The Importance of College Visits

The Importance of College Visits
Cody Goggin
10-3-2013  12:50 pm

OWENSVILLE, MO-Well here you are. You are an upperclassman in high school and it is time to make the decision on where you are heading next. There are a couple of colleges in mind, but you are not quite sure. You can compare prices, proximity to home, and the quality of the education, however, one intangible that you must experience is the feel for the campus.

 Campus visits are very important to determining what college you will attend, because if the campus is not suitable for you, you do not feel comfortable there, or it is not “homey” enough, then you will not be reaching your full academic potential and be the best prepared for your future. Choosing a college is not just a matter of choosing a school, but also choosing your home and community for at least the next four years.

            I am not the only one that has found the college visiting process valuable. Senior Marissa Landwehr has also visited and decided on a college. Whenever I asked her why stepping foot on the college’s campus was important, she replied by saying, “It is important to visit a college because it gives you an idea if the college is right for you. When visiting you can get the feel of the atmosphere and the people around you.”

I can speak about the importance of college visits personally. By just researching schools online and looking at all of them I thought I knew what college I wanted to go to. Whenever I visited my first choice, I was not so crazy about it. This college was the University of Missouri-Columbia. It was not bad, but the feel of the campus was just not for me, so a couple months later I visited Missouri State University and absolutely loved their campus. I had to take a third visit at Southeast Missouri State University just to make sure, but I decided that Missouri State was for me and that is where I will be attending next year. I never really thought I would be going to Missouri State, but after stepping foot on their campus, I could tell that it was a place where I could live.

Making a college choice is a life-altering decision, so you want to not only pick a place where your career will be able to advance and flourish, but where you can be happy. So when making this decision, make sure that you schedule at least one campus visit to one place or even multiple places to see if it is for you.