Saturday, March 16, 2013

30 Things You Don't Need to Tell Me During this College Tour





  1. You have a Blue Light system for safety (but you've never even heard of anyone needing to use it.) The campus is very secure and insulated from the town.
  2. The town, though, is a great resource and will make your university years more engaging.
  3. You'll barely remember to go to town since campus is a 24/7 joyride of activities.
  4. Anyone interesting who comes to town will go to campus and you can hear them speak/perform for free.
  5. There is a free shuttle that goes anywhere you need, even late at night from local hot spots.
  6. You can call the extremely efficient and omnipresent campus police for an escort for any reason, even if it's just because you're too cold or lazy to walk somewhere yourself.
  7. Your campus has a lot of great, fun traditions. (Don't say party school. Never say party school.)
  8. Greek life is around, and a delight, and non-exclusionary, but no pressure - everyone has friends both in and out of the Greek system.
  9. Greeks and non-Greeks alike spend a lot of time on service opportunities, because community spirit and volunteerism are strong core components of campus life.
  10. There are hundreds of clubs and organizations, but if you can't find what you like (which seems impossible!), you can found one yourself really easily.
  11. One of those clubs is Quidditch.
  12. Speaking of which, people often compare your dining hall and/or library to Hogwarts.
  13. Speaking of which, you can buy coffee at the library cafe.
  14. The library has social areas on the ground floor and gets more studious the higher you go up.
  15. The library has millions of volumes, but if you need something it doesn't have, ILL will get it for you within mere days.
  16. The professors are accessible practically constantly. They even Skype!
  17. The professors will hook you up with amazing internship and research opportunities, even if you're just a freshman.
  18. Many people do research or internship work as part of their study abroad.
  19. Study abroad credits transfer very easily. 
  20. Study abroad is the most fun anyone's ever had.
  21. At the same time, when you come back for your senior year, you'll wish you had another few years to spend on campus, since it's so awesome.
  22. However, 97% of students graduate in 4 years.
  23. They all go on to good jobs (thanks to the strong community of past graduates and the career center's experts) or get into their first choice grad schools.
  24. Many of them double-major, which is easy to do thanks to the expert advisers and desirable because of the vast opportunities on campus.
  25. Even if you don't major in music/theatre/dance/stand-up comedy, you will have plenty of opportunities to get involved in the performing arts on campus.
  26. Maybe you'll be in the marching band! Then you'll really be able to show your school spirit.
  27. Everyone here has school spirit and they all love going to the games, even if they aren't sporty-types, because cheering on the (insert mascot here)s is such a blast.
  28. All of the athletes on campus are scholars first, because academics are so important to us.
  29. We will give you every academic opportunity you could ever desire, be it one of the majors for which we are famous, or be it your own interdisciplinary invention.
  30. Make sure that your application essay isn't generic.
(Spring Break College Visit Trip scorecard: 8 tours taken, 3 flights, 1 train trip, 2 rental cars, 5 hotels, 2 friends' spare beds, 3 & 2 1/2s audiobooks enjoyed, and more waffles and biscuits than I can count.)

No comments:

Post a Comment