It is hard to know what to do to move your college search forward in the current Covid-19 situation. You can’t visit the colleges on your list and it is often difficult to get a live person in the admission office to answer the phone. There are things you can be doing, however, to help you learn more about the colleges that are interesting to you. And some of them may help you learn more than you would from an in-person tour! Check out my list:
- Take a virtual tour or attend a virtual information session. Find these on the college website or through sites such as campusreel.org or www.campustours.com , please take notes that include your impressions of the college (not just facts). Your opinions are the most important thing in this whole process and I don’t want you to forget what YOU thought about the college you just toured. (They all start to blend together even if you tour in real life…that problem is only exacerbated by touring virtually.)
- Plan to take a proctored (on-line) practice test for the SAT or ACT. Many tutoring companies are offering practice tests for free. Visit their websites to sign up.
- For the colleges that you are truly interested in, consider following them on social media (Instagram or Facebook). Interested in the ultimate frisbee club? Follow that particular on-campus group to see what they do.
- Are you into data, facts and figures? (like, how ethnically diverse is the student body on this campus? How many students are from out of state?) Look up your colleges on CollegeBoard’s Big Future at https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org.
- Visit the colleges’ websites and dive into the academic requirements there. Look at majors/minors/distribution requirements/short terms/core requirements etc. Don’t forget that the academics are the reason you are attending college in the first place!
- Visit the advising portion of the colleges’ websites. What support do they provide for choosing academic classes? For career advice? How does the the amount of support compare to the other colleges on your list?
- Find on-line editions of the campus newspaper – what was going on on-campus? Does it excite you?
- Visit the colleges’ list of activities/clubs…do you see what you are interested in? Take notes. (By the way, notes like these will come in handy when you have to write “why this college?” essays!)
These days are filled with uncertainty for college bound students but some day, life will return to normal (or at least our “new normal”). Try to keep making progress on investigating colleges of interest to you and I know you will be glad you did!