College Visits

After high school, most kids go off to college before starting their lives in the “real world.” College is not for everyone and that’s ok. You will not be judged if you decide to take a year off or you join the army, navy, air force, etc…

For the kids who decide they want to go to college, junior and senior year are very important. These are the years you should be visiting colleges. Most kids, like myself, don’t have a clue what they want to major in, so we visit a bunch of schools. Few kids know what they want to do when they “grow up”, so they can kind of narrow down their college visits to the ones that offer their specific program(s). Most colleges offer the same programs, but some specialize in certain programs. Iowa State University specializes in engineering and The University of Iowa specializes in medicine.
In order to go on a college visit, you have to sign up on the college’s website. You register for the day you want to come. You can register to go with a group of people or you can do individual tours. The first time you visit a college, most kids do the group tour and then if you decide you like that school and you are considering enrolling there for your freshman year, you may want to go back and do an individual tour so you can get a better sense of the campus and ask as many questions as you can think of. You can also look at the more specific buildings on the campus if you are on an individual tour. The group tours just kind of pass by each building and they’ll tell you what classes are in that building, and you’ll move on to the next one.

It’s very import to visit many colleges even if you really liked the first one you visited. You could end up like the next ones just as much, if not more. You don’t want to settle for the first school, you need to explore the other colleges and see what they have to offer there. As you visit more and more colleges, you’ll learn the things you want and don’t want at your college. You’ll visit on a normal day when all classes are in session and you’ll get a sense of how a normal day would be at that certain college. You’ll get to experience that college atmosphere and all the people around you. It’s also very important that you visit small and large colleges, you might think you want to go to a big university but you might learn that that’s not for you, that a small private college might be more suitable for you. It’s important to visit all the colleges you can so you can choose the best one for you. You will be spending at least the next four years there!