Campus Visits Are Cultural Anthropology

by Judy McNeely

 

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Note to Readers: If Aesop were alive today, he just might divide high-school students into two groups: grasshoppers and ants. Roughly translated: Those who party and those who work hard. This column, by an independent adviser to local high-school students, is for the ants. Studious, serious-minded, college-bound ants ... and their families.

Amber M. had finally made it to her dream school, Amherst, in the rolling hills of western Massachusetts. But as she stood beneath the elm trees and looked across the grassy quadrangle at the brick dormitory, classroom buildings and ivy-covered library where she had imagined spending the next four years, she realized something was wrong. The campus didn't feel right to her—too isolated, too small, too picture-postcard-perfect.

Perfect for someone else, no doubt, but wrong for her.

She turned to her parents, tears in her eyes and confessed: Amherst, she told them, wasn't her dream school after all.

The story has a happy ending, though. Amber, whom I'd coached through the college admissions process, hadn't actually enrolled at Amherst, she was just visiting over her spring break. And she'd also been accepted at Wellesley, where she's now a senior.

"I'm so happy we made those college visits before I graduated from high school," Amber told me last month.

The American Dream of getting into a good college doesn't happen automatically, doesn't become reality without planning, without coaching, without work in the classroom, at home ... and on the road.

Families head out over spring break to scout far-off campuses and see for themselves if the buildings, quadrangles and lecture halls match up with the glossy college brochures and fancy university Web sites. To see for themselves, to "taste with their feet."

But before you take off, I recommend you do a bit of homework. The first step is to set up an itinerary. While you might be tempted just to whip out a map and wing it, consider asking the admissions office for a suggested route between colleges. And don't be surprised if you see the O'Briens from Omaha, the McDonalds from Memphis and the Cohens from Chicago traveling the same campus circuit.

Think of yourself as an anthropologist on a research expedition. Clipboard in hand, you're looking for clues to the campus culture. Watch and listen carefully, take plenty of notes and pictures. As any scientist will tell you, visual memories blur quickly if you don't record your observations.

Note how the students dress; listen in to their conversations. Are they talking about courses or cars? Politics or parties? Does the campus mood seem cheerful or gloomy? Is there a good rapport between students and faculty?

Have lunch with a student. Sit in on a class. Find out who decides on roommates. How does the residential advisory system work? What are the meal plan choices? If you have time, arrange for a dorm stay; ideally, you'd want to be matched up with a sophomore or junior at the college.

Try to talk to students who haven't been hired by the admissions office to sing the school's praises. Don't just ask whether they like the school, ask what they'd change if they could. And find out what they did last weekend.

Remember: you're gathering data for that comparative anthropology book on campus cultures. Note your own reactions, too.

Do you feel claustrophobic or cozy on an intimate New England campus? Fearful surrounded by hundreds of strangers in a university or excited by the vibrancy of a big city?

Amber's experience at Amherst was neither unprecedented nor unusual; it simply confirms what I remind my clients: in the end, your gut feeling about a school is the most important observation of all.

When to go? Sure, you can visit colleges any time, but those tanned bodies flipping frisbees might be summer-school imposters. Better to visit while college is in session, better still to visit when your own high school is on break. After all, you don't want to miss school and endanger your course work: academic accomplishment is still the most criterion for admission to most schools.

One final suggestion: some families find it helpful to record impressions of each college visit on a comparison chart. You can download a sample form, along with additional questions you might want to ask, at www.CollegePathfinders.com. Click on "College Resources."

Judy McNeely is the founder of College Pathfinders. She attended high school in Santa Cruz, received a bachelor's degree from Stanford and a master's from UCLA. She has taught in Washington and California public schools for 25 years and has 24 years of experience as an independent college counselor.