<p>If you’ve never visited a college, is it a good idea to say, " as my friend, class of '00, talked about X college, I imagined the waft of coffee blowing in my face as I step into the library of X college" or is just imagining the experience too weak an argument?</p>
<p>Not a good idea. Not because it’s “too weak” but because the picture in your head has nothing to do with reality. You don’t know that you’ll like the atmosphere. You don’t even know if the scent of coffee blows in your face from the library. It’s fiction.</p>
<p>Also you might be pointing out something that is not obvious to admission. You need to show that you do your own research, not hearsay from friends.</p>
<p>Oh, you mean you’re talking about your essay or your interview? I couldn’t glean that from your original post.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about your essay or interview, I’d leave your imagined thoughts of the school out of it if I were you. But if you’re chatting with your soothsayer, well, knock yourself out with images!</p>
<p>so if you’ve never visited a college, the only things you can comment on are its programs and anything else from its website- you can’t really say anything about the feeling you get from the college?</p>
<p>It’s far better in general to comment on specifics about the college – academic subjects offered, professors’ research interests, programs abroad, extracurriculars, students who go to grad or professional school (particularly if this is what you’re planning) – instead of commenting on nebulous things like the atmosphere.</p>
<p>You can visit the virtual tour of these colleges. I’ve read checking out name of professors that you want to major with. You can mention why you want to go to such college because you want to work/take class with such professor.</p>
<p>It’s absolutely okay to make educated opinions about universities without actually attending there, I do it all the time. It may help give a better understanding of the school by a visit, but I wouldn’t rule out educated facts/ observations. Doing research, virtual tours, and hearing from other past/ present students etc… will help give you an ideal about a school. Although if you find yourself stuck between two schools or so, then why not visit?</p>
<p>You can talk about the type of atmosphere others have told you about - “A sophomore at the school has told me that it’s a comfortable, non-competitive environment, and that’s what I’m looking for.” Or something like that. But no “I can imagine the smell of coffee through the dorms . . .”</p>
<p>yeah no imagining, but you can say “my friend told me of how blah blah blah” and then mention how you love that.</p>
<p>Columbia_student: While I agree you do need to do your own research, part of that research should be talking to current students. And I mean meaningful talk (even if you need to ask specific questions) not: tell me about the school. If you ask someone to tell you about a school in general they will almost always say LOL I GET SMASHED! or something ambiguous about professors.</p>
<p>Just pretend you visited.</p>
<p>That line in particular is especially cheesy. Why don’t you focus on something more substantial than the fact that some college sells coffee at their library. There must be more significant reasons for you to want to go there. Perhaps you could do a little bit of online research and see if there are unique classes, renowned professors, interesting academic programs etc to write about.</p>