College Admission Help

College Open Houses: To Go, or Not to Go? Is it College Admission Help?


Snow may be covering the football fields on many campuses, but colleges all over the country are blooming with open houses. Often scheduled to coincide with high school vacations like Presidents Day and Spring Break, these day-long programs offer juniors and their parents the chance to take a close look at a college, and see if perhaps it should be a must add to the list of 6-8 colleges students should have as possible schools come fall of their senior year.

Visiting college campuses is an absolute must for all juniors. Counselors report an amazingly high number of juniors who have never been on a college campus, except for the occasional football game. These students really need to hit the college trail, if only to get a feel for what makes one college different from another; just like families buying houses (yes, they used to do that) know they have to walk around a house and see the neighborhood, students need to try on a campus and see if it feels like home, since that’s what a college will be for the next few years.

At the same time, open houses might not be the best time to visit. For starters, open houses bring a huge number of visitors to campus at the same time, which means it’s business as unusual for a campus—and how can you get a sense of what a 1200 student campus is really like if 600 high school students and parents are in the mix that day? In addition, maybe what you need on a day off from high school is—well, a day off. Visiting colleges is important, but if you’ve just finished a tough slate of final exams, maybe a trip to the paintball palace is a better use of the day.

What’s the best way to tell if the open house is a must do? Check the schedule of activities. Many open houses consist of a welcome from the admissions office, a tour, a chance to sit in on a class, an information session on the college, and a chance to ask about financial aid. This is all essential material, but there’s a good chance you can still get all of this information (often in the exact same format) if you visit campus some other time. Check out the college’s Visit Us Web site to find out what’s available on non-open house days, and look closely to make sure you can sit in on classes; if all of this is regularly available, the open house becomes a can do, not a must do—talk with your parents, and make your best call…

…and whenever you visit, do your best to do both the tour and the information session. Tours tend to be a good overview of what the college sees as its best stuff; if the tour guide talks more about student organizations than academics and spends more time showing you the workout facilities than the science labs, that says something about what the college values, and that’s important for you to compare to what you value. The information session usually offers more details about the college—here’s the time to ask about study abroad, research opportunities, and admission requirements. Most of this information is also covered when the college visits your high school, but Mom and Dad won’t hear it at your high school, and it wouldn’t hurt you to hear this lowdown as a family—so do both whenever you go, and be sure to debrief in the car.


College Open Houses: To Go, or Not to Go? Is it College Admission Help?