If Your Child Can't Visit

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Visiting Colleges with a Click of Your Mouse

If, for whatever reason, your child can't visit colleges in person, she still has options. Nothing can replace the face-to-face experience, but your child can use the Web to learn about colleges without actually setting foot on a campus.

Find a College Online

Your child can learn a lot about colleges simply by using College Search Tools. She submits her preferences and then receives a list of matching colleges. From there, she can access valuable information about each college, as well as link to its website.

Visit the College's Website

Once your child has arrived at the college's home page, there's tons of information available if she knows how to find it. Of course, just like the schools themselves, these websites aren't identical. Some schools have elaborate interactive sites while others are more basic. Here's what she'll find on most sites.

General information

This section provides facts and figures such as the size of the student body, its founding date, number of buildings, campus acreage, and names of famous alumni. These are good places to start to get an overall impression of the school.

Virtual tours

Your child can take a virtual campus tour on most college websites. Some sites have an interactive campus map—click on a particular building or area to get a closer look. Others offer simulations of their regular tour in which your child is lead to the different parts of campus.

Student or alumni contact information

Most college sites allow prospective students to contact current students or alumni, so your child can get feedback from people who really know the school. Your child can find a student or alumnus through the college's email directory or white pages. Some sites even have live chat rooms for prospective students to talk to current students.

Academic information

Your child can read a syllabus of a class in which she's interested and the academic calendar.

Policies and services

Dig around to find the campus handbook, which has information about academic rules and conduct, and the student services section, which has information about housing, career planning, counseling, and financial aid.

Newspapers

Check out newspapers online—both the college's and the community's—to get a sense of issues, activities, safety, and even local weather.