An Out-of-State Campus Tour

It's summertime, and maybe you've realized that you have a few days in a row with nothing really scheduled. Consider making a quick trip with your high schooler to take in a couple of campus tours. 

I like to visit locations where I can get the most bang for my buck -- see several schools in a small geographical area. We've made it a policy to only visit one school per day, however, so we can keep schools straight in our minds. Try taking just a few notes in your phone while you're there. You don't need a lot of details; most of those you will find on the school's website. But take note of some things that really struck you as a huge PRO (i.e. tuition includes free laundry service!) or a huge CON (you have to keep your belongings locked up at all times) -- things that seem unique to that particular school.

A great city for getting your college tours started is Greenville, SC. We checked out Furman University in Greenville, Clemson University in Clemson (about 32 miles from Furman), and the University of South Carolina in Columbia (about 110 miles from Furman).  The nice thing about these three universities is they represent three very different kinds of schools.  Furman is a small, private school of about 2,000 students with a beautiful secluded campus that has easy access to the city of Greenville. Clemson is a medium-sized, public university with about 15,000 undergraduates located in a small, rural town. The University of South Carolina is in the capital of South Carolina and has 24,000 undergraduates. While the campus itself is lovely and park-like, it is smack in the middle of the city, which comes with pros and cons.

A trip like this may help your student realize that a small school makes them feel really comfortable or that they want to be one of 80,000 people cheering on their team. While they may not like one of these schools in particular, it will give you more information about the kind of school you should check out next.