From websites, guidebooks, to social media, finding the college that’s right for you.
In response to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities have closed their campuses to visitors, suspending campus tours and information sessions through the month of April, and likely longer. If a silver lining is to be found here, then it is that many colleges and universities added virtual tours to their admissions websites if they didn’t have them already. Similarly, colleges have posted videos of information sessions and many are also holding virtual events for high school seniors that have been admitted in hopes of enticing them to enroll. But you needn’t go the colleges’ websites to find their virtual tours. Among the main purveyors of virtual campus tours are CampusTours, YouVisit, and Concept3D, all of which list the institutions that have employed their services, with the latter doing so by means of an interactive map.
The college search process though directed outwardly as an investigation of a variety of institutions—small liberal arts colleges, mid-size private, and large public flagship research universities—is actually a journey toward greater self-knowledge. As you come to understand better the reasons behind what excites you and draws you in, as well as what puts you off, you can more easily articulate what it is you are looking to get out of your college experience and the type of environment in which you can thrive. Consequently, the college search process works in two simultaneous spheres, the rational/intellectual and the psychological/emotional, that often overlap and intersect.
On the rational/intellectual side are the more pragmatic questions that can often be answered “yes” or “no.” Among them: Do they have...
the academic program(s) I am most interested in?
the clubs and activities I wish to partake in?
the kind of diversity that I value?
a requirement that students live on campus?
vibrant school spirit centered on intercollegiate athletics?
a social scene built upon Greek-life?
As you research more and more schools you will develop and refine your own set of questions. The answers to which will guide you toward a set of schools you know you will be excited to attend.
In contrast, the psychological/emotional side isn’t as easily articulated. Often a positive response to campus visit is expressed as, “I’m not sure exactly why, but it felt right.” It is this feeling of connectedness to a place that colleges and universities are hoping to replicate, as difficult as it might be, with their virtual tours and online programming. But colleges are more than their campuses, they are communities of learners. Two resources that tap into this are CampusReel, which provides student-generated video content, and ZeeMee, a smartphone app that bills itself as “the social app for the college journey.” Additionally, many colleges have social media presences across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
If you know what you want to study, college search engines and guidebooks organized or indexed by academic interest can lead you to schools that offer your intended major; one that offers a rather comprehensive list without rankings is Unigo. As you identify colleges offering your major that you are excited about you should feel empowered to contact professors whose lines of research or the courses they teach align with your interests. It has been my experience that professors welcome communications from interested prospective students.
For those uncertain what they want to major in, searching a school’s website for information about academic advising is a must. How a college presents its advising program is a window onto what it believes is important and integral to the undergraduate experience. So too are graduation requirements as well as any programs geared specifically for first-year students and the transition into college. In contrast, class size, at least in the beginning, often coincides with the size of the school itself where economies of scale dictate that introductory courses at large universities are themselves large, and as such, is a less than ideal tool for assessing commitment to undergraduate teaching.
During this pandemic, the announcements colleges have posted on their websites in response to COVID-19 offer another tool to assess their priorities. What is their messaging to their current students, the high school seniors they have just admitted, and to current high school juniors at the beginning their college search? Do the underlying values resonate with you? Is there an acknowledgment of how this pandemic affects students differently across race, socioeconomic status, and the Digital Divide?
If the diversity of a college’s student body is important to you, there are two important data sets that provide this and other information beyond to what colleges typically indicate on the “fast facts” or “class profile” sections of their websites. They are College Scorecard, a service of the U.S. Department of Education initiated under President Obama, and the Common Data Set (CDS). To access a particular college’s CDS figures simply search for “Common Data Set” within their website. Similarly, the Campus Pride Index offers students who identify as LGBTQ a searchable database of institutions identified for their overall commitment to LGBTQ-inclusive policies, programs, and practices. Likewise, Hillel International has a searchable database of resources available to Jewish students.
Yes, this is an unprecedented and uncertain time, but one can still prepare for when the pandemic abates, and life returns to something much closer to the “normal” we remember. Though admittedly no substitute for an actual campus visit, a remarkable amount of information is available to you on the college and university websites as well as from organizations like the ones mentioned here.
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