College application season is currently underway for seniors, and so are college representative visits at John Champe High School, which is a key way to learn information about schools seniors are applying to. The career center, led by college and career advisor: Karen King, hosts many college visits for seniors and juniors throughout the fall for them to explore colleges they are interested in.
A representative from a university coordinates a date and time to visit John Champe, and juniors and seniors can register to attend the meetings for the schools they want. These sessions are very useful for interested students to learn more about what those colleges offer and even what the admissions officers are looking for in the application that year,
and the representatives can share information not available on the school’s website.
The representatives could also even be the admissions officers zoned to Champe’s area, meaning they are the ones that would be reading Champe students applications. Being able to talk to your admissions officer before they read your application is extremely beneficial, and can give the officer more of an insight into who you are as a person and put a face to a name.
For students to register to attend a visit, they have to log into SchoolLinks and pull up the list of all the schools scheduled to visit Champe. College representative visits take place during school hours, so students are pulled from their classes for about an hour for each visit, and during their meetings, some schools will even bring some small things students can take with them, such as pens, stickers, or little banners.
“From the JMU visit, they gave little pamphlets and booklets with information, a sticker, and a pen to everyone that attended,” senior Sarah Pasha said.
Many students choose to apply to a school because of a program that the school offers. Some schools are known for engineering or business, while others have widely known arts programs. “I chose to attend the James Madison University visit because they have a really good geospatial program, which I am interested in pursuing as a career,” Pasha said. “During the information session, I learned a lot about the tuition and the admissions process.”
There are also schools attending John Champe that haven’t visited in previous years. Columbia University of New York visited and was attended by over 60 students. New York University is also coming to John Champe and will likely attract just as many students.
New universities hosting meetings in the career center that haven’t been to Champe before is a great way for students to open more doors and explore more opportunities. Syed Abdul Moeid, who attended the Col
umbia University visit, shared that it was a cool opportunity to learn more about the school, “I heard the school has a really good engineering program from my friends, and I wanted to go check it out,” Moeid said. “I learned about how you can improve your application and make it stronger so that you can have a better chance of getting in. If you are interested in that school at all, I would highly recommend attending the visit.”
The variety of colleges and universities that Champe has made available to students ranges from local, smaller schools to world-renowned universities, which makes it easier for students to find schools that are the right fit for their interests and goals to narrow their application list. Since the schools that come to Champe are not limited to only in-state ones, students can broaden their scope and find interest in schools out of state.
The College of Charleston, located in South Carolina, came to Champe this year too, “I attended the College of Charleston visit because it’s in my top three choices of schools and I was very excited to go,” said senior Lulu McDonnell. “I learned so much, and one thing that really stood out to me is that they have a lot of marine biology majors, which is pretty unique compared to other schools I’ve been looking at.”
Having college representatives and even admissions officers visit your school is something that not every student has the chance to take advantage of, and is a resource that should definitely be used by prospective college students.
Making a decision for where you will end up for the next four years and planning for life after college is a big decision and something very different from what most seniors have had to make before. Considering all the factors that go into what would make an applicant the best student at an institution is something that should take time and really be researched in order to make a decision that is the best for the student.
