Flickr user VirtualWolf
While you may be anxious to see your dream school in person as soon as possible, you may actually want to move that college to the back of the list when it comes time to visit each campus. There are quite a few reasons to do just that.
You’ll Know How To Have a Successful Visit
When you arrive at the first college on your list, you may not be entirely sure what you’re looking for or what’s important to see. Your tour guide will help you see some important points of the school and its campus, but you won’t get to see it all.
Practice absolutely comes into play when it’s time to view potential colleges. If you’re visiting other schools first, by the time you go to your dream school, you’ll know exactly what you’re looking for, what you want, and how to have a successful visit.
You’ll Have Good Comparison Points
Visiting other colleges first allows you to get the full picture of pros and cons of each school. After one trip to a particular college, you can then compare it to your next college visit. You’ll be able to find the differences easily. When it’s time to visit your dream school, it’ll be much less difficult to weed out exactly what you don’t like or like about the school.
It’s entirely possible the college may not live up to your expectations after you’ve compared each visit.
You Won’t Immediately Rule Out Other Colleges
If you visit your dream college first, it’s extremely easy to become complacent. You won’t have the practice under your belt or anything to compare it to, so it won’t be easy to see everything. You’d have a hard time finding the pros and cons and when you attend in your freshman year, you may find its not everything you envisioned or its cracked up to be.
You could also find you like a previously visited college more than your previous dream school. It’s entirely possible this surprise could happen, but you would never have the opportunity if you visited your dream school and held that vision of “perfection” to every visit afterward.
Having a Backup Plan
Another good reason to save your dream school for last is: if you become complacent and just don’t visit other colleges after you visit this one, you may not know what to do if you’re not accepted. You absolutely want to have a backup. By visiting the other schools first, you can know exactly how they stack up to your dream college and which would be the best fit for you.
Visiting your dream college may be an exciting prospect, but it’s important to be patient during this process. You want to have an open mind during each school tour and visit, and you won’t have that if you run to your dream school first. By the time the tour rolls around though, you’ll know exactly what you want and what to look for.
Use College Raptor to discover personalized college matches, cost estimates, acceptance odds, and potential financial aid for schools around the US—for FREE!
