How Do I Make My College Tour Worthwhile?

4th_house
Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:39:54 +0000

Unfortunately, recommendation #1 is to go when school is in session. Princeton is not. Even someplace like Harvard, which does have a summer session, will have it brimming with non-Harvard students and mostly non-Harvard professors. Thus, you won’t get the feel of what a real class is like and you probably won’t get much chance to meet real students from many of those schools.

There’s also not much chance to make anyone important “remember you” unless you do summer research on-campus or something like that. “Love letters” to the list of schools you mentioned only annoys them – don’t do it.

I’m really bumming you out, aren’t I? Sorry, I don’t mean to.

I suppose all that’s left is to do the tours anyway, get a feel for the area (the area is NOT just the campus – it is the neighborhood and the town as well), and try to corner as many REAL students of that school as possible (even where there are not full-fledged summer sessions, some real students are around doing research and such. You just have to stop people and ask and inquire) and ask THEM to answer the question, “Why Princeton?” (or wherever). I’m not suggesting you steal their answers, but I’ve always found their candid answers to be quite illuminating in general.

Good luck!