College visits help seniors find their perfect fit
For many seniors, the pressure of choosing the right college has begun. As students scramble to assemble the perfect college list, they look towards the College Career Center to gain more insight into the atmosphere and resources of the schools they are applying to.
“There’s so much about a school that I can’t find through reading or research,” senior Lisa Choi said. “It’s so much more meaningful when a real person from that school talks to you directly.”
Representatives from schools across the country come to Peninsula to provide an overview of their school and to answer any questions. These meetings, ranging from as little as 1 student to as large as 30 or more, provide an intimate and casual environment between the students and the school to ask for individual information. Understanding the time constraints, these counselors bring new information that helps a student understand the school more realistically.
“Through representative visits I found the unique and quirky traditions of certain schools,” senior William Chen said. “For example, Cornell has a “Slope Day” on the last day of school where famous brands such as the Neon Trees come to campus and perform.”
Instead of asking whether or not a school wants them, students can judge how well they would fit into a school. These visits also help to introduce a larger scope of schools to students.
“John Hopkins used to be one of my top choices,” senior Brian Rubin said. “But after attending many representative visits I realized that there were so many better options out there that weren’t as famous.”
The rep visits are usually led by the regional admissions counselors who read Peninsula students’ applications. Students then have the opportunity to personally meet the people on the other side of the admissions process and ask for advice on how to optimize their application.
“Even if I already know about a school, I still go to the rep meetings so the admissions counselor can get to know me,” senior Joanne Lo said. “Hopefully they’ll remember me when they read my application.”
However, these meetings usually take up one period of class time, so students are often forced to lose one day of class to attend these visits. Of course, teacher approval is needed 48 hours in advance of the visit.
“Sometimes I have three rep visits a day, so I end up missing most of the day of school,” Choi said. “But if they are colleges I’m really interested in, it’s worth it.”
Not unusually, these visits have helped students find perfect fits that they wouldn’t have known otherwise.
“I wanted to go to this school but I didn’t think they had my major. I last-minute decided to go and was surprised to find out they actually did,” senior Joyce Swisher said. “It is now in my top 5.”
