The College Visit 101

There's no substitute for a campus visit to help decide on a business school. Careful planning will make for a more productive trip

By Francesca Di Meglio

A campus visit can make your business school application sing. After having spent some time among potential classmates and professors—taking in the scenery, seeing where you might live, and observing how this business school might help you fulfill your goals—you can better answer the question, "Why should you attend this program?" While making a campus visit is not a requirement for applicants, it can help you describe the harmony between you and a particular school in your application—and therefore it can improve your chances of getting accepted.

Consider taking trips to your top choices as "priceless due diligence," says Beth Flye, assistant dean and director of admissions and financial aid at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. "It's like looking at a car," she adds. "You read about this car, but it's completely different once you drive it." Still, campus visits are only useful if you've prepared for them and make the most of your time.

Effective campus visits are the result of careful planning. For starters, you should read as much as you can—online and in brochures and books—to be certain this school is worth visiting to you. You must make sure you know the basics about the program and will be able to ask deeper questions once you're on campus. After you've narrowed down the list of schools that you'll be visiting to something manageable and affordable, you can start planning those trips.

Timing is Key

One of the first decisions you'll make is when to visit a campus. To decide, you should look at the academic calendar because you'll want to go when classes are in session and students and faculty are on campus. You'll want to avoid holidays and review and exam weeks, when people will either not be around or not have the time to talk to you.

Knowing when you'll be submitting your application is beneficial. "We always push candidates to go the spring before they apply if they're planning to apply in the first round in the fall," says Graham Richmond, co-founder and CEO of Clear Admit. You don't want to have to squeeze in a campus visit when you're working to finish your applications, and the first-year students are still getting used to campus.

Checking with the admissions office or using an online events calendar to find out when schools offer special programs for applicants—including campus tours, lunch with students, and sitting in on a class—is also a good idea. Some business schools, for instance, offer special events for potential applicants on Fridays and the weekends, whereas others are pretty much only open to applicants Monday through Thursday. You don't want to make the trip only to find no one is home. "Looking at empty buildings lacks value," says Linda Abraham, president of Accepted.com, an admissions consulting firm.

Interviews: Sign Up Early

Another mistake applicants make is thinking of these school visits like vacations. Applicants to Columbia Business School like to visit New York during the holiday season and want to stop by campus, says Linda B. Meehan, assistant dean for admissions and executive director at Columbia. She advises against this because the tourist applicants usually find the school closed or students taking exams, and the admissions committee drowning in applications. "It's a bad time to visit," says Meehan. It's your obligation to find out when will be a good time by looking at the calendars online or calling the admissions office and asking.

Attending a class and having lunch with students are two of the standard formal programs in which you should participate.

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