College Visits and
Career Investigation Days
College Visits can help you decide whether or not a campus is a good fit for you.
Contact a school's admissions department a few weeks before you visit to schedule a tour
If you schedule a visit through a different department, be sure to stop by admissions before you leave and tell them about it so that your visit can be noted in your file.
JUNIORS and SENIORS are allowed 2 excused absences each year to visits colleges. Please see below. College visits taking place after May 1st must be approved by administration ahead of time.
If taking an in-person visit is not an option for you, many colleges offer virtual visits on their websites. Another excellent resource is The College Tour, which offers an inside look into a variety of college campuses from the perspective of students.
Career Investigation days can be used to shadow an Austin-area professional in a field of the student’s career interest. Juniors and seniors are allowed 2 career investigation days each year. See below for the process to have these days excused.
Process for Taking a College Visit or Career Investigation Day
COLLEGE VISITS
ONE: Be sure to sign up for an official tour of the school and/or check in at the visitor's office while on campus.
TWO: Student or parent should receive an email from the college thanking them for visiting their campus or attending their tour. This email will serve as documentation of your visit. Please forward to whsattendance@eanesisd.net. We are no longer using a paper College Visit Verification form.
*Please note, the email in Step two is something you receive after you have actually visited the campus, not something thanking you for registering for a visit.
** If you are requesting additional college visits, you will need permission from your assistant principal for it to be coded as a college visit instead of an excused absence.
CAREER INVESTIGATION DAYS
ONE: Prior to the career investigation day, the student’s parents must send an email to whsattendance@eanesisd.net so that the upcoming absence can be documented. Students are responsible for notifiying their teachers and making arrangements for missed assignments.
TWO: After the career investigation day, in order for the absence to be excused by TEA, the Westlake attendance office must receive an email from the business account of the professional who provided the shadowing opportunity. The email must be received within 5 days of the date of the event, and contain the following information:
Full name of student
Date and time of career experience
Full name and position of career professional
Please see instructions and a sample email here.
Questions to Ask on a College Visit
Before visiting a college, it can be helpful to make a list of questions that you think are important to have answered. Below are links to various lists that might help inspire your own questions:
College Reps at Westlake
Westlake is fortunate to have a large number of college representatives visit our campus to meet with students. Representatives from a wide array of schools all over the country set up in the College and Career Center throughout the school year.
If you add colleges you are interested in to your Naviance account, you will be notified when representatives from those schools are on campus. You can then sign up to visit with them (be sure to ask permission from your teacher to leave class).
Don't miss this convenient opportunity to ask questions and get to know college reps.