With the future comes freedom and decisions. Upperclassmen are starting to take control of their lives and figure out what direction they will go. Choosing which college to attend is a big step into the unknown abyss. During the school day, juniors and seniors have the ability to go to the Guidance Office office during one of their class periods and listen to a college representative tell them everything that they should know about the college. The dates and periods in which the college visits are available vary but can be found in the morning announcements.

“Our policy on college visits is that students must get a gold college visit pass from the Guidance Office by the day before the visit at the latest. The reason we do this is that when we give you your pass, you have to get it signed by the teacher whose class you are going to miss, to make sure it is alright with them. The teachers always have the right to keep you in their class, whether you have a college visit pass or not,” said Kate Kindbom, College and Career Counselor.

College visits are not a new nor original idea; many colleges have people whose jobs are dedicated to traveling throughout the country to many high schools for visits.

“College representatives spend a great deal of their time on the road visiting high schools and staffing college fairs in the fall, so we like to take advantage of the representatives who are in our area when they are here,” said Kindbom.

Colleges contact Westminster before the start of the school year to schedule visits.

“They cannot wait to meet our students and are very impressed with our facilities as well. When the colleges call, I offer them times and dates that we have available when they are going to be in the St. Louis area, and they choose the time that suits their schedule the best,” said Kindbom.

Students enjoy the advantages that college visits provide them with.

“It has been very eye-opening to see different colleges that I’m interested in because I’m not sure which one I want to go to. It’s very exciting to figure it out,” said Lance Richards, junior.

College visits benefit students greatly. The representative goes over the admissions process, quality of specific majors, dorms, food, campus settings, sports, clubs, activities, fraternities and sororities, financial aid, scholarships, and the process students can go about to visit the campus. College visits are also a good place for students to ask specific questions they may have. Not only do they learn a lot about the college in a short amount of time—normally less than fifty minutes—students get to know the admissions counselor for their area from the college.

“The representatives who visit our school are generally the people who read the applications from our school, so it would really benefit you to meet that person, so they have a face to put to the name when your application comes through their office,” said Kindbom.

Attending a college visit to show interest to the representative can raise a student’s chances of getting accepted to their college of choice.

“Honestly, having worked on the admissions side of the desk for twelve years, I can tell you that there were several times when that ‘demonstrated interest’ in the college (going to college visits at the school, attending college fairs or receptions in the area for that college) helped a student with admission to the college because we knew that he or she really wanted to be at our college,” said Kindbom.

Westminster expects to host over fifty college visits this year. There are a select few, though, who noticeably attract more students.

“Mizzou always has a lot of students attend the college visit, and we have traditionally had a lot for Vanderbilt, Belmont, TCU, University of Tulsa, Baylor, Ole Miss, SLU, Missouri S & T, Truman State University and so forth,” said Kindbom.