College Admission Help

To cut College Admission costs, you can tour campuses virtually


BY NIRVI SHAH
nshah@MiamiHerald.com

Stefania Ferro researched six different colleges -- including two in New York -- without ever leaving her home in Davie.
Ferro, 18, used instant messaging to chat with a college counselor at the University of Rochester. She posted questions about schools to current students using the forums at CollegeConfidential.com and looked at current students' photos of campus life. She used the virtual tour on the University of Florida's website to get a feel for the campus.
''I was considering at one time a bunch of schools,'' said Ferro, a senior at The College Academy at Broward College. 'I didn't want to waste my time or my parents' time.''
Saving for college tuition, room and board has become a way of life for many families. But prospective students and their parents are sometimes surprised by the thousands of additional dollars it takes to apply to schools, take entrance exams and hit the road for campus tours.
There are ways to reduce or eliminate those costs.
In addition to individual school websites, there are now sites that compile information and offer virtual tours, tuition prices and a statistics-based guess at a student's chances for admission.
California-based website creator Jerry Slavonia started CampusExplorer.com in 2007. The site has information about more than 6,000 public and private schools.
''How many have the actual wherewithal to travel to actual campuses with their parents? It's a small number,'' Slavonia said.
Once prospective students register for the site -- registration is free -- they can take tours of different schools and even create side-by-side comparisons so they can see the differences in tuition.
While some official university tours might show the grounds and classrooms, CampusExplorer tours include videos of students speaking candidly about everything from campus food to fraternity and sorority life.
The site also has a feature where students can plug in their college placement test scores and use an admissions calculator to get a rough sense of their chances at admission based on test data from the current freshman class.
USING SCHOOL SITES
Schools' individual websites are also helpful if students look beyond the basic facts.
Check out clubs or organizations that seem appealing and look up any publications those groups offer, said Katherine Cohen, who used to work in admissions at Yale University. She has a certificate in college counseling from UCLA. Cohen's web companies, IvyWise.com and ApplyWise.com, provide this guidance and other counseling for a fee for parents and students.
If students are interested in journalism or the school magazine, they should reach out to the students working at those places now via e-mail, she said.
Another way to learn about a school without spending money to travel there: Find the people who went to a particular college from your high school, Cohen said. Every high school should have a record of where their students chose to go to college.
''Reach out to Johnny even if you weren't friends,'' she said. ``It's better than just the average student who went to that college. They don't have the same high school experience.''

MEETING RECRUITERS
Most colleges have representatives who travel the country to recruit students. If visiting a first-choice school is out of the question, finding out when those reps are in town is key. Not only does a student get information directly from the university, but the student has a chance to make an impression, Cohen said.
Once a family does decide to visit a school, making the trip worthwhile is critical, she said.
Visit when school is in session to get a real feel for what the campus is like. In addition to a tour, go to an information session where questions are welcomed. Eat lunch in the main dining hall. Talk to students. Meet the representative who is responsible for reading applications from your part of the country.
''This is what we recommend to everyone,'' Cohen said, ``not a cold visit.''





To cut College Admission costs, you can tour campuses virtually