My College Visit To Adelphi University

Hi! Sorry for having not posting more often, been a little busy. I definitely plan to post more!

So, two days ago I visited a college for the first time completing a campus tour at Adelphi University on Long Island. It was a student led tour at 3pm that we had called earlier and reserved a spot for my dad and I to visit. Pretty decent size nice campus. When we arrived, we were given a form that asked for information about the prospective student.

After that, the student guide arrived and another family came and joined us for the tour. She took us around to the different buildings and explained what things were like and also welcomed us to ask any questions if we had any. All in all, it was a very easy, exciting and informative experience.

In fact, when we had reached one of their dorms, a girl down the hallway greeted us: "GO DOWN TO THE BOYS FLOOR! IT SMELLS LIKE A DEAD PIG!" -- she didn't really lie, either as we all found out. I appreciated the warning! Oh dorms... We also passed by the bathroom of the boys floor, which the other family had wished to take a peek in. I stood outside telling the guide jokingly, "i'm not going there - you can't get me to go in there!" which she laughed at. Although don't get me wrong, this is a great opportunity to really scrutinize everything - you want to know this is where you want to go to school and live!

Otherwise, the tour really did help me learn about what the campus was like. And that's exactly what you want.

This school helped me think about what questions to ask in the future, what things I might want to learn more about, what I want in a college, etc. It was a really great educational experience. You really want to get a feel for exactly what you're looking at and no reading can do the true justice of whether the school is right for you until you visit.

So, definitely do your research before visiting schools as much as possible and narrow it down to a nice list. Look to see if they have campus tours, open houses, and admission events, etc. Mark down such dates on a calendar or keep track. Use these as perfect opportunities to narrow down prospective schools. TIP: I've been seeing that some schools have been hosting online chat rooms. They will have a website that you can meet at a certain time where you can chat live with current students and admission representatives at the school; a great way to learn more without having to visit just yet.

Taking out books in the local library helps, as well as websites such as the Collegeboard.com to get in-depth college profiles and Peterson's detailed college search. Both have match makers to narrow down colleges based on what you're looking for.

These resources give you a good feel for what the school is like. Prioritizing which parts of a school are most important are dependent on your needs and interests (ex; do you want small class sizes?). College hunting should be viewed as a matchmaking process. The college must match you as the individual student and your learning needs. So review things carefully and try to think about what environment would work best for you.