Throughout the fall, college admissions reps from various colleges and universities will visit your high school. This is an excellent chance to get advice and information directly from a college admissions rep. Visits may be virtual and district wide.

Ask your Guidance Counselor or College/Career Advisor where you can keep up on which reps are coming and when, and how to sign up to participate.

Before Seeing the Representative

• Make the appropriate arrangements. Your Guidance Counselor or College/Career Center will provide the procedure that you are required to follow.

• Learn about the campus from the resources in the College/Career Center, the college catalog and website, friends and/or other resources on the Internet.

• Know your standardized test scores and your grade point average for a better conversation with the representative.

When You are with the Admissions Rep

• Meet the representative in the College/Career Center or other room specified. Visits may be virtual.

• Plan to meet with the representative for about 30 minutes. If you cannot attend, leave your name, and telephone, and ask that the representative telephone you or send your information. Some reps are in the area for at least a week at a time, and it is often possible to schedule evening appointments.

• Recognize that you are not there to impress the rep, but to gain information. Be comfortable and be yourself, whether there are many students seeing the representative or you are the only one.

• Be courteous, prompt, and professional. Dress appropriately.

• Take notes so you may refer to them later.

• Ask for the rep’s business card (or ask for and write down the correct spelling of the representative’s name and his/her phone number and email address). If you apply to that school, you will want to name the representative you met.

After Meeting the Representative

• Send a thank-you note. Email is fine. Express your appreciation for the rep’s time and theinformation he/she provided. Be as specific as possible – “I really appreciated all you had to tell me” is OK, but “What you shared about how (name of college) calculates the GPA was very helpful. I did the calculation and it turns out my (college) GPA is 3.8! This is great news and I am very excited to put in my application for admission.” Or whatever you actually learned and did as a result of the meeting – you get the idea!

Personal Interviews

A few highly selective colleges have a personal interview as part of their selection process. Realizing that many students live far away, the colleges often provide an applicant the opportunity to talk with an alumni interviewer who lives in the local community. If your college requires an interview, a college representative will contact you. In the grand scheme of the application process, the interview is one of the least important parts. In fact, many schools use the interview not as a major determinant of admissions but rather as a check in the process. Usually the colleges will already have enough information to decide whether to admit you or not.

There are cases, however, when an applicant who looked good on paper turned out to be really unimpressive in person. Weeding out these few deceptive applicants is the interview's main job. If a college gets a report back from an interviewer saying that the applicant showed up in a T-shirt and shorts and had trouble composing a coherent sentence, they will certainly think twice about offering admission – regardless of how stellar that student's application is!

Although the main role of the interview is to confirm the preliminary decisions of the admissions board, it is of course still a good idea to prepare for the interview. If you are in the borderline group, your interview may be that extra something that pushes you into the admit group.

The Most Commonly Asked Questions

The secret to doing well on interviews is to practice. Do a mock interview with your parents or teachers. This may sound strange, but once you hear how much better you answer the same question the second time around you will understand. To give you an idea of what kind of questions you will be asked, we have compiled a list of the most commonly asked interview questions. Try to develop answers to these questions for yourself and use them in your mock interviews.

• Why do you want to attend this university?

• What is your strongest/weakest point?

• What have you done to prepare for college?

• What has been your greatest experience in high school?

• What do you want to do in the future?

• Tell me about yourself. (You should focus on about three things.)

• Tell me about your interests.

• Tell me about your involvement in extracurricular activities.

• Tell me about your family.

• What do you think about (insert a current event of the past week)? • What is your favorite book? Who is your favorite author?

• Which of your accomplishments are you the most proud of?

• If you could meet any important figure in the past or present, who would it be and what would you talk about?

• If you could be any animal what would you be? Why?

Write a Thank You Note

Yes, you’re probably tired of hearing this by now. But in the college admissions process, it is your job to take every opportunity you can to put forward a positive impression of your professionalism, diligence, and writing ability.

Here’s a sample for you to refer to for inspiration. But do NOT copy it word-for-word. Remember, this person has just spent 15 minutes to an hour with you, so they know your voice. The thank-you note needs to sound like it’s from you!

Dear____________:

Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to give me the opportunity to discuss (name of college or university) and my qualifications for admission. You put me at ease, and I enjoyed the chance to share my passion with you.

Sincerely yours,

Name

Why Visit College Campuses?

• Learn more about the campus and community that will be your “home” for the next 4 years

• May increase your chances of getting in if you visit (especially for less popular schools). A visit shows "demonstrated interest" in that campus.

• Go beyond the brochure – they always show pretty pictures/active life

• All campuses are different

• Make your OWN opinion – not just go by friends, college reps, and websites Virtual Visits

• College visits during this time may need to be done virtually

• Check out the admissions website to see if there is a virtual tour

• Virtual college fairs through College Board or NACAC may also be a good resource Before You Leave

• Plan to visit more than one college in a trip, if you can

• Choose a time to visit when students are present (not during vacation or exam period) if possible

• Call ahead of time to let admissions or outreach services know you’re coming for a visit (some colleges have specific tour/visitation hours, or require reservations during busy tour seasons)

  • • Schedule a tour, interview, or possibly an overnight stay

    • Ask for a schedule of classes you might be allowed to visit

• Familiarize yourself with the colleges you plan to visit – check out their website

• Write down questions that are important to you

• Bring appropriate clothing for tours (casual) and interviews (nicer)

• Make sure you are excused from your high school classes and get all make up work needed for the days you’ll miss AHEAD OF TIME

While You’re There

• Be on time – for all tours, appointments, etc.

• Be conscious of first impressions – don’t wear a sweatshirt from another college, chew gum

• Get a business card (or name and contact info) from each person who spends time with you and your parents (college admissions reps, students, professors, financial aid officers, etc.)

• PAY ATTENTION: Note library hours and usage, cafeteria/commons hours, where students hang out, parking situation, what social groups exist, what events are advertised around campus, pick up a copy of the school paper, eat the food

• Visit classes - preferably in your desired major (may have to pre-arrange)

• Try to spend part of the day with your parents & part of the day on your own

• Investigate your surrounding community - drive around outside of campus

• Take lots of pictures of the campus and community highlights

Send Thank You Letters

Send a thank-you letter to any college admissions reps, students, professors, financial aid officers, etc. who spent time with you and your parents. It doesn’t have to be complicated or flowery, just express sincere appreciation for their time. See sample below. Your CPW instructor will be happy to share the soft copy of this letter with you. However, this is NOT a letter to be copied word-for-word. Personalize it to the person you are writing to and how they contributed to your experience during your visit. This is a sample, not a template.

Dear____________:

Thank you for spending time with me when I visited your campus. I especially appreciated your arranging for me to see (name of activity or interest).

The visit increased my interest in (name of college or university). I am excited about the opportunity to attend (name of college or university).

Once again, thank you.

Sincerely yours,

Name