THE BRIDGE TO COLLEGE

College Visits: My Week on the Other Side of the Admissions Desk

By Dawn M. Chmura and Robert A.G. LeVine

By Robert LeVine

This April, I took a four-day adventure touring colleges around Boston. Before visiting, I reached the admissions offices, hoping to arrange individual meetings with their professionals. However, I quickly realized that the best way to understand the good and the bad was to experience everything exactly as prospective students do: through information sessions and student-led tours.

Not surprisingly – we tell this to all UCA clients – the information sessions felt generic and remarkably similar from school to school. Admissions officers spoke glowingly about their curricula, campus cultures, opportunities, and institutional identities. Although these may be the same themes colleges ask students to reflect upon in their applications, I didn’t find the sessions to be helpful either for learning about the school or for writing good college essays.

As someone who worked closely with a boarding school admissions office for nearly 25 years, I am highly aware of how institutions curate a marketing aura that presents a strategic, branded emotion the moment visitors walk through the door. Admissions events are carefully orchestrated experiences, and while most of the schools I visited were perfectly pleasant, two visits stood out distinctively.

At one college, I walked into a dark, empty admissions office. Students sat silently in a corner, the reception desk was unattended, and the office doors were closed. Nearly twenty minutes passed before anyone appeared. It was not a strong first impression for me, and I suspect that any visitor who had the same experience might choose not to apply to that college.

Brandeis, on the other hand, immediately felt exceptionally welcoming. Student ambassadors greeted families, admissions staff circulated throughout the lobby, and the space itself felt inviting, even if intentionally so. No doubt: their atmosphere shapes your perception.

As my week continued, something else became increasingly apparent: my own fatigue. Even while taking notes and evaluating each experience individually with professional intent, many of the facts, feelings and campuses ended up blending together. One school’s talking points merged into another’s. I found myself wondering how families who tour multiple colleges can possibly make thoughtful distinctions between them.

That realization became even more compelling when I observed the differences between those attending the tours. Most of the younger students — high school sophomores and juniors — remained quiet while their parents asked the questions. But those already-admitted seniors who were visiting before making their final decisions were deeply engaged, asking specific questions about programs, opportunities, housing, and student life. They walked closely beside the tour guides, continuing conversations long after the formal presentations ended in an effort to determine whether these schools were truly right for them.

By the end of my trip, I began wondering whether pre-application visits are unintentionally counterproductive. There are so many variables that influence your “takeaway” about a college: a charismatic tour guide, a disengaged representative, the size of the tour group, the quality and quantity of your group’s interactions, exhaustion, weather, even whether actual enrolled students are visible anywhere. During my visit to Tufts, had it been rainy, icy, bitterly cold, or even sunless and overcast, I suspect my reaction to its famously steep hill would have been entirely different.

Of course, colleges are putting their best feet forward during these events, and that is not inherently wrong. Most admissions teams are “people persons” who work hard to create welcoming and informative experiences for prospects. I know this because I spent decades involved in that work myself. However, to be fair to yourselves, students and parents should recognize that these visits are sales opportunities for them and, for you, emotional experiences more than informational ones.

Emotion can sometimes overshadow more important questions. Does the academic structure fit my learning style? Can we afford this school? What is available off-campus? Are we reacting to substance or simply to atmosphere? (And … will the university give honest answers to any of our questions?)

Of course, school visits can be helpful. Campus energy, student interaction, and the overall environment are important factors in a productive college career. However, after spending a week on the other side of the admissions desk, I am convinced that many students make emotional judgments much too early in the process.