Visiting College Campuses Helps Students Answer Essay Prompts
Writing a College Essay Helped by College Visit Remembrances
As students begin the daunting task of writing tightly worded, critically important essays for each college’s prompts, the tension in the room can be intense. Is there anything that can help with this yearly task that sends many teens into panic mode even before the first draft?
There are several things you can do to help your teen weeks or even days before they sit down to write. First, help them understand that it is a process and that it will likely not be one and done. Great writing usually takes multiple drafts.
Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.
— Ernest Hemingway, The Paris Review Interview, 1956
If your teen has visited the college campus they are writing about, encourage them to review the notes and photos they took while on campus.
Stanford University
That Student Meetup
Ask your teen to revisit their trip by remembering what stood out. Maybe it was a meeting with a current student at the campus coffee shop. Perhaps it was the setup of the science lab with its shiny Bunsen burners.
Was there something on the walking tour that stood out, or something the tour guide said about their reasons for choosing that school? Was there a specific course taught by a professor they met or that they audited? These memories can help kick-start the writing process.
If they did not get the opportunity to visit a specific college’s campus, a virtual visit can still be helpful. One option is to use a simple virtual reality headset and spend time virtually exploring the school. Go to Google and search for the school’s app; many colleges now offer virtual tours.
UC Davis Tour
Visit a Local College Campus
Another suggestion is to visit a local college campus. Just being on a campus can put your student in the right frame of mind to write a thoughtful essay.
As the Founder of Custom College Visits, Janice is definitely pro-visit for college-bound teens. However, it is not just a personal opinion. Numerous research studies have asked high school and college students to rank the factors that influenced their college choice.
Visiting a college campus almost always ranks as a top influencer. Whether you visit colleges close to home or halfway around the world, campus visits can be incredibly helpful to your student in many ways.