{"id":912,"date":"2017-05-17T10:07:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T14:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=912"},"modified":"2017-05-23T12:33:48","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T16:33:48","slug":"rethinking-the-campus-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/05\/17\/rethinking-the-campus-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the Campus Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Campus visits often play an influential role in a student\u2019s enrollment decision, but one clinical psychologist is questioning whether teens rely too heavily on their initial impressions when selecting a college.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are making a decision we haven\u2019t made before (such as where to go to college) then our present selves must rely on imagination<\/em>, instead of experience,\u201d Erica Reischer writes in a recent New York Times<\/em> op-ed<\/a>. \u201c\u2026Visiting the campus \u2014 to take a tour, meet students, get the lay of the land \u2014 seems like a prerequisite to making a good decision. But visiting a college is not the same as being a student there, and this distinction matters a lot, because of the many ways in which our imagination misleads us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After all, imagination as a decision-making tool is \u201cinherently flawed,\u201d notes Reischer, who is also an author and parent educator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt necessarily omits significant details, while filling in gaps and leaving out other features in such a way that we don\u2019t notice what we\u2019ve made up or what is missing,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Instead, Reischer suggests students speak with \u201cexperience surrogates\u201d \u2014 current students or recent grads who have already completed the college selection process. And instead of seeking information to support what they think<\/em> they know about a school, college-bound teens should seek insight about students\u2019 actual experiences.<\/p>\n

Reischer says good conversation-starters include:<\/p>\n