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## Why College Visits Matter [00:00] welcome welcome welcome everybody to another series of trainings with eagle loock I'm coach art and uh I'm just always excited to provide these trainings today we're going to be talking about college visits and your strategy strategy 101 um just to give you a little bit about who I am I'm call I'm coach art um I have um I am the head of coaching for Eagle loock I'm also the chief product officer and um I've been in this game for quite a while now uh helped to place a number of students uh throughout the country uh to the top 20 schools top 50 schools um and I just love doing uh I love coaching students I and and seeing them really evolve and change and transform into these amazing young individuals that are ready to Take On The World of college so um so today we're going to talk about college visits uh and strategies um and what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about why do these visits matter um how to plan for the visit what are some types of research and research resources that you can have the actual visit itself what you should do after you visit and then what are some key takeaways from that and then at the end um hopefully have enough time to to answer some of your questions okay so first of all why does it matter well you know um a lot of times when you're doing a lot of research out there we websites brochures and rankings rankings can only tell so much about a school you know um sometimes you just have to get go there to the actual school and have the how it feels and what it looks like um because size and structure and and just getting uh what it's feels like to be on the campus uh you just can't get that necessarily from a website or brochures now you know a visit can really help students figure out can they see themselves there um do they really feel ## Demonstrated Interest: What It Means for Admissions [02:00] like they can belong there is this a place that they can grow um I remember I I was listening to a podcast and and one of the one of the experts uh was talking about how you know if you're going to go to college uh it's not just one where you feel comfortable there but is it going to be someplace that's going to challenge you as well and and so again that's really great thing is is a place where I can grow another thing that's been recent that uh some people may not realize is this a concept called demonstrated interest and so some colleges actually are tracking now students um that are coming to the campus that are signing into you know looking at stuff in the um uh on their website tracking emails that are are sent to the school uh to the to the students and are responding back and they're actually it does um somewhat influence the um the the application process where they're using that as another means of input of whether the student is actually you know interested in the college so that's something new uh so keep on the radar that there is some demonstrated interest it's called demonstrated interest where the schools are tracking that uh of students who are um you know participating in that and and that also goes in line in line with you know um with scholarship opportunities as well um and again of course admittance so let's talk about planning for the visit okay now first of all why you know why do you want to go on a visit right you want to really explore the goals of doing this search Okay um and you want to you know what are you looking forward to in a visit first of all uh do you want to learn about the academics the classes and professors do you want to see how it is with student life like clubs and dorms and food uh do you want to figure out what the the culture is like whether it's stressful or not stressful whether it's collaborative whether it's welcoming okay and um you know what are some questions that can't be answered online what are some questions based on all of the research ## Planning Your Visit: What to Schedule Before You Go [04:15] that you do that only can be answered when you go on campus and so you really want to establish what are the key goals of your visit so for example here I put here I want to learn what it's like to be a biology major here and whether I'd enjoy the campus size so you know if you really kind of sit down and kind of figure out well what are some of the the key goals that we want to to to meet with that visit then at least um that will help you know push you along the way of uh being very organized and and getting the necessary information for you uh when you do your visit so I know this is a lot but I wanted to really provide you again this is strategy 101 so first of all there are things that you want to schedule when you're going to do your college visit so first of all you want to register early for tours and for information sessions I can't tell you enough uh where people are you know they scheduled their visits too late and then now and it's okay you can do a self visit but a lot of times these um tours are great I actually when I I I graduated from University Illinois and I was actually an orientation so I actually did those tours and I know how those tours are and you learn a lot we had to really learn a lot about the college itself and so uh these tours can be very very beneficial because it's very pinpointed at giving you as much information and useful information as possible um schedule time with specific departments I can't tell you enough how may you could talk to Deans okay of colleges or Representatives or maybe even professors or teachers there um you know and I have that on there that are specific departments that you could talk to them about these you know the possible Majors that your students might go into this is really important schedule a meeting with financial aid if you're going to be going on there because unfortunately sometimes if you go during a busy time those slots are already taken and of course everybody needs to know how much is this going to cost what are my possibilities and if you schedule that early then at least you'll have a session where you can sit down and talk with the financial aid counselor contact any organization and clubs where you can might might meet up with them this is a really valuable resource because what happens here is that um organization clubs they love to talk to potential students that may join their clubs and so you might actually get a student that may be offer um a a uh what do you call informal tour okay and they can give you the insights about the colleges so would highly if there's a particular organizations that you really the stud you're you as a student want to get involved in I would highly suggest to reach out to them and say hey I'm coming on a visit that this day would you be available um again as I mentioned reach out to admissions reps Deans professors and set up those meetings so you can talk to them about the you know about the programs if you are interested in athletics try to connect with the coach ahead of time and then set up a meeting I know U for example you probably have heard this many many times but my son plays college soccer um and uh so uh and then my other son uh was also um my actually my oldest was interested in basketball my middle son was interested in golf and so when we went ahead we actually talked to the coaches ahead of time and schedule time where they could either you know we could talk to the coach about this Athletics program or um for example like we were able to get it where they could meet the students as well um and if and we were trying to get let's say round of golf for my my middle ## Research Tools: Online Resources, Blogs & More [08:00] son and so that didn't happen but you know you could do that too okay um I would also ask ahead of time if there's a particular if if you could sit in on a class now if it's a bigger Auditorium type class you normally you can just you know you can just um walk in and and sit down but if it's a smaller class uh the Deans or the professors might uh invite you uh in to just you know do and sit in on a class so when it's a small you need to get approval for that and again the best time to go uh when for this is during the times when the students are in session okay so that's where again scheduling all these during that times is really really important another important thing is building time to explore the surrounding area not just the college campus itself but outside of the college campus and I'll talk about that a little later on know the basics about the colleges do when you're doing research and we'll talk about that research but again size location the type of weather major offerings the special programs go on and read student blogs or watch student Vlogs and I'll talk about that a little later as well and make a list of five to 10 questions to ask different people while you're there and we'll talk about that as well in in subsequent um uh slides okay uh again I want to greet all those that have just joined my gosh there's so many people on woo love it thank you for joining um my session so we're talking about college visits okay now some of you may be asking what is the ideal grade level high school level to visit and I put here the pros and cons so for example freshman in sophomore year now for me personally okay this is what I've always dictated usually I say go for the older years and sometimes I say even if you canot if you don't have a budget to go on these college visits and you don't or you don't have the time you know wait you can wait all the way up until they get accepted to those colleges and then go because that's when it'll be the most relevant but if you're considering uh you know uh throughout the high school years freshman sophomore year the pros of that is they get early exposure to colleges there's always good opportunities to get exposure to college so they can kind of have an idea but the cons of that is your children's taste might change their interest might change okay so if they're interest change then you know going to that particular College may not be in the in the works right now junior year uh the pros for that is again normally junior year students have a much clearer goal and interest and idea of what colleges ## When to Visit (Grade, Season, Day & Time Tips) [10:45] they want to maybe apply to so that's better because then they'll actually see the college they might go to and it also gives them plenty of time to visit all of the colleges right but again I always encourage if you can't do it then there's a lot of great resources to see it online but it does give you time especially if you have ones in different regions you know of the country now the cons of that is normally juniors are very very very busy so it's hard to kind of insert College visits there especially if you are going if if you're going to try to do it in the summer a lot of times I don't necessarily suggest going to Summer and the reason why is because there's not a lot of students there but we'll go through that as well and then also and I've seen this a little bit is you know it may add pressure to make decisions about college selections itself like hey pick this particular College okay um I've seen students who get so locked in focused on a particular college and then they won't they don't want to see any other colleges so that sometimes is a is a con senior year again ideal normally it's where they've established where they want to apply to um you know they've worked on their applications so that's a a pro but again as I mentioned cons seniors are very very busy you know they're trying to wrap up their of course their their High School career and so but normally the ideal situation either junior or senior year now what about the ideal Seasons you may not think about this but you know the summer and spring visits it's warmer and it's more flexible for you in a sense of timing but the thing is there's fewer events in students and this is where I I mentioned in the beginning is when you want to go and do a um College visit you want to do this at a time when school is in session okay uh and I mean by that by fall and spring because normally in summer and winter the sessions there's not as much uh as students taking classes okay now in the fall visit normally it's the ideal situation it's Lively campus it's realistic views of the academic and social life and that's what you want to do because you want to have your students be in a uh you know in how it's going to be actually when they're there right but the busy the con of that is it's really busy okay and it's busy not just from a perspective of what the students are doing at the college but busy for you okay and all of the things that students do during fall and during the fall sign so um but uh you know it might and also it might get more personalized experience in the summertime uh because there's more um there's more time to again to to to to fit in and schedule your your visits during the winter it's much quieter um you can see how the campus is during a chilly time or or maybe bad weather time because that's really really important for some ones that are some schools that are that are um in the colder uh you know atmosphere um and then of course aan is potentially bad weather uh when you're visiting these schools okay so again I I always say is the ideal time is maybe fall and Al maybe spring or spring but fall and spring are normally the times just because you want to go during the time when school is in session okay now you may not think about this but what is the ideal time to visit for me again I always like to take advantage of everything that I can so um so during the week the middle of the week is usually the best time just because there's less visitors but also there's more personalized attention because ## What to Look for During the Visit [14:30] there's less visitors but there's more student traffic meaning that there's more students around um but the most popular days that normally people schedule visits are on Friday and Monday because they're either at the at the beginning of a weekend or at the uh at the end of a weekend right um so you can make it a long weekend okay but normally middle of the week is is preferable or better just because again students are there that's when the most students are there uh during during the time of the week uh time of the day mornings I always say is preferable and just because what happens is you launch uh right into the hustle and bustle of how it is there and you can observe the campus energy but again it's a really busy time to visit the campus so many things are going on in the afternoon it's a little calmer but then things are wrapping up already for the day so sometimes if you go maybe early afternoon is better but in late afternoon most of the tours are already done by then and then of course evening there are no traditional college visits unless you schedule maybe a unique one or a private one um but you what you can do is experience the dorm life and social activities in the evening okay okay so what do we do about research because that's something that is definitely important when you're planning so first of all there are a lot of college resources that you can do that you that actually make be sufficient enough for you uh instead of doing a visit um there first of all there are a lot of now I've seen so many 360 degree virtual tours and they're amazing with really incredible pictures of the of this of the schools themselves some sites are youvisit campusreel and niche.com okay uh you can also on the college admissions websites they provide a lot of information about the academic programs the room in board information financial aid and then how to apply to those schools um and then a lot of the schools too also have recorded information sessions and webinars so if you can't make it to you know a tour or I would highly suggest that you attend the uh school information sessions then they're normally recorded and these seminars are recorded so you can watch those online okay and frankly to tell you the truth I would actually watch those ahead of time before and that's just me because I'm all about information and data but I like to watch those ahead of time too so that I can be even more knowledgeable when I get to the visit and then um then I can even pinpoint my questions right um there are some student testimonials and student um uh interviews that are online that you can so first of all one you could ask the admissions um um Department if you could talk to a student from a particular major from a particular home Hometown or a background um and they'll be happy to I've seen a lot of times where they' be happy to set that up with you either on the phone or you could do like a a zoom call there are some great platforms okay like unibuddy college Vine or even uh Reddit sites that provide information about um you know the campuses and giving uh student perspectives okay uh I I mentioned there campus real so campus real they actually have real students giving informal tours you know they're they're recording their informal tours those I like those because sometimes they show kind of um some of the things maybe the good and the bad um and it's really awesome because some of these tours show the dorms and the actual configuration of the dorms and and and so you can get to see the dorms you see the social scene um and even class experiences so those are awesome and then of course social media um you know Instagram Tik Tok and even LinkedIn some things that show what uh graduates if you think about graduates um are doing okay some other things for research there are a lot of independent research tools out there college matching and in and search engines like big future niche.com uh college scoreboard which is given by the US Department of Education uh College Navigator by n ncees and then capex um in this day and age of online resources a lot of times people don't ## Smart Questions to Ask Students & Admissions [19:00] buy books and guides anymore but there are some pretty cool books out there uh the fist guide to colleges uh Princeton Review always has their um great books like the best 380 colleges and then another book called colleges that change lives okay and so you can read about that as well if you are a person that likes to feel the paper Okay um there are also virtual College fairs and events so for example naak which is the National Association of college um admissions counselors um they do a lot of virtual College fairs online um colleges that change lives again it's a book but it's also ctcl also is online and then the Coalition for colleges um so there's a lot of great resources for you to in to to really look into the particular colleges and get familiar with them before you even go on these visits okay but in general just to to know about these colleges now of course you can talk to your high school counselors um the high school counselors are there um they you could talk to past students who attended those colleges um I remember going to my son's high schools and they had these huge huge binders of um not only College information but how many students from that school uh from our high school attended that okay and what they' done so that's pretty cool um there's normally local College Representatives that attend and go to high schools and of course there's printed materials now one tip that I would say is when you're doing your research it's it's not just enough to to just go through it but you know what I would highly suggest is to track that information in some type of Google sheet or notebook okay so track what programs you're interested in um visit you know what kind of formats that you visited in vers like a virtual tour or information session um notes from various student panels or social media and then also your you know as a student your gut feel how did you feel about that okay so that because that's really really important as well okay so let's dive into the visits so you've done um all of these research you've you have scheduled all of the tours and everything and so now you're going to be getting and going to the actual um the actual visit itself okay so let's take a look at that so first of all Logistics wise okay uh Logistics wise I highly highly highly highly highly suggest that you um arrive early at least 15 to 30 minutes early I can't tell you enough where I've seen uh and this was my personal experience when I was actually an orientation leader because we are on a time schedule and so you can't wait for people to to come especially even if you did a research um and sometimes what they'll do is if the persons don't come on time there are people in waiting and then they'll they'll actually take over your spot so it's important to allow yourself time allow yourself time to park and get and get to the proper location because sometimes parking is actually the biggest turtle in visiting these colleges cuz you know the parking may not be near where they start the tour so check in at the right building and remember to dress comfortably okay this is not a fashion show okay they're not going to judge you on what you wear so remember that you're going to do a lot ## What to Do After the Visit [22:30] of walking so get some good walking shoes get some comfortable clothes so that you can especially if it's hot out there so you can walk you know bring a water bottle and that kind of stuff so that you you're prepared okay because you will be walking uh normally you're going to check in at the admissions office or you're going to do uh check in at some type of Welcome Center remember be polite smile and check in by your name there are times when emissions counselors will actually take notes on candidates that are coming in remember I talk about designated interests but they will also look and see if there are particular students and if you're not treating people well that could go against you okay but in general in life you should always be just polite and smile and be nice um when you get there ask for a campus map uh daily schedules or any agendas that you're going to be going through as well as materials provided and also if they do have it ask for Wi-Fi access because you know a lot of times um there are great resources that you need on your phone and if you don't have necessarily a good plan or if you're not getting good reception you know Wi-Fi access might be really important for you uh if you arrive early get oriented walk around the building you know near the check-in area uh note your first impressions when you're walking from let's say the parking lot to to the Welcome Center get a Vibe of the of the of the campus and take photos okay take as many photos that are going to allow you to bring it back when you get back uh from the tour to remember and see and and you know interesting areas all right I know I said this already but observe the vibe so one of the things that I always say is that when you get your acceptances normally a lot of uh students when they actually um have a choice okay when it comes down to let's say one or two or three the last thing that they'll do is you go to the college and then you get that you get what I call the feels okay how does it feel do you feel like you're at home here and so some of the things when you when you um observe the vibe are the students walking alone or are they walking in groups do people say hi to each other um is the campus clean is it Lively is it calm or is it intense you know are there flyers for a lot of events for a lot of speakers and clubs okay look for all those visual cues study the spaces look and see how the dining hall is you know is it active or ## How to Use Visits to Finalize Your College List [25:00] not um how are professors and students interacting with each other if you're able to sit into a class all of these things are little cues to say you know what kind of environment are you going to be getting into and does it match who you are right okay now now you're on the tour right so first of all greet your tour guide introduce yourself mention um what grade level you are and your potential interest area or what your potential major is because making a great impression or first great impression is really important because this may lead to uh counselors that have a personal in that may give you some personalized insights so for example if you say Hey you know I'm really I'm a really cool music buff or something they might point out something that'd be very cool about that and I know when I was an orientation leader back in the day um that's what I would do is if there was certain um I would actually ask the my group hey is there anything particularly interested in and if they told me I'd put that in my brain and then when I and I would bring those up as I go along in the you know in the in the tour um there are normally other sessions besides the tours that you would go to so for example they call them welcome sessions they there's also financial aid sessions there's also housing I would definitely make sure to pay attention at these welcome sessions I know it may get boring for once uh after a while after certain ones but again it's really important because you learn about the admissions process which is really really important if this is the school you want to go to you learn about financial aid remember how I mentioned uh schedule your financial aid right um session uh you learn about the campus culture and academic highlights um and make sure that you sit close to the front if you can because that helps with engagement and signals okay uh signals interest right they might who knows again remember that demonstrate interest they may not know who you are of course but again it's one of those things where you never know right make sure you bring a notebook or a phone to take notes and pictures that is so important make sure to take notes um and take a lot of pictures and for families okay when I say families like Mom and Dad and and the and your brothers and sisters okay you should parents I'll say this to the parents here parents should let students lead conversations and questions when possible this is their time okay especially again with respect to the demonstrated interest but also you know allow the students to grow because they're the ones who are actually going to be attending these colleges of course so allow them to to lead the conversations or the questions when possible and pro tip for you guys for parents and I I remember again as a orientation leader I really appreciate this is save your questions the parents only save your questions for the end or ask them quietly so you allow your student to shine okay um um and maybe what you can do is ahead of time this is always good is to show your the questions that you might have ahead of time to to your your your son or daughter so that you know you're going to asking these questions because your son or daughter might ask these questions they could ask and it's even better if they're the ones who are asking it okay um so talking about questions so ask smart questions and what I always say is ask different questions of different people so for example to the tour guides or the students are doing it what surprised you most when you started here um what do students do at a Friday night what's one thing you'd change so a lot of times you talk about you know ask about the positive things but I also will ask maybe about the negative things or again one thing that you would change is a good thing um also to the admissions counselors you talk what advice would you give a strong applicant you know from my area meaning area of Interest right um our interviews required or recommended how do you evaluate um the aps IBS or dual enrollment credits okay that's important because a lot of students again are taking Advanced courses and when they're taking these Advanced courses you know sometimes it's good to know well how much credit am I going to get for those right okay so these are some examples of of questions that you might ask of different people now the tour uh as I mentioned you know this uh greet your tour guide introduce yourself we talked about all this um pay attention at the welcome session now you want to take notes and photos okay don't rely on just your memory okay because the thing is with just relying on your memory um the campuses all of the different campuses they all blend together and after a while if you've gone to three or four or five of them they might be all the same right so you want to make sure you take notes and you want to make sure you take a few piics uh unique spots things that you liked so that you can put that in your as part of your notes um because then you know if you're especially if you're doing it as a freshman sophomore and then a junior the next time that you may be looking at these notes are when you're selecting the school okay and uh because you got accepted and then and if you don't have copious notes if you don't have notes that really outline uh you know what was interesting for you then GH you know it might be you might have a harder time selecting you know got down some key Impressions the first word that comes to mind when you get to to the to the school sometimes you know sometimes you just don't have a feeling it's like ooh boring or something like that what are the best and worst moments of the visit anything unexpected or exciting okay so those are the kind of things you want to take notes on now after the session okay after your tours there are a lot of things that um I would include besides the tours and the in school sessions first of all during these times imagine yourself as a student there and assess if it feels like a good fit okay not only on the campus but also outside uh as I mentioned sit in on a class okay and make sure if you have to get ahead of that talk to professors and students don't be shy to approach students at the college there if they're you know if they're at let's say walking around or or maybe if they're sitting down eating lunch I found a lot of times that they are very very willing to talk with you okay um they're excited about it a lot of students are very excited about talking about their colleges when you explore um again it's very important explore surrounding areas and this is a point for not only just the the the parents but the students look at the towns and cities around the campus outside okay it may be that the campus is amazing it's full of energy and life but then when you step outside it is like you know crickets okay there might not be anything to do and so um although the campus itself uh you know after a couple years you might get bored okay or you might say oh I really want something else this is the one thing that I learned from a very very clever um um orientation leader before go to see where the closest hospital and Pharmacy is and the reason why I say that is because things could happen and if things do happen you want to make sure that your students are aware and are very know where the closest hospital if it's close enough and the pharmacy and if you know they and especially if you're student has let's say a a special condition or or maybe some type of particular meds that they take it's important to find out if that's available there okay consider overnight stays so there are some there are some schools uh especially when you get accepted a lot of the schools will have programs where you can stay over a couple of days days um and that allows the students to really get oriented um I know that my son who went to Berkeley we did that is they actually had uh it's called oep where you could it's an overnight stay and uh it was a great experience and it frankly allowed him to choose Berkeley over all the other schools he was accepted because he just really enjoyed the vibe he enjoyed all the things and all the um the the um sessions and information that he got from there okay so see if they have it available and if they do I would highly suggest to do it uh to to get involved in that just because it it does give you more uh information um what do you call experience with the college now after the visit you're done with the visit you've you know and and and you've visited the surroundings and now you're back right well now you're back but right after okay and I say this reflect as soon as possible let's say you're done with that and you're in the car okay and this is out to the students and the parents as well I would answer these questions what did I like about it what didn't feel right can I imagine myself there how does this compare to the other schools I've visited okay and another thing is that um do a simple rating system like from one to five give a one to five rating for the academics the campus field the Student Life the diversity the affordability you can put a whole slew of categories for yourself and just do a quick one to five of how you feel that is really really powerful uh when it comes to again starting to really compare the schools once you've done your visits okay so do some self-reflection and do it immediately don't wait until two or three days later when you forget the vibe or the feel and also forget about some of the key details okay another key thing here is send a thank you uh email um again if you're old school you can send a l but normally an email to anyone that you spoke to directly so for example like an admissions representative a professor a coach a student ambassador I've seen great things like for example when my son did a USC tour the actual Ambassador he actually sent us a a handwritten note which was really really cool and um the reason why again is just to show um you know again gratefulness and who knows it could be part of the demonstrated interest as well okay um so and it's always good to to just thank those people because they work hard I know again being an orientation leader we worked really really hard to give those tours okay it is they were not easy sometimes okay um another important thing build your short list so as you go along with each of the visits as I mentioned take the notes start organizing your thoughts and then give a highlevel um you know assessment of the school is it something you're definitely applying to is it somewhere where it's a maybe or is it not a fit because that is very very powerful for you to narrow down your college list okay so if it's definitely applying put that on the list and now you know you can start exploring and start doing even more research and then the may as well so that's where we can start looking at again and helping us at eagal loock here when we're if you're if you're part of our coaching program it definitely helps us okay so what are some key takeaways um from the visits first of all be be proactive conduct thorough research and self-reflection I can't tell you enough I gave you all the list of those researching opportunities do your homework before you go on the visit because that's going to make the visit much much more productive and informative for you if you do all the research ahead of time so you can pinpoint the key areas and key information that you need be intentional know what you're looking for and that goes along with again the research okay if there are particular things because let's say that school is you know I don't know um has a has a great program about Dark Matter then be intentional and find out you know and you can pinpoint and ask about that or or talk to the particular school about that be observant right watch and listen closely during the visit remember how I talked about is about the vibe check out the vibe figure out if the students are happy there or do they look stressed or you know um you know how how it is do they interact with one another and most of all be reflective don't just collect brochures but collect insights a lot of times students will just collect you know get all this stuff and then they never really look at it again really be reflective collect the insights and write them down about your thoughts of you know uh your visit okay so first of all before I take any questions I want to ask hopefully was that beneficial did you did you find out things um that were beneficial for you if you did then please if you could give me a heart or a thumbs up um I really love to to know because again I enjoy putting this stuff together and I love to always see if this was informative uh and useful information for you okay great love it thank you so much I love the series of Hearts so thank you so much I really appreciate that um are there any questions are there any any questions out there that you have I'd be happy to answer them um and you know I can we can give a couple minutes here for any questions uh that you may have uh let's see here let's see let me check out the question and answers here okay no question the question answers looks like there are where do I start okay that's an interesting question I I don't know uh so the question is where do I start okay well I mean I'll give you a perspective first of all um again one of the things that I talked about is when when should you start in sense of is it freshman sophomore junior senior right uh regardless of where you are I would again if if you're a parent or if you're a student is when you have the time if you're earlier in this in the process which is freshman sophomore I would recommend is that you know at you know give maybe over the summer give some time to kind of get your thoughts together and start looking and I would say is U if let's say you are and it's this one parent of a sophomore okay great during the summer of your sophomore sophomore year sorry after your sophomore students year during that summer I would start asking the questions about colleges and just say hey where would you you know what do you want to do what kind of colleges what kind of interest um do you have and um you can start those visits then now do I what I say is do you need to no you don't not necessarily have to need to but again if your student has not had any exposure to colleges it might be an eye opener and a good thing or what I've seen sometimes is it inspires the students if you start early with these visits okay um but the key thing here is how where do you start start from the beginning of course and what you do is start start just researching the colleges seeing what and and you can do this by sitting down with your student and just going to certain websites and just feeling it out and saying hey do you like this do you like that right it's almost like if you had um you're trying to figure out Cuisine and you're sitting there and and then you just give them hey okay let's try this particular dish do you like that and they're like oh no I don't like that it's too sweet oh okay then let's go this side so you're starting to get an idea of the the things and you can answer certain questions okay about colleges you can go on to the sites I talking about and they have some great College quizzes where ask you questions and you can answer those questions and they will generate actually College lists for you um or we can do that as well College lists for you um we're actually doing that for juniors right now is generating their college lists so that um and then that's where you can start to really start exploring the type of colleges and maybe the kind of visits that you're going to do so hopefully that helps okay any other questions any other questions about college visits I'm GNA ask one more time any questions about college visits okay usually that's a key that I've done my job because I've I given you so much great uh oh sorry in the let's see there oh there is questions I'm sorry here we go okay okay anything we need to pay attention if someone if somehow the tours are full and we have to do self-guided tours okay great question so first of all um I would always there there are couple of key things okay you want to make sure that you visit the college that the possible college that your student is going to visit or going to be part of okay um and if you can if you can't if you cannot actually um get a on tour T and sometimes a lot of the schools actually they don't have necessarily a um particular um major tour okay so what I would do is go to those buildings especially that's why it's important it's really important to go during uh when college is in session because you might actually find a uh teacher a professor or the dean might be available to actually talk to you and uh so that's one thing so I would say visit the college uh the sorry the major the when I say college meaning the College of that major so let's say the engineering college or or so or the engineering uh building I would also go to housing that is really really important is um if you miss if there's no tour for housing then I would go and and check out the housing as well um and this is where if you weren't able to do the tour is where the virtual tours beforehand it's really really important because you want to see the housing but sometimes you can't see the depth and bread of how how big those hous housing um how big housing is or how clean it is or what it looks like uh online so that's where I would go for housing uh again financial aid as I mentioned uh make sure that you do uh and set up for financial aid that's a really big thing and then if you can if you can stay there into the evening check out the evening um social social life okay um look at uh which was a great thing is take a look at the B um there's um take a look at there's normally like sign like sign boards where they have all uh where people post up like uh flyers and everything else look on those boards as well because that will give you a good indication of the things that are happening on campus and certain things oh and then you know what that's one thing I did not mention and thank you for asking this question ask about the safety and what this and this is where even at in the evening where you can check this out what kind of safety um protocols do they have do they have uh where they have an escort an escort um Service uh do they have a bus you know um or or some type of vehicle that goes around uh uh and and how long does that last what is the uh what is the type of of um um travel kind of you know uh either either is there a bus is there a is there a a shuttle is there a train um you know those type of things those are the kind of things that I would look at okay uh do you have more webinars like this and how I can get access absolutely we have a bunch of webinars like this uh we do webinars Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday every week and what you can do is you can go on YouTube um and um you can look up on YouTube um for um for uh look up College admission Secrets uh YouTube and definitely you will see um we have my gosh I think we have 300 videos now 300 webinars that we have recorded so I'm so glad that that you you got um you know some um some great um information from this so yes check it out uh you'll see me there coach Tony coach David Coach Victor doing uh all types of um seminars what should you focus on if not doing a formal tour still check into oh okay oh okay well again another question same thing what you focus so I will say and this has happened remember how I mentioned people get in there late and unfortunately again there late but I would still check into the admissions office okay and the reason why is because if you're not if you if uh um if you don't do a formal tour um or you didn't get into one you might be able to get into one but secondarily is some of these missions offices have a self um tour they actually have either a brochure that shows you how to um to do the self tour or they may even have where you can rent out those ones where they it's you know it's either on your phone or or a um some type of um communication you know um type of equipment where they will walk you through but more importantly is they can give you Maps okay they can give you maps and they can highlight areas too because for example when I was an or leader we would always have someone Staffing the uh admissions office or the Welcome Center and then they could uh Circle things that you could look into as well okay great questions everybody love it these are amazing questions so thank you so much for asking those questions um I will ask is there any other questions if there isn't oh thank you so much I see the hearts coming along I really really love it because again um we we we take a lot of time providing you know and and giving you this information so it it's really I really do appreciate when people um show show their love just because um this really uh inspires me to do more of these so um I want to thank everybody for attending my session thank you so much um I know that you can have any time to spend time with your family or friends and you choose to spend time uh with me and that I'm just so grateful about that so thank you so much um I'm here every Tuesday at 6 p.m uh oh actually I will not be here next week but I don't want you to miss out because actually my coaches are going to actually do a session on going through the UC app and the co on the p and the um comment application so that's something that you don't want to miss especially if you're a junior and especially if you want to know about the applications they're going to go line by line through it so that's a really cool session for next week okay so anyway have a wonderful rest of your week thank you so much for joining and we'll see you next Tuesday have a good one talk to you later byebye