigh the perceived costs.

These ideas hit home for me today while visiting a school in the Northeast. Each school (to remain nameless) offers equally challenging curricula and both are in lovely settings. One school was in a more remote location, comparatively. One school however was more experiential in its approach to education than the other. The opportunities at the latter school seemed more impressive when compared to the opportunities at the more traditional school.

During a conversation over lunch the question of ranking came up. I love this question and based on the schools we visited it was easy to point out the problems with ranking.  Each of these schools are in the business of education but when it comes to ranking there is no possible way to quantify the value of what one individual student may experience at one campus versus the other.

Sure, one can ponder over the average SAT scores, college acceptances, and other quantifiable data to make a claim that one school outranks the other.  But there is more to education than grades and test scores. This is the one stumbling block that most parents miss. The personal growth that a student can undergo through interacting with an inspirational teacher, participating in an educationally challenging program, or joining a sports team, while not easily quantifiable, can have lasting, positive impacts on one’s child.

One of the other questions that we discussed over lunch was how and if experiential learning opportunities can affect college admissions. Absolutely! While many parents may squawk at learning how to make maple syrup or go camping through the California Sierra Mountains, the combination of academic components in each of the activities brings the science and math one learns in a classroom to life. Let’s take making maple syrup as an example: students learn about the effects of weather, climate, and soil in how and when trees produce the sap of the syrup. The math and chemistry behind cooking the sap to make the syrup helps a student make greater academic connections through real world application. Its also much more fun and memorable to make maple syrup than it is to sit in a classroom.

Visiting a school is a must. It is invaluable to see students walking around the campus and to observe the rapport between peers and faculty. Our two tour guides were well known and obviously well liked. One could sense the community of each school, the growth the students had gone through at each school and the love each had for their soon to be alma mater. Both students were Chinese speakers and offered their experiences – both the positive and challenging experiences each had had on their campuses. More importantly, one could feel the distinct differences between the two places and people – feelings that one cannot experience through just perusing a schools’ website.

So my advice – spend the money, take the time and go, go, go! Go see why ranking is not the only important factor when choosing a school. Go see what makes a school special, go experience the value of community and the excitement students and faculty feel on a day to day basis. It is time and money worth spending.

Photo: sylvanpa.com