College Summer Visits

College Summer Visits July 2 Visiting colleges when there is snow on the ground is better than visiting over the summer months (photo credit: Chensiyuan). The summertime seems like the perfect time to visit colleges, right? The suns out. Youve got time off from school to swing a trip across New England. Mom and dad can take some time off from their jobs. What better time can you possibly visit the universities that youre interested in applying to in the fall, right? Well, the answer is lots of other times! The summertime is not a great time to visit colleges and thats because one of the most important components of why youll want to attend an institution is missing in July and August. And thats the students! At most colleges across America, students are off campus during the summer months. Maybe theyre back at home or on an internship. But its unlikely that theyre on campus except at, say, a school like Dartmouth where sophomores are required to spend their sophomore summer at the school. Sure, youll find some students on every campus completing a summer course here and there, but how are you going to get a sense of what the student body is like if they simply arent there? What if you matriculate to a university only to find out that the vast majority of students have purple hair? What if the male-female ratio isnt as you had hoped? What if the students just arent happy? We strongly recommend to all of our students on their college visits to conduct smile tests. Smile at a student and see if they smile back. If they do, its a good indication that this student is happy at the college. If the student doesnt, its a good indication that the student is unhappy. Maybe the student is even considering transferring. Obviously dont just do it with one student as you want a good sampling population. But do it on a few and we bet youll find a trend. If summer is the only time when you and your family can get away to visit colleges, its better than nothing. But we strongly recommend visiting colleges at other points during the year so you can actually interface with students a key component of your college experience! And, while youre here, watch a video on what to do on your college tour.