By Nadia Ramlakhan
We know you have college visits lined up left and right from now until May. While touring each campus and checking out the available dorm rooms are extremely important, it can be difficult to stay interested when you’ve seen one too many PowerPoint presentations and all the tour guides are always convinced that their particular college’s dining hall has the best food around. So how do you absorb all of the information you need while still having a good time? Here are a few tricks to keep you entertained when learning about potential schools.
1. Count the number of times your tour guide says “diversity.”
A popular selling point for most colleges, the word “diversity” is bound to come up during the information session at least once, if not more. Since you probably just finished writing the admissions essay on diversity, we’re sure you’re well versed in the topic and tired of hearing about it! By now, you know you’re not really going to see how diverse the college is from a two-second glance at various buildings, so keep busy by counting the number of times your tour guide stresses the point. Make an estimate before the information session starts and see how close you come to your guess. Also, which different synonyms does the tour guide use to describe the diversity of the campus? Unique? Distinct? One of a kind? You might even be surprised at how often the topic comes up!
2. Go on a scavenger hunt.
Make a list of stereotypical things you’ve seen on past college tours and see how many you find at the next school you go to. It can be as long or as short as you’d like, but be sure to add a football player, a person going to class in sweatpants, a dry erase board on the door of a suite (bonus points if there’s a quote on the board), a fraternity house blasting loud music during the day and a sorority girl selling baked goods to the list. What says “college” better than snacks and sweatpants?
3. See how much free stuff you can collect.
Who doesn’t love a free T-shirt? Although you may be waiting on these colleges to accept you, remember that during the campus visit, the college wants you to accept it. Try to grab as much free school memorabilia as you can, like pens, water bottles or fridge magnets from the local bookstores, libraries and maybe even some enthusiastic tour guides. To make it a bit more challenging, try having a competition between you and your parents to see who can snag the most swag!