Importance of College Campus Visits - College Advice Series

Importance of College Campus Visits (2:24) – Alece Plasencia, Academic Counselor at the Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA) in Los Angeles talks about the importance of campus visits while students prepare for college.

Our very first field trip was to a university, USC, which is one of the top universities in the country, one of the biggest universities in the country. And most of the students had never been on a college campus. They were nervous. They didn’t know what to expect. And I made a point to point out to them, “As we walk around, don’t just look at the buildings and the size, but look at the actual students that are walking by and realize that these students that you’re looking at are exactly like you and have the exact same goals, fears, you name it. They’re human beings, and they’re real. They’re real people. They worked hard to get here. And if they did it, you can do it. You are just as good, just as smart, and just as capable as any other college student.”

But what is the difference between a student that makes it into a top university and one that doesn’t is focus, dedication, hard work, and preparation. Just exposing them to the college atmosphere has reduced so many of those fears that I’ve had formerly when I worked with seniors who had never been on a college campus and they were applying for colleges. Many of them actually did not accept. They would get accepted and didn’t go. I run into them, and they’re working at a coffee shop or something. And I said, “What happened? You got accepted to 10 universities.” And they said, “Well, Miss, honestly, I was scared.” And so fear can be a horrible thing, and lack of exposure. And so again, going back to the need for corporations to help us with buses so that I can take the students to colleges at a young age, the younger the better, the more excited they’ll be, the less fear that they’ll have. And I would also like to do some overnight where they actually stay in the dorms a couple days so they get the full experience of what it’s like.