Dirty Dozen: 12 Things Not To Do On Your Campus Visit

Procrastinate. You will place an unfair burden on your family by waiting until your rising senior summer. Experience touring campuses in Grades 9-10 makes you a savvy consumer by learning what is important to test and what is smoke-and-mirrors designed to impress rookie tourists.

Pick the wrong time. Summer and weekends may seem convenient, but you want to see the living, breathing campus in action. An April Monday provides a completely different feel than a July Sunday. And such opportunities such as waiting in the Starbucks line gives you a chance to talk up a current student on what school is like.

Settle for the "show" dorm. A college will make the dorm everybody sees as appealing as possible. Ask to see they boys/girls dorms that freshies actually stay. Be persistent if you get a response about the actual dorm rooms being out of bounds. Explain you've come from far away and need to see the real deal to consider the college.

Spend more time in the nearby town or peeking into the local restaurants than sampling campus food and picking up a campus vibe.

Neglect the surroundings a few hours in any direction. That may sound like the opposite of the last tip. But there is more work to do. Once you have done your intensive campus visit, learn about the Big City a bus ride away. Scan the parks for running, biking or climbing, rivers for kayaking, museums for areas of interest, sports venues for games of choice, shopping options, restaurants, movie theaters. A number of small towns developed around small colleges. If you get bored after seeing things one or two weekends in a town of 2,000, imagine what Year Four will be like for your cosmopolitan soul.

Watch the tour guide walk backwards. Kids, do not try this; s/he has done it so many times it is second nature. Sometimes I suspect there is a for-credit class on heel-then-toe walking. Practice in your bedroom for your bemused cat, not on the sidewalk with an unseen crack. Listen and take in the guide’s spiel as important nuggets of hands-on perspective often give great insight to campus life.

Passively participate. The campus visit is a great time to gather as much first hand information as possible. You are the only one who knows specifically what you consider most crucial to your decision. Take time to do your research and prepare questions before the visit, and most importantly, ask questions of tour guides and admission officers. It is not up to mom or dad to lead the charge; pretend they have a pointy stick for the slow spots and give 100%.

Waste your time checking out the collegians of your preferred sex. They aren't interested in high school seniors. Eye candy is one thing, but focus on connecting with a potential department mentor, not imagine your role in episodes of The Bachelor. This goes double when mom and dad are within sight. Enough said.

Fail to take notes. You need to bring a checklist. After three campus visits your brain will jumble up which one had what. By five, it is ridiculous. Guaranteed. Evernote, Google Keep, Apple Notes, an old-fashioned notebook, whatever. Take pictures, too. Organization is an absolute must for every trip. Your opinions will change as you add school visits. And this will give you ideas for future questions.

Ignore the weather. You already know if you are a warm weather person or somebody who loves four distinct seasons. You have to consider the number of steps between classes and activities during rainy season at the University of Washington, winter at UW-Green Bay and anyplace south of the Mason-Dixon Line without air conditioned dorms and classrooms. Learn about the bus service and check out the campus maps at Stanford and Duke, both of which top 8,000 acres.

Skip schools two time zones away. Virtual tours and university visits in your home area are common. If something clicks, though, it cannot hurt to ask parents if they would be willing to fly 1,000 miles or so to sate your curiosity. Suggest it as part of a vacation if necessary.

Leave after the glowing hourlong report from your tour guide. Definitely hit the library, the food venues, the favored major department building, ask students clever questions. A few extra hours should help you answer the BIG question: Will I be happy here?

- Mike Ryan

Sophomores and Juniors Need To Get a Jump On Testing, Campus Tours

Our 2.20.2016 post got sophomores thinking about the Big Picture. Here is Part Two for sophomores and juniors.

Start your serious campus visit effort easily. Stay local. Walk around. Find three places on campus you read about online. Sample the food; you get bonus points by walking up to a student and explaining you are eager to learn what they think of their college choice. Then actually visit schools fitting into the small-medium-large genre to see if something catches your attention. We know teens who attend really big high schools who want to downside their college experience…and many from a tiny school who transition successfully to big State U. See the dorms; visit a classroom; learn how to compare school types, locations and distances from home, and especially, majors. By all means, try the food on campus. Remember, you are going to spend four years eating that food regularly. It may give you new insight into how mom/dad fed you your favorite meal three times a week all those formative years.

Many high schools put on a College Night. There is a mind-boggling amount of information at these events, but remember all the printed stuff is written by marketing people who want to promote their best face. It is worth your time to come with a list of five questions specific to your situation and ask the person on the other side of the table these Q’s. You will gain more insight in those five minutes than an hour spent reading marketing material. You could streamline your personal college short-list selection effort by weeks. This is now a great time to take your new list and re-read your Fiske or Princeton Review guide for greater clarity.

Standardized testing involves the three "P's"- planning, preparing for and practicing.  A standardized test tutor is extremely valuable for even the best students and is worth a few hundred dollars of investment. You are allowed to take the ACT and SAT as many times as you want...but three attempts seems optimal. Take the PLAN in October. The PSAT is what gets you into the National Merit Scholarship program. Take it your sophomore year and you will be much better prepared for the Grade 11 PSAT, which is the one that will count for entering the NMS program. Preparing for every standardized test you take helps develop crucial skills such as the ability to dig down to “the four levels of meaning within text” —word/sentence/passage/story. The sooner you become an expert at this learning tool, the better your testing skills improve. While taking the PSAT, consider the prize: becoming one of the 14,000 National Merit Scholarship Finalists. There are both NMS and corporate sponsor scholarship funds available. But bumping up the percentage of NMS Finalists is a huge boon to universities, especially in the way national school rankings are scored. Here is one example for 2016: There is Arizona State University, which has around 83,000 students and a reputation as something of a party school. But much less known is its esteemed Barrett Honors College, which touts itself as the "best honors college" in the U.S. For the 2016 NMS Finalist who picks Barrett as first choice for NMS Corp., ASU is offering:

A one-on-one personalized tour.

Eight semesters of non-resident tuition (worth more than $100,000).

$1,500 in research support and $1,000 in travel.

Imagine telling mom and dad you've got tuition covered. Smiles all around.

We'll have more tips down the road on the positioning of the high-achieving student.
- Mike Ryan

Stay Ahead of the Pack - Sharpen Your Year 2 Prep

In baseball there is an odd phenomenon called "the sophomore slump." Talented baseball rookies put the pieces together and by the end of their first season, they think they know it all. Somehow, their second season demonstrates all those finely tuned skills are a little bit off, and Year 2 can go off the rails.

Don't let something like this happen after a successful first year of high school. One transitional segment down, you have the two most important years ahead to build a formidable resume that will force universities to consider you a top prospect. In this first of two-part blog post, we help illuminate your path to the college of choice.

You should be on your correct track of classes already. If you are confident, take those AP and Honors classes. If you are struggling with anything, get assistance ASAP.

Seek out your school counselor. These are busy people helping juniors and seniors land at the best university. But you--as a sophomore--have a labyrinthine passage to arrive at the best place for you. Get on your counselor's radar and ask questions, never forgetting the counselor sometimes knows the college admissions personnel and a few tricks of the trade you don't. Your goal this year is to get that counselor to recognize your face, call you by name and understand you are serious about finding that best fit.

Sports and clubs. You tried out and made a sports team already. Now do something new or get on the track to move into a leadership position as an upperclassman. Hang close to a coach and ask questions about why certain game situations require different tactics. If in music, try a similar instrument to the one you have gotten good at playing. Sit in and gauge your interest in clubs from Anime Club to International Club to Youth and Government. Sophomore year is the time to firm up how your high-school resume will dazzle a college admissions officer. Variety and consistency are crucial, but this is the year to make sure you cast a wide net of activities--and include some public service whether local like the town animal shelter or national as in Habitat for Humanity. Now learn how to stand out within chosen programs. Demonstrate creativity, leadership, a special skill. Spend less time on Facebook and Instagram and begin to develop a LinkedIn profile. One tip: If you like Citizen Club or any of the young political clubs, sign up to be a High School Election Judge in states that have programs that encourage students to become part of the process before they can vote. For a university with roots in the political arena, it's a potential admissions game changer.

Take some career-interest questionnaires. We guarantee you will discover some career ideas you didn't realize were a good fit. Pare down your list of potential majors; you probably know by now if you are STEM material or a gifted public speaker. Think about big, like 80,000 undergrads, medium, a dizzying array of midsize public and private schools, or maybe small liberal arts colleges. Scan The Princeton Review's Best Colleges and/or Fiske Guide to Colleges. Make a list of 10 or 20 or more.  Even if the list is big, it gets you focused. Read about the schools and follow them on social media; some of them will feel familiar but others seem completely new. Personally, I find the origins of universities and how they came to develop specialties and odd traditions very entertaining. Maybe you will, too, and in the process become curious about an intriguing college as a possibility.

- Mike Ryan

Recognizing Trouble With a Capital T

The admission decision stretch run is under way.  This involves comparing and contrasting final college contenders before the May 1st National College Decision Day.  Students are boiling-over with excitement as they sense imminent adult freedom. But every young adult needs to know that also means responsibility and awareness of important safety issues in a bubbling caldron of energy and activity.

The Jeanne Clery Act was passed by Congress in 1990. Any college receiving federal funding is required to post information about campus crime and school efforts to improve safety.

So before your child starts drilling down to see the social media comments on his/her freshman rhetoric teacher, identify ways to help them safe. Visit

http://ope.ed.gov/security/GetOneInstitutionData.aspx

and review the crime incidents on campus.

When you are 18 and feeling immortal, the safety speech can get lost in the banter of discussions about college. Don't let it slide. It is up to the parents to insist on assigning a speed dial number for campus police and loading apps like Companion, Circle of 6 or Watch Over Me onto your child's smart phone. Find out what school safety protocols for the Mobile Age are in place; make sure there is an up-to-date crisis management strategy to contend with worst-case scenarios. Scan this website if you are short on talking points:

notalone.gov

And while the Big Picture issues need action plans, it also is crucial talking with the schools and upperclassmen/women about how sexual assault, theft and burglary are addressed on campus. We know by now the where-and-when of first-semester classes. But find out what education programs are available for students on the crucial issues of trauma, bystander intervention and sexual assault. Face it, mom. Your daughter may occasionally drift off during family discussions, but when the campus police chief is talking the reality of underage drinking and the boundaries between consent and assault, your daughter will realize informed is better prepared. And while we all might get lucky leaving a phone in an unlocked car in the home's driveway, the protection of personal belongings in vehicles, residence and dining halls should become second nature from the moment your child lands on campus. Awareness and a sense of a situation being not quite right are life skills best developed before the first day of class.

And lastly, devote a minute to “Shoulder surfing,” Electronic device privacy screens are a must-have for keeping personal financial information just that. Sharing passwords with new friends are bad ideas. Visit a local bank and rent a safe deposit box for the really important items. 

As your family considers the various pros and cons offered by each college, the campus policy on maintaining a safe environment is critical to everyone's planning and peace of mind.  

-Mike Ryan

Be Careful Who You Wish For

Be Careful Who You Wish For

High school juniors must carefully weigh their choice of teachers for written recommendations. You often are allowed two, and most inexperienced juniors go for the "warm and fuzzy"--the teacher who seemed to like you. This is a mistake. Colleges do not want to read about how pleasant you were in Biology class. Think more like a job-seeking professional. The business executive doesn't ask her mom to write a job recommendation. She picks the person who challenged her to do the very best job and could relate actual work decisions that resulted in a successfully completed project. 

The best recommendations are a result of a collaborative effort between the student and recommending teacher. The student should proactively share with the teacher the vision of what needs to be conveyed to the college, while the teacher merges this information into a compelling and personalized statement. Don't settle for sweet; talk to your teachers who really pushed you, applauded your out-of-the-box solution to a difficult problem or genuinely appreciated a semester-long dialogue that kept a classroom on its toes rather than allow it to stare at the clock with 10 minutes left to go. 

A longtime Yale University dean said, "We look to see whether teachers incline toward calling each bright student 'one of the best I have ever taught,' or instead try to distinguish the really extraordinary individual from those who are strong in the usual ways."

You want to stand out before your college acceptance committee. Warm or fuzzy is for kittens; colleges want to hear from tigers who will rule the jungle.

-Mike Ryan