As college application season is upon us, I wanted to reflect back on my experience visiting colleges, as well as giving my tips and tricks. All together, I was able to visit around 15 colleges. My first college visit was in fall of 2022 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As an overall experience, as it was an open house, I was able to experience a grand overview of the RPI experience. On that topic, I was able to attend three open houses and 10-13 tours. I can recommend an open house if you are able to dedicate more time to a college, maybe it is a local one or you’re doing a weekend. However, tours are more convenient if you are looking to group them to save time. We (my father and I), started off our college visit season at University of Massachusetts Amherst in the spring of my Junior year. A fun fact about UMass is that my parents both went to UMass and actually met there.

Of those around 15 visits, I am applying to 10 of those colleges. Overall, I am applying to 20 colleges on the common app and 21 colleges overall. Of those visits, my favorite has been my Umass visits, because I was able to walk around the place where my parents fell in love. Because I was able to attend this as an open house, I was able to experience a more broad overview of what UMass had to offer, not just in general, but also for me specifically, even having the opportunity to talk to a student one on one. Now, I of course knew what college experience I wanted at that point, but the first time I went to UMass to tour it, I had no idea. I felt so lost and confused, so utterly drowned under all the possibilities. Because I felt like that, my dad gave me the opportunity and privilege to go on many visits to filter down what I wanted out of college- which became a journey of discovery.

Over the summer we were then able to do two overnights and one weekend trip. We were then able to do a Buffalo overnight, where I toured (and attended information sessions) for University of Buffalo, Rochester Institute of technology, and SUNY Brockport. I was also able to do a Rhode Island overnight where I was able to tour (and attended information sessions) for Rhode Island College, Rhode Island University, and Brown University. On that trip we also were able to pop down to Connecticut to tour/hear an info session for University of Connecticut and we also walked around Yale. We concluded our summer tours in Boston and were able to double it with a concert I already had booked that weekend. We visited Boston University, Northeastern, and walked around Harvard – I was also able to walk around Harvard last fall. Just last month, we attended an open house at UMass (again), and that concluded our college visit season.

As for the tips, I think I developed quite a few of those because of this journey. For example, if you are an early riser and don’t take that much time to get ready, morning tours that you need to travel to might work for you. However, if you don’t do mornings (are a grumpy mess) it is not ideal. I am an early riser but was also sleep deprived because I would not go to sleep early so I was probably just a tad grumpy. I found the afternoon tours (after a car nap) much more enjoyable and I was less grumpy, and therefore more I was more receptive.

1. Figure out what you want in a college, either prior or go to two opposite colleges. My first visit over the summer I went to Rhode Island College, and then I went to Brown in the afternoon. The next morning I went to the University of Rhode Island. Rhode Island College has an undergrad population of 4,623, compared to Brown’s 7,639, and University of Rhode Island’s 13,904. This direct increase really put things into perspective for me. For reference, Albany High School has around 2,700 students at the main campus, and my Senior class has 630 students. Because of that, I was able to figure out that I did not like smaller schools. My minimum is around 8,000, and I figured out I have no maximum. I like bigger universities, and I figured this out because I did not like Rhode Island College. It was completely empty, which leads to my point that if you are applying to smaller schools and touring them, try to go while classes are actually in session. If you do not, as I discovered with RIC and Brockport, it will be a ghost town. This is not much of a problem with bigger universities, and even mid size universities that are more popular (like Brown). You should also figure out what environment you like (Town, City, Suburb, etc..) and finally how far you want to be from home. I was able to figure these out pretty quickly with just one or two visits. I then continued to look at, and apply to, Mid to Large Universities, in Towns/Cities, and no farther than four hours from my family.
2. Layers, layers, layers, and sneakers! Bring your walking shoes please. Do not be the person who goes on an hour tour in non sneakers (including converse), your feet will hurt, I promise. Depending on the season and time of day, you should wear layers to either dress up, or dress down. I toured in the summer and was able to wear a T-shirt and bring a sweatshirt just in case. While my fall Umass tour required more of a jacket. You will also need a bag of some sort, like a tote or a crossbody – or, if you’re lucky, the school you are visiting might supply one. I found that I received a lot of materials from these visits such as free branded supplies like pens, financial and general info packs, and so much more. That being said, I only received bags from the open houses I attended, such as Champlain and UMass.
3. I recommend you make the most of your college visits, including talking to students, asking questions to the guides and other people working the event, and visiting the social aspects if you can. Grabbing a bite to eat (on campus and off), walking around without a guide (again on and off campus), window shopping, and visiting key social spaces like local pubs, galleries, and bookstores are all important aspects of this social piece. You need to gauge if you can see yourself in not only that college, but that town, for four years. I was able to visit Restaurants, Dining Halls, Bookstores, Campus Stores, walk around many towns/cities, and so much more. You need to feel out the environment, because guess what, that’s the whole point. Sure you can hear information and ask questions, but you can also do that online. What you can not do online, is experience the vibe. Yes, the vibe. I promise you it’s all about feeling out the environment and deciding if you can be around/in it for four years.
4. If you can, and I recognize it as the privilege it is, stay overnight in the town of the college or in a town surrounding the college. This is the best way to feel out the locals. I was able to stay in Boston, Buffalo, and Narragansett; I ate at local pubs and visited local bookstores; I walked around with the tourists and locals. This is the part I most enjoyed and honestly got the most information from. Obviously, this is not available to everyone, so as an alternative, you could just walk around town/businesses for like an hour (I also did this for a couple towns we weren’t staying in). That way, you still get to experience the environment without spending money.
5. Take pictures and notes. Document the experience; all of the tours kind of blurred together for me within the trips themselves, so it helped me to take photos to help jog my memory when I was using it to apply. I took probably a thousand photos, and I had a Notion list going for certain visits I knew I needed notes for. Otherwise I just experienced it, and asked questions.
6. Ask questions! This is your time to shine, not only does it make you stand out in the meetings but it allows you to learn more overall. Didn’t see something on their website and/or they didn’t talk about something in the meeting, ask. It’s okay if they don’t know, it shows you’re interested. I learned so much info from asking questions to my tour guides and other admin. I asked questions about food, study abroad, honors college, and so much more.

Feel free to DM (and follow) us on our Instagram @ahs_the_nest if you have any questions or comments about the college tour process!

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Yale