One of the main reasons why campus visits are so critical is that there’s no predicting what kind of an impression any given campus will make on a student. Many students know the instant they’ve walked on a campus if they love it or hate it.
Amber Dowdell and Dan Escovitz, who were still seniors at Palmer High School in Colorado Springs, CO, visited the University of Chicago during the same weekend. Each came away with very different impressions.
For Amber the University was one of three campus visits. Her reason for coming to this particular institution was because it was set in the middle of Chicago. She wanted to take advantage of the attractions and benefits of the city. She also didn’t have a declared major and knew a big university gave her plenty of flexibility to explore options.
Dan’s criteria for the six campuses he visited also included geographic location, but he was going to major in biology, so that was a factor in his decision process.
Dan: The campus tour was really well-organized.
His first impression of the University of Chicago was about the way the visitor’s weekend was set up. “It was really well thought out and planned. I hadn’t seen anything like it elsewhere,” recalls Dan, noting that it mirrored his opinion of the university as a whole.
Amber: I just loved the ivy-covered walls.
As for Amber, she fell in love with Chicago just from looking out the taxi window on the way to the University. She was happy to exchange the mountains of Colorado for the nearby lake. She loved the campus setting, too. “I was impressed with the ivy-covered buildings that made the campus look like an old English school,” says Amber.
Dan: Those ivy-covered walls would get to me after a while.
Dan didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the urban setting of the University. “It put me off a bit,” he says, not having experienced living in a big city. He, too, thought the campus was beautiful at first, but then realized that all the Gothic buildings would probably get to him. “I would start longing for modern architecture,” he admits.
Amber: We sat by the lake and talked about everything.
Both Amber and Dan spent a night in the dorms with student hosts. Amber reports that, “We watched TV and then went down to the shore side and watched the clouds drift over the lake.” She and her host talked about everything — meeting people, what students did on weekends, professors, and where to buy clothes.
Dan: What’s with these guys? Doesn’t anyone have a good time around here?
Dan had a different take. Though he liked the diversity of students he saw walking around the campus, the two guys he stayed with in the dorm indicated by their actions that the University was a pretty serious place academically. His roommates were up at the crack of dawn pounding away on their computers before Dan even had his eyes open. Not that Dan is really into partying, but his roommates seemed totally concentrated on their studies to the exclusion of a social life. “People seemed more introverted there. They weren’t interested in going out and having a good time,” he observes. As it turned out Dan did go out with some other students to check out the city, who told him that if he wanted to have a good time on the weekends he could find it.
Amber: I felt really comfortable there.
In contrast, Amber sensed a close-knit feeling that made her feel comfortable and at home. However, because of the University’s location in Chicago, she and her parents were a bit worried about the crime rate. Amber didn’t hesitate to ask admissions about it. “Any college you go to wants to show you happy things,” notes Amber. “They told us what we needed to know.”
Dan: The biology labs were great, but I wasn’t impressed with the gym.
As a biology major, one of Dan’s concerns was the labs and here the University of Chicago shone. He was very impressed with the biology department’s academic credentials and prestige, as well as the well-equipped and highly technical labs. “That had a big impact,” he reports. What did not impress him was the University’s athletic facilities. They were clean and in good condition, but he was comparing them to those at University of Colorado Boulder, which he liked a lot more.
What impact did the visit have on Amber and Dan? Both went to other colleges but not because they didn’t like the University of Chicago. Finances were the determining factor for each. Dan was weighing the biotechnology departments at the University at Boulder and Chicago and came away deciding that while Chicago had the edge academically, financially, it would have been a push. Plus, factoring in the urban environment of Chicago and Boulder, he decided to stay in Colorado.
Amber, on the other hand, loved the city atmosphere and the campus, but saw no reason to graduate from college $30,000 in debt. She decided on Colorado State University in Fort Collins. “For the difference in price, why should I go to Chicago?” she questioned.
Amber and Dan came away from their college visit experience with a few suggestions for others.
- Start early and be organized about your search.
- If you can, visit a campus more than once.
- Visit a campus when the college has a program planned especially for visitors.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you think of them. Don’t file them away thinking that you’ll ask later.
- Explore the environment around the campus.