Campus Visits/When Colleges Visit Calvert Hall

Teacher Recommendations

The best recommendations come from teachers who see a student’s engagement, work effort, and growth in the classroom. Students should request 1-2 recommendation letters from an academic core class teacher from junior year (math, English, science, history, foreign language). For religiously- affiliated universities or for a secondary letter, religion teachers and campus ministers are ideal references. Students applying to certain institutions, particularly service academies, need to request specific teacher recommendations for nominations and application (typically math and science). One of your responsibilities is to check the application requirements for each school to which they are applying. Teachers in subjects related to the student’s interests or potential major should be prioritized. Engineering majors, for example, should typically seek a recommendation from teachers in physics and/or junior year math. Recommendations for art-related majors must come from the art department, plus one non-art subject teacher recommendation, if at all possible. Additional recommendations from teachers in non-core areas, coaches, campus ministers, employers, etc. would be appropriate if their recommendation could, in some way, distinguish the student from other applicants - e.g. leadership, values, immersion trips, extraordinary talent in band, art, etc. This extra recommendation must address some aspect of you that is not in the recommendations from the core subject teachers. Keep in mind that colleges have varying policies on the review of additional recommendations. As part of the junior college advisory curriculum, students reach out to teachers to initiate the request. In order to guarantee the submission of a recommendation letter from a teacher, students must submit a “brag sheet” (while some departments have their own brag sheet form, a copy of our office’s sheet is available in the appendix of this guide). semester of junior year. Teachers directly upload completed letters by early October to meet admission deadlines. Exceptions to this deadline are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and should be brought to the college counselor’s attention. Please note that our policy only requires students to obtain one teacher recommendation, as one letter will satisfy the application requirements at most colleges and universities. Some schools, however, require more than one letter of recommendation. It is the student’s responsibility to identify these schools and to request an additional letter of recommendation if required.

These are completed and returned to teachers in

All things being equal, students should use the teachers with whom they have the strongest rapport!

PR O TI P

Campus Visits

As you build your college list and begin to figure out which schools you are most interested in attending, a campus visit is an invaluable resource to help you and get a more personal look at a college or university. Colleges and universities offer a variety of ways to visit and interact with their campuses, so some planning is needed prior to your trip.

Why visit the campus?

In addition to helping you better gauge your interest in a particular college or university, campus visits also provide a chance to help guide the college search process. When visiting a particular campus, keep in mind that characteristics of a school that you like or don’t like should influence the types of schools you consider. For example, if you visit a campus located in a major metropolitan area and don’t like the location of the school, it’s a likely indication that you should focus your search on schools located in suburban or rural locations.

Another important reason to visit campus is the potential impact the visit has on your application to that college or university. Nowadays, many schools consider an applicant’s “demonstrated interest” when making admissions decisions. Visiting campus, especially for schools within a reasonable driving distance, can increase your chances of admission. Even for schools that don’t consider demonstrated interest, many applications will include a question on why a student wants to attend that particular college or university. A campus visit gives you the chance to make specific connections to an institution that you can refer to in your application. When deciding to visit a school, the ideal time to visit is during the fall or spring, when the campus is filled with students. If you’re able, Calvert Hall’s academic calendar has a number of in-service days that provide a great opportunity for a campus visit. If not, visiting during the summer is better than not visiting at all, and many families will include a campus visit (or two) as part of their summer vacation. For attendance purposes at Calvert Hall, missing a day of school to visit a college is counted as an absence but can be cleared if the student has perfect attendance otherwise. Similarly, absences to visit colleges are not counted towards disciplinary action taken over excessive absences.

Preparing for the campus visit

The best way to prepare for any campus visit is with lots of research! When planning your visit, your parents may be able to help with the logistics of the visit, while you focus on researching the school.  Start by either calling the college’s admissions office or by visiting their website. Most college admissions websites will have a page that covers campus visit details. Figure out what your visit options are. o Are there information sessions available on the day you plan to visit? o Does the information session include a campus tour? o Are there opportunities for students to sit in on a class? If so, do you need to sign up prior to your visit? o If you call the admissions office, this is a good time to ask if there are any upcoming open houses or special events that may make for a better time to visit.  If you’re attending an information session, campus tour, or anything else that requires or recommends registering for the event, register for it well in advance of the actual visit, as these information sessions and tours typically have a cap on attendees.  Make sure to check the school’s website for directions to campus as well as parking information, and if you can, look over a campus map prior to visiting.  Be sure to use your name when filling out a registration form (not your parent’s name) You’ll want the college to have a record of your visit to the campus!  If your parents are helping to plan the visit itself, you should be researching the college or university to get a sense of what to consider when you’re on campus. By reviewing the school’s website (which can include blogs from current students), the college or university’s social media accounts, and utilizing other online sources of information, you can start to get a sense of what to see when you visit the campus. You should think about clubs that you want to learn more about while on campus, specific academic opportunities you want to ask about during the information session, and hot spots in the town or city surrounding the campus that you may want to see. The more research you do prior to visiting a campus, the more productive the visit will be. Finally, make sure you wear comfortable walking shoes and dress for the weather! Bring an umbrella in case of rain. While you do not need to follow Calvert Hall’s dress code on a campus visit, you should dress appropriately.

During the campus visit

Colleges and universities will typically offer a few ways for prospective students and families to learn more when visiting the campus. Information sessions, oftentimes led by an admissions representative at the school, tend to focus on academic programs and admissions information.

Information sessions vary in length from school to school, but they’re typically an hour. Campus tours are usually led by student tour guides and cover information on student life. The tours typically include visits to academic buildings, campus landmarks, and often include a chance to see a dining hall or dorm room. Some schools offer self-guided tours, as well.

In addition to the visit options offered by the college or university, it’s a good idea to do some exploring on your own. Some other ways to engage with a school while visiting:  Eat a meal in the dining hall: Food shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor when making a college choice, but it’s still a factor to consider when comparing institutions.  Visit the financial aid office: Some schools will allow prospective students and families to make an appointment with a financial aid officer to review possible financial aid packages and answer questions you have about that school’s financial aid process. If that’s offered by the school you’re visiting, make sure to complete a net price calculator prior to the campus visit, and come prepared with financial information in case it’s requested.  Check out the surrounding area: The college campus is important, but it’s also important for you to feel comfortable in the town or city where you’ll spend the next four years of your life. Walking through a college town (or, for more urban campuses, walking through the surrounding neighborhoods) is a good way for you to gauge your comfort with the area. For some of your first campus visits, it’s also a way for you to determine whether you want to attend college in a bigger city or a smaller town.  Take plenty of photos and notes! Make sure that you are using this time to gather your thoughts on what you like and don’t like about the school. Creating a college journal, where you keep track of your thoughts about schools you’ve visited and are connecting with during the college process, can help when you are making your final college enrollment decision.  Talk to students: The tour guides you meet are a great resource to learn more about student life, but keep in mind that those tour guides are part of the admissions office and will give you an honest but positive outlook on the school. Asking additional students on campus about their impressions of the school is a good way to get an unfiltered opinion on a campus. While the experiences of one specific student should never be used as an indicator of how all students feel, these conversations can help you determine whether or not a school might be a good fit for you.

After the visit

Once you’ve finished visiting a campus, the trip home (or to the next campus!) is a good time to reflect. You might not have fully formed thoughts on whether or not to attend or apply to that particular college or university, but talking with your parents about your initial impressions (both good and bad) will help you during the college search. Thinking about

what you liked, what you didn’t like, what you wished you’d learned more about, etc. will help you better understand your college preferences. Additionally, writing thank you notes to anyone you met personally, like a tour guide or admissions officer, is always a nice touch!

Fly-in Programs

In addition to on-campus visits being insightful, exciting, and important, they’re also expensive! Particularly for colleges that aren’t within driving distance, the cost of visiting campus can often be prohibitive. Fortunately, some colleges offer fly-in programs, travel assistance scholarships, and diversity programming that come at little or no cost to students and families. These programs, generally geared towards students from underrepresented backgrounds, and/or first generation college students, often have deadlines towards the end of the summer or the beginning of the school year, so you should take time to review programs that may be of interest to you. In addition to providing valuable first-hand experience on a college campus, colleges often admit students who attended one of these programs at a much higher rate than they do for their overall applicant pool. You can find a comprehensive list of colleges and universities that offer fly-in programs at http://blog.collegegreenlight.com/blog/college-fly-in-diversity-programs/. Dates and deadlines can change, so make sure to review this list towards the end of your junior year and the beginning of the summer prior to their your year