Good for you! Apparently the college you’re looking at has a brand new, state-of-the-art stadium, a championship-winning football team and offers eight different kinds of psychology classes. But what about the actual students who go there? Where do you fit in?
If you’re like me, you don’t want to get suckered into a college’s incessant advertising, falling prey to the showy brochures and emails that it has been sending to your house for the past eighteen months. I’d rather you know what you’re getting yourself into, lest you wind up on a campus full of cat-collectors or live-action-role-play-obsessed students — unless of course, that’s your thing.
To get a real sense of the university life, I recommend actually spending a night at a college. I, myself, spent an overnight with a friend at UVA a few months ago, and – although my day campus experience was enlightening – nothing compares to the overnight. You get the chance to see students in their natural element, figure out where the best places to eat meals or hang out are, and understand whether or not there’s a place socially for you at that school.
Instead of the systematic, tour-guide-led experience that most colleges recommend, spending the night at a college allows you to explore at your own pace and discretion. You get a more interactive experience with the actual students who go there, – after all, you are spending a night with them in their dorm – and you can better evaluate the dynamic of the campus.
When I stayed with my friend, in just 24 hours I learned more about the social norms and traditions at UVA than I had learned on any campus-led group tour I had been on. I’m not saying that traditional group tours aren’t beneficial in your attempt to learn more about a university, but the overnight stay undoubtedly enables you to get a sense of what being an actual student on that campus would be like.