College Visits for Juniors: A Perfect Time for Campus Tours
Are you wondering when to do college visits? Should high school juniors visit colleges?
College visits for juniors are ideal! (Although of course you can start visiting colleges at any time during high school!)
Campus visits are an important part of the college search process. Students learn what they like and dislike about different colleges and find out what college life might like for them.
Junior year of high school is a great time to visit college campuses. College visits for high school juniors will help them learn about colleges and decide where to apply.
During freshman and sophomore year of high school, students are starting to take advanced classes and trying out different activities as they prepare for college.
By their junior year, students have a pretty good sense of what subjects they like, what area of study they might like to pursue as a college major, and who they are as a person.
Then, the closer students get to their final year of high school, the busier their schedules are with sports, classes, extracurriculars, and friends.
Visiting colleges as a high school junior is the best way to to decide if a college is right for you. This blog post is all about why juniors should colleges, how to plan college visits, and what to do on college visits!
Why High School Juniors Should Visit Colleges
1. High school juniors are ready to see what college is really like
Juniors in high school are pretty mature. They know what subjects they like and dislike.
High school juniors might have a sense of what they’d like to major in in college. They know college is just around the corner, but aren’t sure exactly how college will be different than high school.
College visits for juniors can help them see what college will really be like. Campus visits offer a glimpse into the many ways college differs from high school.
Juniors touring colleges can see what it’s like to live in a dorm and eat in a dining hall. Juniors can talk to professors and students about the academic rigor they can expect in college and how to prepare for it.
The campus tour guide will be a current student. They’ll share their experiences with classes, clubs, and college life, so that high school students touring the college will know more about what it’s like to go to college there.
2. College visits are Much less stressful before senior year
Waiting until senior year to start visiting colleges means that you will already be behind on deciding what college would be the right fit for you.
If you haven’t visited any colleges, it will be hard to know how you’d actually feel about attending the colleges on your list.
Will a large university make you feel lost in the crowd or excited about all the possibilities?
Will a small liberal arts college make you feel seen or stifled?
Will a big city campus make you feel energized or exhausted?
The college application process might feel more stressful because you’re not sure where to apply. If you haven’t narrowed down your list of colleges and researched them to be sure they’d be a good fit, it will take you longer to start your applications. You’ll also have to allow time for extra essays and scholarship applications.
Senior year is extremely busy. Seniors planning to go to college are probably taking several advanced or AP classes.
You might be playing a sport, participating in clubs, volunteering, or serving in a leadership role.
Of course, you’ll also be working on those college essays and applications. As a busy senior, finding time to visit colleges will be extremely challenging.
By visiting colleges as a junior, you’ll have time to visit more colleges. You’ll be able to reflect on what you liked and disliked about each one. You’ll have time to do more research and talk to students or professors about each college you’re considering.
3. Junior year college tours will help you plan your senior year
By visiting colleges during your junior year, you can find out what classes you need to take your senior year to help you get accepted into the college or a certain major.
You definitely don’t want to opt out of a class your senior year, only to then find out that it’s recommended or required by the college you want to attend.
When you meet with a college admissions counselor, you can ask specific questions and find out what you need to do to stand out as an applicant (like adding more test prep to boost SAT or ACT scores).
4. Visit colleges junior year to help you plan college applications
By visiting colleges as a high school junior, you can decide what colleges or what type of colleges you want to apply to well before the fall of your senior year.
Visiting colleges during the junior year of high school takes the pressure off each visit because students still have plenty of time to finalize the list of colleges they will apply to.
You’ll also learn more about what colleges are looking for in their applicants. After visiting a college, you will be more inspired to write the essential “Why do you want to attend this college?” essay prompt.
Also, you’ll learn about the college’s timeline for applications and scholarships. An admission counselor might even tell you about some scholarships that aren’t mentioned online.
Visiting college campuses before you send in applications will help you choose to apply to colleges where you feel confident you’d be happy. It’s so important to learn what colleges you want to mark off your list and not bother applying to long before you start applications.
5. Learn what you are looking for in a college
By taking the time to visit colleges long before it’s time to apply to colleges, you’ll have better opportunities to decide what you do (and don’t) like about different colleges. When you finalize your list of colleges to apply to, you’ll know what matters to you.
College visits are a key way students decide if a college would be a good fit for them.
If you take the time to visit colleges as a junior, you’ll have more opportunities to decide what you do and don’t like, what matters most in a school, what size school fits you best, and what vibe you’re looking for in a college.
6. You won’t have to miss school your senior year
Tour colleges your junior year, during fall break, winter break, and spring break, so you can maximize how many colleges you visit.
Visiting colleges your junior year during school breaks means you can take a lot of college tours without worrying about what you’re missing when you’re not at school. Also, touring colleges on school breaks means that you can take a vacation and tour colleges all in one trip!
Visit colleges on summer break
You can visit colleges the summer before and the summer after your junior year of high school. Then, you can plan your college visits around your summer family vacations.
Summer college visits mean you don’t have to stress about missing school or making up assignments. Also, summer college tours allow more time to visit farther away destinations.
Summer college tours are nice, because you can space them out. If you’re visiting colleges as part of a vacation in a certain area, you can do other things, like the beach or museums, in between college visits.
Unfortunately, since colleges won’t be in session or will have smaller numbers of students on campus, you won’t see what the college is really like during the academic year.
However, college admissions offices try really hard to give visitors an authentic feel for the college. Feel free to ask your college tour guide what the campus is really like during the school year.
Visit colleges on Fall break
If you start visiting colleges your junior year of high school, an easy way to start is by visiting nearby colleges over your fall break.
Use your fall break to visit nearby colleges in your city, a neighboring town, or your state. Even if you don’t think you’d be interested in the school, take a tour.
Touring a nearby college will help you learn about college life in general and give you a sense of what you do and don’t want in a college.
Visit Colleges on spring break
Use your spring break to tour colleges, since you’ll have a full week off school. You can travel somewhere to visit several colleges. Or you can plan a quick day trip to see colleges close to home.
Spring break college visits will let you see what things are really like on college campuses because classes will probably be in session. Odds are that your fall or spring break won’t overlap with the breaks of every college you want to visit, so lots of students will be on campus.
Visiting colleges in the spring of your junior year can be particularly helpful, since you’re working on your college list and deciding where to apply.
7. Visit in your junior year if you plan to apply early decision
If you have already narrowed down your college list and are deciding where you want to apply early decision, definitely visit colleges before your senior year starts.
Before applying early decision you want to be absolutely certain that the university you’re applying to is the right one for you.
8. Schedule your College visits around your sports seasons
Planning your college visits as a junior gives you some flexibility to schedule your visits around your high school sport.
By planning ahead, you can visit all the colleges you want to see without interfering with games. You might even be able to schedule some college visits around travel games or tournaments.
How to Plan College Visits for Juniors
1. research colleges you want to tour
As a junior, you may be just starting to think about your college list. If you plan to cast a wide net and visit lots of colleges, you can wait to do in-depth research.
If you know you’ll only be visiting a few colleges, I’d recommend doing some research before you go:
- Does this college have the major you’re interested in—particularly if you want to study a more obscure topic.
- What is most important to you about the college experience?
- How close to home do you want or need to be when going to college?
- Are your grades and test scores in line with students who are accepted at this college?
- Are you likely to be able to afford this college? Does this college give financial aid or merit scholarships that would make it affordable to you?
2.Determine how far to travel for college tours
First, how far you want to travel to take college tours might depend on a few factors. Do you want to stay close to home for college or go far away? How far away is too far?
For my oldest daughter, we literally used a compass to draw a circle on a map. We focused on colleges that were within an eight-hour driving radius from our hometown. That way, she was within a day’s drive of home.
Second, how much time do you have for college visits? Summers are a great time to make far-away campus tours part of your summer vacation plans.
Fall and spring breaks are perfect opportunities for college trips too!
But if you have to fit in college tours over long weekends, that might determine how far you want to travel to visit college campuses.
3. Maximize your travel
Visit clusters of colleges located near each other. Investigating several types of colleges and universities on one trip can help students quickly determine what they like and don’t like about different options.
You’ll find that big cities often boast several colleges and universities of different sizes.
In many rural areas, you’ll be able to find clusters of colleges and universities within a few hours of each other. Decide how many schools you want to visit and plan accordingly.
When it comes to figuring out an efficient travel route, Google Maps is your friend!
4. Visit colleges during the week
This is an annoying fact of college visits: even though they expect all parental figures to have a full-time job in order to pay for college, only a few schools regularly offer tours on weekends.
So, if you want to take a formal tour through the admissions office or see what regular day-to-day life is like on campus, you’ll need to tour on a weekday.
My tip is to decide on all the colleges you’d like to visit, and see which schools have tour availability. Then reserve tours and plan your schedule based on where and when you can book a tour.
5. Don’t visit Colleges on Holidays
Universities observe federal holidays. That means offices are closed and there are no classes.
Try not to visit colleges on Labor Day weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas week, or other federal holidays. If you do visit on holidays, know that there won’t be tours available and campus will be pretty quiet.
Also, you won’t be able to meet with the admissions officers or professors.
However, if you have to visit a college when it’s closed, and you can’t take an official tour, don’t worry.
Every college has a self-guided tour of campus available on its website! Even a stealth visit will give you a better understanding of whether a particular school would be a good fit for you.
6. Visit different types of colleges
Go to a large university and a small college.
Include a state school and a private college.
Tour a college in a city, one in a small town, and another in a rural setting.
You might be surprised to find that you like a college you didn’t expect to like!
7. Plan ahead
To make the most of your college visits, plan your visit well ahead of time. College tours book up quickly, so finalize your plans in advance.
Each college does its tours differently. Some colleges offer tours on the hour, every hour.
Some only offer two or three tour sessions on certain days of the week. Be sure to check each college’s website to see what your options are.
8. Set a budget for college tours
When you add up gas prices or airline ticket costs, hotel rooms, and meals out, college visits are pricey! And that’s not even counting the sweatshirts and other swag from the campus bookstore!
Before you go on tours, come up with a budget. Be sure the trip will be affordable for your family and try to minimize surprise expenses.
What Juniors Should Do When Visiting Colleges
1. Participate in special tours of the college
Colleges often offer special preview days for high school students. For these events, colleges roll out the red carpet to welcome prospective students.
Sometimes high school students visiting colleges for these special admissions events get free swag, complementary lunch, and special open house tours of academic departments.
Colleges may host info sessions, panel discussions, and conversations with a faculty member.
Find out if the college you want to visit has opportunities for you to take a tour of your academic department, meet with a professor, attend a class, talk with a coach, or have an interview.
These opportunities might not be offered every day and will require a reservation, so plan ahead.
Another bonus of these special tours is that they’re sometimes offered on weekends.
2. Take your time when you’re visiting colleges
You made an effort to get to the college. Take time to just be there and take in the vibe.
Spend time hanging out at the student center or sitting in the sun on the quad.
Try the cafeteria food.
Browse the bookstore.
Sit down on a bench on the college green and people watch.
Just take some extra time to get a sense for the culture of the college and how much school spirit you see among the students.
3. Explore the neighborhood or town near the college
Spend some time in the area around the college or the nearest town. Even if you just drive by, check out the neighborhood surrounding the college.
See what it might feel like to live in that community and the surrounding area for four years. Is it convenient enough to grab groceries or a bite to eat off campus? Do you feel safe?
4. Talk to everyone on the college campus
This is not the time to be shy!
Ask current students what it’s like to be on campus. Talk to the custodial staff and dining hall workers. Ask faculty questions about research options and academic supports.
Enquire about the student health center, mental health support, and accommodations for any special supports you might need.
Find out what greek life is like on campus. What type of events does the student life office sponsor? Are there a lot of volunteer opportunities for first-year college students?
Ask your tour guide hard questions. By talking to current college students and other people who are part of the college, you can learn a lot about the culture of the school.
5. Make a good impression
Be on time. Pay attention to the presenters, student ambassadors, and student tour guides. Ask good questions.
College admissions are competitive, so do whatever you can to put your best foot forward. Feel free to write a thank you note to your admissions officer and anyone else who was particularly helpful on your visit.
College admissions counselors usually just conduct formal admissions interviews with high school seniors who have already applied. However, you’ll probably speak informally with admissions staff.
Be ready to ask a few questions about the admissions process or specific programs you’re interested in.
6. Ask about financial and merit aid
Now’s the time to find out if this college will be affordable to your family or not.
Before you get too heavily invested in any college, be sure that the final price will be one you can afford.
It’s better to find out before you apply that you can’t afford a certain college so you can choose a different, more affordable, school to apply to. Be realistic about the school’s affordability.
7. See all the places on the college campus
Eat a meal in the dining hall. Browse the bulletin boards in the student center.
Check out the academic buildings. Explore the library.
Peek in the gym and see what the athletic facilities are like.
Go everywhere on campus (that you’re allowed!) and see what it would be like to live there.
8. Go virtual
If you can’t visit a college campus, take a virtual tour your junior year of high school. If you’ve already visited but need a refresher on the college, take the virtual tour.
Other ways you can get an inside look at what a college is really like (without being there) is to look at college, department, and club social media accounts.
Also, stream the college radio station, read campus newspaper, and browse department websites.
For international students or if you live far away from the colleges you want to visit, virtual college tours are a good opportunity to see what a college is like. Colleges provide really good alternatives to in-person visits to really show what campus life is like.
9. Take notes on the experience
It may seem weird at the time, but you’ll be glad you did.
Write down key thoughts to help you remember the visit. Note the name of your college tour guide and of anyone else you met with (an admissions officer, professor, department chair, etc.).
Send your admissions counselor an email with follow-up questions or information. If you’re visiting colleges as a junior, you want to be able to remember the details of the campus tour when you’re a senior making your final decisions.
10. Take photos on your college tour
Be sure to take lots of pictures of important things you want to remember.
Definitely take photos of a dorm room, the outside of the dorms, a classroom and cafeteria!
You might end up with photos of certain places on campus, signs, things you hated or loved—whatever speaks to you!
Final Thoughts On College Visits for High School Juniors
Junior year is the perfect time for high school students to visit colleges. These tips for planning college visits for juniors and ideas of what juniors should do on college visits will help you make the most of each campus tour and find the right college for you!
After more than two years of high school, juniors know what subjects they prefer, what they want to study in college, what extracurricular activities matter most to them, and how they want to spend their free time in college.
Junior year of high school is the perfect time for students to evaluate which campus environments are most comfortable for them, how far from home they want to be, and how they learn best.
High school juniors are self aware and ready to start exploring their high education options. After visiting several colleges, they can continue to research college options and fine tune their college lists.
Visiting colleges before you apply will help ensure that all the colleges you apply to are ones you’d be happy to go to. You’ll be able to tell which schools would be the best fit for you.
This can save money on application fees. It can also prevent a crisis if you realize too late that you actually don’t like the college you thought was your dream school.
Take advantage of the maturity that comes with junior year, before the pressures of senior year start, and hit the road to visit colleges and discover which ones might be right for you!
