One of the ways to get the most out of your limited time on a college visit is to ask meaningful questions. The two most common on-campus experiences for prospective students (the college tour and the information session) can often be missed opportunities to get a real feel for what type of student thrives on that campus if the prospective student doesnโt know what questions to ask on their college visit.
To that end, the questions below can help you learn what you could truly only learn in person on a campus visit. And, as an aside, when we talk about “better questions,” we’re not talking about questions that will somehow magically get you into your dream school. No one got into MIT because they asked a great question on their tour. We’re simply suggesting ways you can be a more astute college observer and walk away with a better sense of fit. Plus, the answers can help you eventually in narrowing your list and writing your supplemental essays.
What type of applicant do you get excited about?
This is a great question for an information session and/or to an admissions counselor. It gets to the heart of the processโthe human part of it all. What students catch their eye? Now, this isn’t meant to be asked to unlock some sort of secret formula to get into the school of your dreams. Think of it as a litmus test. When they list those qualities, do they sound like you or the people you tend to like? If they donโt, perhaps it’s a sign that this college isn’t a fit. And if they do, jot those qualities down. It’s a reminder of what you’re looking for.
What are the latest most popular or exciting events on campus?
This question gives you a pulse of the campus as it is right now, and it’s a good one for tour guides and admissions officers alike. Maybe it’s a protest about a political issue, a big rival basketball game, or a dance marathon. Whatever it is, it’ll give you a sense of what people do for fun, what people care about, and what gets attention. And if it’s a food-based event, remember that free food is pretty universally popular at colleges, so I’d ask for the next most popular event.
What qualities would you say your peers here have in common?
If I’d been asked this question as a tour guide, I could have waxed poetic about my peers–social-justice-oriented, deep-thinking, creative, empathetic, and bold. (If it isn’t obvious, I went to a women’s college.) And my guess is the words that any tour guide would use to describe their peers may not appear on the website. But they’d capture the essence of the student body. All too often, we tend to assume that the tour guide is an exemplar of all the people at a college. Sure, they were selected to represent the school, but they don’t represent everyone. Get them to open up about the student body as a whole, not just themselves. What do they notice as a common denominator?
Taken together, these answers paint a picture of the type of student that the college looks for and the type of student that thrives there. And, with those answers, you can decide if you fit what they’re looking for. If you donโt, don’t try to reverse-engineer yourself to fit that mold. But if it sounds like youโd fit, you’ll walk away with a stronger, more specific vocabulary to describe what you want in your college applications and throughout the college admissions process.
This article was originally posted on Collegewise.
Author: Casey Near. After transferring from the University of Pennsylvania to Scripps College, Casey caught the college admissions bug and hasnโt turned back. She started as a professional backwards walker (tour guide) at Scripps, then helped run visit programs for the admissions office. After graduation, she returned to her Bay Area home to work as an admissions counselor at Mills College, where she ran the tour program, assisted with transfer admissions, and convinced people that womenโs colleges are indeed a wonderful idea.
In 2013, she opened the first Collegewise expansion office in the Bay Area and found her true professional fit. After a year of backpacking and working around the world in 2016 (and collecting a few stories along the way), she returned to her counseling roots to run our Newton office. When not vigilantly correcting her studentsโ grammar, Casey enjoys watching the latest BBC shows, attempting to become a runner, and rereading Harry Potter for the umpteenth time.
