Effective College Tours

Written By Stephanie Santos

Though applying to college can be stressful, visiting campuses should be enjoyable. Today, we’re going to discuss effective college visits. 

What are college visits for?

The school that you decide to attend will be the place where you spend the majority of your time for four years unless you ultimately decide to transfer. If you aren’t planning on commuting to college from home, this will be your home for nearly half a decade. Furthermore, this will be the place that sets you up for a successful career in the future. In that case, you want to make sure you actually like the school. While students can get a sense of their interest in a college by exploring the school’s website, visiting a campus and going on an official tour allows students to ask questions that they can’t find on those websites. In our College Application Crash Course, we offer students a template for organizing all of the research they do on their schools. We also explain that—though students should click deep through a university’s website—the best insight and details come from well-planned college tours.

When Should I Start Visiting Colleges?

Though the general rule is to begin college visits in the spring of your junior year, starting earlier will allow you to visit more schools and help you refine your college list. Some students begin visiting schools as early as 9th grade. You can start as late as senior year, but you will likely be very busy completing your college applications while balancing senior-year courses. Going on official tours can be more difficult in the fall since colleges host tours during spring and summer breaks. 

Should I Visit Every College On My List? 

In general, unless most of the schools on your list are clustered in similar locations and you think it would be easy to visit each school, you do not necessarily have to spend the time (or the money on travel) to see every school on your list. You can be strategic and think about which schools you would like to learn more about. For example, maybe you have the University of Michigan on your list, and you’re clever enough to have peeked at their application’s supplemental essay requirements, so you put this school at the top of your visit list since a tour will give you more insight into the school, thus making their 550-word Why Us essay easier to tackle. 

Demonstrated Interest

Some schools track demonstrated interest to estimate how likely a student is to enroll if admitted into the college. However, highly competitive schools already know students want to attend their university. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t visit the school—as we mentioned, schools often ask students to explain why they have chosen to apply to the university, and tours can offer students more insight into the school that can make their essays stand out. Additionally, students shouldn’t visit a school only to demonstrate interest, especially if the school is very far from home. Colleges offer plenty of other opportunities for students to demonstrate their interest in the school, including signing up for email updates from the school, requesting information (before senior year), and interacting with the school on social media. 

Schools That Consider Demonstrated Interest

Below is a list of schools that consider demonstrated interest. Keep in mind that simply demonstrating interest will likely not be enough to gain admission into these schools. As a general rule, the more competitive the school, the less of a pull your demonstrated interest will have. 

  • Allegheny College

  • American University

  • Auburn University

  • Babson College

  • Barnard College

  • Bates College

  • Baylor University

  • Beloit College

  • Bentley University

  • Boston University

  • Bradley University

  • Brandeis University

  • Brigham Young University

  • Butler University

  • California Institute of Technology

  • Carnegie Mellon University

  • Case Western Reserve University

  • Catholic University

  • Chapman University

  • Clark University

  • Clemson University

  • Colby College

  • College of Charleston

  • College of the Holy Cross

  • College of William and Mary

  • Colorado College

  • Colorado School of Mines

  • Connecticut College

  • Cooper Union

  • Dartmouth College

  • Davidson College

  • Denison University

  • DePaul University

  • Dickinson College

  • Drew University

  • Drexel University

  • Eckerd College

  • Fairfield University

  • Florida Institute of Technology

  • Fordham University

  • Furman University

  • George Mason University

  • George Washington University

  • Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Gettysburg College

  • Gonzaga University

  • Goucher College

  • Grinnell College

  • Hamilton College

  • Hampshire College

  • Haverford College

  • High Point University

  • Hofstra University

  • Howard University

  • Ithaca College

  • Kenyon College

  • Lafayette College

  • Lawrence University

  • Lehigh University

  • Lewis & Clark College

  • Miami University (Ohio)

  • Michigan State University

  • Middlebury College

  • Mount Holyoke College

  • Muhlenberg College

  • New York University

  • Northeastern University

  • Northwestern University

  • Oberlin College

  • Ohio State University

  • Oregon State University

  • Providence College

  • Purdue University

  • Quinnipiac University

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

  • Rhode Island School of Design

  • Rhodes College

  • Rice University

  • Rochester Institute of Technology

  • Roanoke College

  • Saint Louis University

  • Santa Clara University

  • Sarah Lawrence College

  • Seattle University

  • Seton Hall University

  • Sewanee: University of the South

  • Simmons College

  • Skidmore College

  • Smith College

  • Southwestern University

  • Spelman College

  • St. Olaf College

  • Stanford University

  • Stevens Institute of Technology

  • SUNY, Binghamton University

  • SUNY, Stony Brook University

  • Swarthmore College

  • Syracuse University

  • Temple University

  • Texas A&M University

  • Thomas Aquinas College

  • Trinity College

  • Tufts University

  • Tulane University

  • Union College

  • United States Air Force Academy

  • United States Coast Guard Academy

  • United States Merchant Marine Academy

  • United States Military Academy

  • United States Naval Academy

  • University of Arizona

  • University of Central Florida

  • University of Chicago

  • University of Colorado Boulder

  • University of Connecticut

  • University of Delaware

  • University of Denver

  • University of Florida

  • University of Georgia

  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • University of Miami

  • University of Michigan

  • University of Missouri, Columbia

  • University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  • University of North Carolina at Wilmington

  • University of North Texas

  • University of Notre Dame

  • University of Oklahoma

  • University of Pennsylvania

  • University of Pittsburgh

  • University of Portland

  • University of Rhode Island

  • University of Richmond

  • University of Rochester

  • University of San Diego

  • University of Southern California

  • University of Tampa

  • University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  • University of Texas at Austin

  • University of Vermont

  • University of Virginia

  • University of Washington

  • University of Wisconsin

  • Vanderbilt University

  • Villanova University

  • Virginia Tech

  • Wake Forest University

  • Washington & Jefferson College

  • Washington and Lee University

  • Washington University in St. Louis

  • Wellesley College

  • Wentworth Institute of Technology

  • Wesleyan University

  • Wheaton College (IL)

  • Wheaton College (MA)

  • Whitman College

  • Whittier College

  • Williams College

  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute

  • Xavier University

  • Yeshiva University

Stephanie Santos
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