By: Shireen Korkzan<[email protected]>

Senior Alexandra Bellis so far has visited five college campuses, including Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Indiana University in Bloomington, Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois in Champagne/Urbana. She said she visited all of these campuses in November of her junior year and might visit DePauw University in Greencastle and Pennsylvania State University in the near future. She also said she believes that the earlier students start researching for college the better, with visiting colleges being the last step in the process before making any final decisions.

“I think that the earlier you can start looking at colleges the better it will be because you can gather more information and be prepared to ask the right questions and see the right things when you visit the campuses,” Bellis said. “I believe that visiting college campuses are a later stage in the process of selecting colleges. Junior year is a good year to visit as long as you are prepared to ask the right questions.”

Students apply to about three to five schools a year, according to guidance counselor Shelly Rubinstein. But she said that one year she had a student apply to 11 schools. On average, it costs about $35 to $50 to apply per school. About 50 percent of students get into the college of their choice. Because of high prices and rigorous requirements in applying per school, she said she and the other guidance counselors here try and have students focus on being more diverse in their electives so that they can have an idea of what they want to do after high school. With this said in mind, students can have a more clear focus on what school to look for and what campuses they would like to visit.

“I try and help students pick electives and classes that pertain to what they want to pursue,” Rubinstein said. “Most kids do have an idea of what they want to pursue in the future. I always try to prepare them for the fact that they may change their minds so they should keep an open mind.”

On the other hand, senior David Pison said he believes that the decision regarding when to visit college campuses is solely up to the student.

“I personally didn’t (start visiting college campuses freshmen or sophomore year) but I understand that since colleges are getting more competitive it’s a good idea to start searching early,” Pison said. “I started (visiting college campuses) my junior year and that has worked for me. But some people like to search earlier and some people like to search later.” So far, Pison has visited the University of South Carolina, the University of North Carolina, Duke University in Durham, N.C. and Xavier University in Cincinnati. He said he plans on majoring in pre-medicine, biology or chemistry.

Rubinstein said that if any student needs help in looking into various colleges, there’s a college and career center in the guidance office that has many colleges for students to look in and suggests for students and parents to come to any college information night. Bellis said she used the information given on the colleges’ web sites to find information regarding campus visitations and made reservations to visit the campuses online.

At Ball State University, September and October are the months when most seniors come to visit its campus, which varies from about 400 to 500 people, according to the Ball State University Admissions Office. About 400 freshmen, sophomores and juniors visit the most during the months of March, April and May. There, they have special campus visits called Cardinal Preview Days, which are days when high school students from around the country can come and visit the campus. Cardinal Preview Days are particularly helpful to high school students who are undecided about a major or have multiple academic interests. Last year, Ball State University held four Cardinal Preview Days. Among them, two of the days were focused primarily to sophomores and juniors. Called Sophomore/Junior days, these days were focused to help these students learn more about Ball State University as they begin college searching.

Bellis, Pison and Rubinstein all said they believe that no matter what grade a student is in, colleges will take them seriously when they visit their campus.

“Colleges will take every student seriously,” Bellis said. “Even though (colleges) focus mainly on juniors, they will look at anybody for possible admittance into their college.”

Rubinstein said, “I think that colleges still take every student seriously because they take into account that not everybody knows what they want to study; however, it’s never too early to begin researching.”