Make the most of campus visits with these tips

When you first start planning for college, you might have a hard time imagining what it will all be like. Then comes your first campus visit. Watching students in the classroom, peeking into the residence halls, standing in line for lunch – suddenly, it all starts to feel very real.  

If things are starting to get real for you, here’s how to get the most out of this exciting chapter.  

Getting started 

You can visit colleges anytime, of course, and you generally don’t have to make an appointment. Attending a sporting or theater event or just walking around a campus is a great way to get started. And don’t limit yourself just to colleges you’re interested in attending. Visiting colleges near home can help you get a sense of what you like and don’t like, suggests Brenda Poznanski, Senior Director of Counseling and Admission at Bishop Guertin High School. “If you go to Boston and see Northeastern or Suffolk or Emmanuel or Emerson … they’re all very different schools,” she said. In fact, you don’t even have to leave NH to experience both public and private colleges, different athletic divisions, a variety of sizes and settings, and many different academic programs. 

As you near the end of your junior year, you’ll want to start building your college list: the list of schools you’re interested in applying to. Then, over the next several months, you can use campus visits to narrow your list and then choose your college. Don’t forget, though: It’s never too late to start your college journey! 

Mapping out your visits 

There are numerous ways to experience college campuses. You can plan different types of visits based on your level of interest and other factors.  

College open houses are large events, usually with hundreds or thousands of students. You’ll meet representatives from academics, admissions, financial aid, student clubs, and more, spend time with students and professors from your area of interest, and walk around the campus and eat at the dining hall if you’d like.   

College visits/tours are smaller events with fewer students. You’ll learn about the college and admissions process and then take a tour around the school. You can set up a formal tour through the college admissions office. Of course, you can also take informal college tours on your own. Many schools offer self-guided tour options.  

Virtual tours are an excellent way to add to learn more about a college. They can help you get a feel for a school before scheduling a visit, or you can take a tour after an in-person visit as you reflect on your experience.  

Accepted Students Days are offered in the spring for students who have received admissions offers from the school. These events are not only festive and fun, they usually include many opportunities to get to know the school. “Everything is open for you to see, so you can really get a sense of, is this the place for me?” Ryan Patten, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Colby-Sawyer College, explained during a workshop on campus visits at Destination College 2026.  

Accepted Students Days are also a helpful tool if you’ve applied to a large number of schools or if some of them are far from home. Many students wait to see if they are accepted to their top schools before visiting. 

Additional visits can be useful for a few reasons. First, they can help you show “Demonstrated Interest.” Admissions offices keep track of the ways you engage with the college to get a sense of how likely you are to accept an admissions offer.  

Jessica Gallant, an Admission Specialist at Southern New Hampshire University, remembers a family who visited the campus at least four times. “By the fourth visit, I was on a hugging basis with Grandma,” joked Gallant, a workshop panelist at Destination College 2026.  

A second visit can also give you a totally different perspective on a college. Olivia Annunziata-Blaisdell, a 2025 Granite Edvance Scholarship recipient, didn’t get excited about Cornell University the first time she visited. The second time, she loved it and ultimately ended up there.  

Getting the most from your visit 

With so much to take in, college visits can be overwhelming. Here are some tips for making sure you get the information you need. 

• Bring a list of questions about what’s most important to you and something to take notes on. Pay attention to other students’ questions as well. They may ask something you hadn’t thought of.   
• Remember that your tour guides are students at the school. Use the opportunity to ask personalized questions like “what’s your favorite tradition?” “what clubs are you involved with?” and “how’s the food?” 
• Look for clues about the campus culture. Notice posters in the hallways, the general vibe in the shared spaces, and the tone of classroom discussions. While you shouldn’t base your whole college decision on such details, they can add color to the picture you’re painting in your mind.  
• College visits are a good opportunity to meet with coaches, financial aid officers, and admissions officers to get questions answered and make a good impression. Just be sure to schedule them ahead of time.  
• Trust your instincts. Do your research and make your pro/con lists, but don’t forget to listen to your heart. Granite Edvance President and CEO Christian Thornton remembers an important moment in her son, Owen’s, college journey. She and Owen were eating in the dining hall at Messiah University, “and he said, ‘I could picture myself going here.’ He hadn’t said that anywhere else,” she said.
  
  Owen, who’s now completing his freshman year at Messiah agrees. “It was just a gut feeling when we got there,” he said.