Thursday, July 2, 2020

College Visits Tip

College Visits Tip July 18, 2012 Heres a college visit tip do the smile test on college campuses! Heres a college visits tip for you: Do the smile test! Whats the smile test, you ask? Its quite simple! When visiting colleges, smile at students as you pass them on the lawn, in the dining halls, and in lecture halls. Give them a full, ear-to-ear smile. Then, see if they smile back at you. In our experience, weve found that students tend to smile when theyre happy at the college they attend. At schools with higher transfer rates, many students tend to fail the super simple smile test. Isnt that funny? While we dont have the data to support our theory, we suspect its true. Walk around Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and everyone will smile back at you. Even if there is three feet of snow on the ground. Walk around Williams College and youll find the same is true there. Walk around Binghamton Universityand not so much! Then, look at the transfer rates at the respective universities! Doing the smile test seems silly, but we would argue that its as important as anything when deciding upon colleges to apply to. Why would you want to attend a school where students arent happy? Why would you want to subject yourself to that? Why not just go to a university where people are happy, where they smile, where they are excited and energized? If you learn nothing else from all of our blogging about highly selective college admissions, we urge you to do the smile test. Its worth it. While youre here, check out this newsletter on College Visits.