One of the biggest mistakes that parents and students make when looking at colleges is trying to pack in too many schools on a single visit. Having just returned from looking at schools on the East Coast, I am sympathetic to their plight. Since most of us have limited time to see a number of schools, it appears reasonable to think that we can cover two schools in a day. I see parents who feel triumphant when they time the admission meetings and tours in such a way that they can attend a 10 o’clock meeting at one school and high-tail over to another in time for its 2 o’clock session.

The biggest problem with this plan is that one rarely learns a whole lot more about the school than they could have learned had they taken an online tour of the campus and done some research online about the school mission statement, course offerings and admission standards. Sure, it is nice to actually see the buildings and walk through the campus. The problem lies in how quickly your students, including my own, come to snap decisions about whether they can picture themselves there. I often hear students tell me that they will know they found their school by their gut feeling when they get there. But gut feelings are too easily influenced by the enthusiasm and manner of the tour guide, an off-putting remark by an admission officer giving an information session or even the weather on the day of the visit. Fatigue will often be a huge factor in one’s perceptions, so be sure to leave some downtime during the day. I personally find it best to leave the campus for a few hours and return later so I can see the campus in a different light. I never get over how different a campus can appear when you can see it with fresh eyes the following day. I have known too many students whose families drive hours from an airport to see a school across the country only to decide within the first hour of the visit that they are not interested. My own daughter decided that she did not think she could get out of the parking lot of one of the colleges we visited by simply noting the cars driven by the other prospective families.

There are just too many intangibles on any given day when you visit to make snap decisions. If you are going to look at colleges, plan on spending the day even though the actual session and tour may be over in a couple of hours.

During my most recent visit, tour guides showed us inside very few buildings. I was relieved that we had come a few hours earlier so that we could walk through the campus and peek inside the library, eating spaces and classrooms. In my own case, my daughter was still ambivalent about her feelings about a specific college even though she had liked what she heard during the information session and found the campus to her liking. It was only when we had time to debrief over lunch and talk through her feelings that we could begin to understand that her instincts were based more on the prospective students visiting the school than the actual students on campus. We also discovered, while perusing the course catalog and school brochures, that we both had more questions which needed to be answered. We were able to return to the admission office and find someone who could help us sort out what had not been addressed in the initial orientation session. Similarly, knowing that we needed to know more before we returned home, we spent the afternoon trying to talk to students who currently attend that college. The first plan of action was to look up any student who had come from her high school or geographic area. Only another student from Seattle could answer whether or not the school is too southern or if the weather is intolerable. Luckily, this led to meeting dozens of other students who could share their perspectives on everything from actual class size to the actual social scene on campus. By hooking up with current students, you might get to actually go inside their dorms and get a realistic glimpse into their daily lives. If you are shown a dorm during the information session, it might be very different from the ones which students actually inhabit.

After having eaten on campus in the freshman cafeteria surrounded by dozens of students who were all too happy to share their stories about why they chose this specific school and their experiences there, my daughter could leave knowing that she had made an informed, accurate decision. But not before stopping at the bookstore and buying the T-shirt.

Joan Franklin is the owner of The College Source, an independent college consulting practice: www.thecollegesource.org. She is also a certified school counselor in the Issaquah School District. She can be reached at (206) 232-5626 or joanfranklin@thecollegesource.org.