Since this seems to be “Touring and Selection” week I’m
going to give you another tip for touring schools.
The issue with touring is oftentimes you start junior year
and can see schools months apart. You might forget your impressions of the
school if they’re not fresh in your mind. This can make decisions difficult
later on, as they all sort of blend together after a while. If you don’t
absolutely love or absolutely hate a school, you might not remember the pros or
cons or your feelings about a place.
So after my second tour (driving distance New York liberal
arts school on an unexpected day off) I started bringing a small video camera
with me on the tours.
I didn’t tape the tours though, I taped my reactions after.
On the way home from the school (or back to the hotel) I
would break out the camera and just talk at it for a few minutes about the tour
and how I felt.
This helped me capture my “gut feelings” about the schools.
I had pages of notes on each school I was looking at, but going to the actual
campus gave me much more visceral reactions. The videos really helped me narrow
down and rank my schools based on the factors I couldn’t get out on paper.
Some basic things I liked to cover when I talked to the
school was:
1.
The weather (warm/cold/rainy/etc). Weather ended
up being a huge deciding factor for me, and I applied to one school over
another Early Decision because one had much warmer weather while the other was
pounded in snow until April.
2.
My feelings about the campus. Was it flat or hilly?
Was it beautiful or modern and ugly? As shallow as it seems, I really wanted to
go to a beautiful school.
3.
My feelings about the presentations. I hated any school that gave me a whiff of
pretention and all of the schools that had uppity info sessions were
immediately cut from my list.
4.
My “gut feeling” about the school. If there’s
something about the school that puts you off or really attracts you to it, you
may not be able to get it down on paper, but your facial expressions when
you’re talking about it will tell you a lot. The school I currently attend? I’m
grinning like a maniac. The school I thought I would love but ended up hating? I
sigh a solid 5 times in the 5-minute video.
5.
My feeling about the students. There was one
school I toured that I loved on paper but after seeing the campus I decided the
students were a little too counterculture and liberal for me to be super
comfortable there. Do you see lots of pierced and dyed students? Or are all of
the girls wearing pearls?
6.
How I felt about the programs. Did they seem
like the core was intense? Was it easy? How many math, science, and language
classes was I going to have to take? Was there a senior thesis required? How
did people talk about them? As something interesting and enjoyable, or
stressful and dreaded?
7.
How much the guides knew about the
extracurriculars I was interested in. While you cant expect them to know about
every club or program, it was always a good sign when the tour guide or host I
met with said they knew plenty of people who were involved in the things I
loved to do. For instance, if they knew a lot about the singing or theatre
groups even though they didn’t participate, it meant that there was a lot of
opportunity to get involved at that school.
Overall I felt that the videos
were really great ways to get my instant and unfiltered reactions of the
schools I visited, which helped me be decisive when I was cutting more and more
schools from my lists.
Additionally, if there is a school
you had a really negative reaction to, but your parents/guidance counselor
keeps insisting that you apply; the video can give you a really great reminder
of why you hated that school.
I can’t give you an example video
right now because A: All of those videos are on my old computer and didn’t
transfer over, and B: I don’t want to give all of you my opinions on individual schools because they’re probably
different from your opinions. But
they’re easy to do. Just turn on the camera and TALK.
So, truly, I recommend doing a
short reaction video after each school you tour. They’ll help you more than you
think.
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