The Sharon Academy

Previous seniors highly recommend that you visit and interview at several colleges prior to visiting your top choices. Before you go, call to make sure classes will be in session when you plan to visit. Also, you should plan on visiting classes and staying overnight, if possible. This will give you much more of an opportunity to get a feel for the school. This will help you do several things: 

• Clarify your criteria for your college. Do you want a core curriculum? Do you want access to a large city? Do you want to be close to home? 

• Determine what you do NOT want in a college. For example, you might decide you are not comfortable in a very large school after visiting one. 

• Give you practice with talking to college representatives with less pressure than if it “counted”. Many have found that this makes a big difference at later interviews. This last item was highly emphasized by recent seniors. Some have stated that they made a mistake in visiting or interviewing only at their top-choice schools. Thus, they were much more nervous than they would have been if they had practiced first. 

• Start visiting in your junior year to get an idea of what you are looking for in a school. Take advantage of February and/or April break. Don’t just visit the schools where you think you want to go. Start your visits with local colleges in which you are not interested. Don’t fall for the “there’s only one school for me” syndrome.

• If you cannot visit a college in person before you apply, try a virtual tour at www.ecampustours.com or www.campustours.com 

Preparation for the College Visit: 

• Review this booklet before you go. Use the College Interview section to help you organize what you may want to ask while you are there. 
• Take copies of TSA’s profile with you to give to the representative of the college. (An image of the last published profile is available at the end of this document, or on our website.) Familiarize yourself with the profile beforehand, so you can talk about what makes TSA unique. 
• Take your College Guidance Counselor’s business cards with you to give to representatives.