Over the last three days, there have been a number of college visits to Beijing with the likes of Stanford, Berkeley, Dickinson, and several others. While it seems a bit early since most schools have just started up, it only marks the opening of application season.
University visits are both increasingly important and valuable to some extent. Let’s talk about why they are important. Attending presentations is an important part of a student’s research. It is an important place to ask the expert about specific courses, programs, and information one cannot glean from a university website. It is also crucial that students complete Inquiry Cards, which indicate that you attended a reception and put your name on their radar. Finally, you should collect the representative’s name card, so you now have a contact to ask further questions, connect with current students and even professors in areas in which you are interested. These are also the same people who may be giving your application a “first read,” so having their information is a good thing.
Why are events like this “somewhat important?” First off it is not an interview, nor do representatives have the time to speak deeply about you. They are general in nature. Nor is it about impressing the representative – that comes in the application or perhaps an actual interview. The other reason is that there usually are just too many students. As with the Berkeley, Stanford, Lafayette, and Bard presentation, most of the students attending were there for only two of the schools. Which, by the way, is really sad since the other two are amazing institutions but because they are not “ranked” students didn’t really pay attention to them.
Overall, students misunderstand the relevance of presentations like these. Every student already knows that certain schools are “good.” Often bantered about are statements like “Top 20”, “Top 50” etc… and to be honest, I am not sure what that means exactly. Yes, of course, it points to US News, or World ranking but on a student-level what does it really mean? One of my favorite journalists, Frank Bruni, just wrote an Op-ed article When Did College Turn So Cruel which speaks to the current impact of the state of admissions. He has written other articles but also known for having written Where You Go Is Not Who You Will Be. I’ve added the Amazon link so you can have a good read.
So coming back to the importance of presentations, they should be about investigating a wide variety of schools and learning about what you do know or dispelling preset ideas that X College is not a good school because it is not highly ranked. Had a student attended one of the recent mini fairs, they might have learned that a particular college has had an engineering program long before MIT. They might have also learned about the value and importance of attending an all women’s university. Attending presentations should not just be about what you already know or think you know, but being open-minded enough to look further to understand the value of education through a broad spectrum of schools.
By the way, the visits that are happening this Fall/Autumn aren’t really meant for Seniors but are for Juniors. This is the opportunity for you to start thinking about where you might focus your research in the coming year. There will be a number of opportunities, including big universities fairs around the city. Make time and go; this is your future. Don’t let your future hang on some number in a ranking scheme that has very little to do with you. You are better than that. It takes time to be responsible for your future.
Photo: kuder.com
