Helping your child on the path to deciding where to continue their education after they receive their high School diploma is one of the most important parts of the parental journey.
With colleges reopening for campus visits, CalPac wanted to share some tips and tricks for getting the most out of a campus tour!
There are many factors that should go into choosing the perfect school. Finding a school that offers the field of study or major of your choice is often all that a Student looks at – while this is important it shouldn’t be your only consideration.
A great way to get a feel for a school is to schedule a college visit! For many students, a campus tour can be a huge factor in deciding where to go after high school.
Tips for Planning College Tours
Start Early!
It is never too soon to take your child to a college campus! You could start as early as elementary school if you wanted! Doing this serves two purposes. Firstly, it exposes children to the idea of college as a reality early on. This is key – often university can be made to feel like a major challenge or a foreign concept. While it does take effort and dedication to go to college, it is certainly not unachievable. Equipping children with the knowledge of how college works and what their options and pathways are to post secondary education will empower them to pursue furthering their academic careers when the time comes!
Additionally, it will help the child establish a sense of what they like or dislikes in a campus. After all, this is where the student will be spending at least a few years of his or her life, it’s important to visit and get a feel and understanding of all that that school has to offer!
Start With What You Know
Take your child to local campuses, both community colleges and universities. This will give them a sense of what all of these campus feel like. It is the most convenient way to start and it will expose your child to what is offered locally.
Take Advantage of Family Vacation Time
Yes! Family vacations are a break from work and school but visiting a college campus for half a day wherever you may be is a great way to spend some time!
Get to know local life and expose your child to a school that is well beyond the boundaries of home. Often times, students apply to schools out of state without having ever visited the school and that can often lead to a disappointing first year of college and perhaps a premature return home if your child finds that the match just won’t work after his first year of college.
Being able to not only visit a possible future college but also have the opportunity to explore what could be their future home for the next four years is a great way to ensure your child is happy with their school choice!
Schedule a Tour
While it is nice to happen upon a college campus and explore for yourself, the best way to get a very good sense of the school and its students is by signing up for a free, guided walking tour of the entire campus. These tours are often led by students and offer valuable information about student life and school offerings.
This will give students a sense of day to day on campus life and give them a chance to learn about all of the offerings each campus has. Think of it like this: perhaps your child has always wanted to rock climb. On a visit to Cal Poly Pomona, your student would get to discover the 42 foot climbing wall located in the campus gym that is available to all CalPoly students for free! While they may not have actively been googling “Colleges with a rock climbing wall”, this campus tour gave them an inside look on all of the opportunities offered to college students while they attend, and that could be a huge factor in their decision to attend!
Options Outside of Campus Tours
Summer Programs
Keep an eye out for summer program for students that are offered on college campuses. These camps will give your child great exposure to college life, again reinforcing the notion that college can be a reality for them and showing them a snippet of what college life may be like.
Virtual Tours
We understand that families are busy these days, and sometimes we just don’t have the capacity to do as many things as we like! If your family is unable to take the time to visit a campus in person, almost all universities offer comprehensive virtual tour and information session options.
Use Online Research Tools
To get an idea of all the colleges out there, sign your child up with College Board account and start searching for schools!
You can also take advantage of university websites and spend some time researching the schools your child finds.
Talk to Your Counselor
Who better to work through college plans with than one of our CalPac counselors! They will walk through the entire process with your student, make them aware of all of their options, provide them with the tools and resources needed to make college decision, and most importantly they will ensure that your student is taking all the classes they need to get into their dream school!
College Week at CalPac
You want to set your child up for success as they embark on this huge step into adulthood, and CalPac wants to offer some guidance!
CalPac is taking the month of October to focus on college, not just for our seniors but for our younger students as well! It is never too early to start exploring your post secondary education options, in fact studies have shown that starting at a younger age can be incredibly beneficial!
We’re kicking it off with College Week! Our faculty will be sharing their academic journeys and CalPac counselors will be giving students lots of valuable information throughout the week! Click the image below to learn more about College Week at CalPac!
Interested in Enrolling your Child at CalPac? Spots are still open for the 22/23 school year! Click the button below to secure your spot today!
The post Helping Your Child Decide on a College appeared first on California Pacific Charter Schools.
This post first appeared on Online School Grades 6-12 In California | CalPac, please read the originial post: here
