Touring colleges across the country is expensive and time consuming, and we recognize that busy high school students have trouble carving out time to travel. That’s why we advise students to break the project down into small pieces and start locally to help them figure out what type of environment might suit them. Here in Los Angeles we have prototypes for many “types” of colleges. Start locally and explore the differences in a stress-free and inexpensive way!
Are you interested in finding out what small east coast liberal arts colleges feel like? Get over to Occidental College for an Information session and tour. You’ll be able to discern all sorts of characteristics that would be common to colleges of this type. Admissions folks will describe the small class sizes, research opportunities and tight knit bonds that students enjoy there.
You want to find out about life on a large campus with lively football programs, big Greek life, a multitude of course offerings and lots of people? Go tour UCLA to get a good idea of what the flagship schools across the country are like!
Does a Christian-based education appeal to you? Go visit Pepperdine University to see what that experience might be like and how comfortable you would be on a Christian campus—the unique differences will be very clear and provide you with all sorts of insights. For a good example of a Jesuit (Catholic) education, we have Loyola Marymount University nearby and listening to admissions presentations and touring the campus will help you understand their unique educational philosophy of educating the “whole student” at Loyola and at Jesuit institutions across the country.
As we like to say at Navigatio College Consulting—knowledge is power. So get out and do some local college touring to accrue knowledge early on and you will be in a powerful position to know what you are looking for!
