Transcription

Hi, it’s Maggie again, and I’m here to talk to you about how to maximize a college visit. I worked as a tour guide at Ohio State for a year and a half, so i’ve got a bit of extra insight on this and how you can make this the best it can be. 

First and foremost, do your research before you go to the school. There’s nothing more frustrating than having someone ask questions that clearly indicate that they haven’t done any of their homework. You should know already if we do joint programs, or things about the surrounding community. That's not to say that you should do and know everything, I loved questions and that was an important part of the tour too. 

But you should’ve gotten onto the school’s website, gotten a bit of background information, so you have that tone set. My next comment is definitely to ask questions. That is absolutely what that guide is there for. I always told my groups that I know all this information I’ve been going to school here for 4 years, this is your time to ask questions. And it’s totally okay to ask questions about dining halls and the social scene and sports, and things that may seem kind of frivolous.

That’s totally okay, this isn’t just four years of school, this is four years of your life, so it’s important that you find somewhere that’s a good fit, and the only way you can do that is to ask questions. With that being said, another thing is to make sure you as the student are asking questions. I as a student tour guide didn’t have any input of you getting into OSU but you’re making a first impression, and you never know if your tour guide is going to be your TA for a physics class or english class.

And it just doesn’t look good to be that kid whose parents are doing all the talking. Another thing that I would tell you is to make sure that you ask about what the surrounding environment is like. So i know especially at O State, Columbus is a major metropolitan area, it’s the 16th largest city in the country. So, it’s a big influence on OSU, so be sure to ask what the area is like, do people live on or off campus, do people eat on or off campus. 

Those are the kind of questions you don’t think to ask because you’re so focuesd on your first year but they’re so important because you want to avoid transferring at all possible. Another suggestion is to take the material they give you, a lot of the times the material they give you on the tour contains information you can’t get on the website.  Arrange to meet with a department.  So at OSU, you get a whole bunch of advisors for academics, not just one. 

You’ve got your regular advisor, advisors in your majors and minors, if you’ve got a specialization you have an advisor for that, etc. So all these people are usually available to meet, but sometimes you have to call the department. If you’re interested in majoring in physics, you can call the department and ask for a prospective student meeting with a physics advisor. And I’m pretty sure you can do that at most schools, so that is something I’d highly recommend. I could probably go on for this for a lot longer, so hopefully that’s been helpful!