College visits can be as simple as ten steps down the hall.
As of November 11, WS has had 49 on-site college visits, each 30-45 minutes long, with a maximum of nine on one day. This means that career center specialist Tisa Frederick has worked to set up over 50 college visits in her first three months here. This process includes contacting or being contacted by the school’s representatives, sending them a confirmation email after they talk on the phone so there is no confusion, and then putting the college visit up on the Family Connection website so it’s visible/available to students. As the day of the visit approaches, Frederick calls the representative, confirms their visit once again, and lets them know how many students are signed up.
Even though it’s a tedious process, Frederick is working harder than ever to schedule these visits and advertise them to the students.
“I believe college visit[s] are important because [they] allow students to get a one-on-one opinion from the college rep,” said Frederick. “I like the intimacy it provides between the representative and the prospective student.”
College visits aren’t just about the places WS knows of. If a student shows interest in a school, the
Career Center will contact that institution, and try to get a representative. This opportunity isn’t just limited to in-state schools, either. Schools ranging all up and down the eastern seaboard have visited, or plan to visit WS.
“I visit over 100 schools every year, about 120 easily,” said North Carolina’s Elon University’s Associate Dean of Admissions Barry Bradberry. “[During in-school visits] we actually have a chance to meet people face-to-face. Everybody looks good on paper and everyone has statistics, [but] the students who come to these are those who truly care.”
Although it will never be exactly the same feel as visiting a campus, these visits provide WS students with an opportunity to make connections and decrease visit-stress during the pressure-filled senior and junior years. With reduced time spent visiting, eliminated cost of travel, and ease of access to representatives from admissions, these college visits are an essential and readily available tool for WS students thanks to the Career Center.
“There’s no way you would nearly get the same type of feel as when you’re on the campus grounds,” said senior Jacob Haines. “[But], most of the representatives who come are looking at your application. Create a personal connection [with them].”
The experience and preferences will vary student to student, but with college aspirations on the horizon, it’s important to utilize every opportunity provided by Tisa Frederick and the WS Career Center.
“I would really like to emphasize how important it is that you have a good person in charge of the career center,” said Steven Simons, a representative for Juniata College of Huntingdon, PA, one of the many new colleges visiting WS. “Take it seriously. Some of the smaller liberal arts colleges don’t have that same name recognition, [and] to be able to hear that information from a career center [is] mutually beneficial. You hear about us and we hear about you.”
WS and its entire faculty work daily to ensure that students have all of the means they need to create a brighter future for themselves, which leaves the students the responsibility of pursuing those opportunities. No matter if a student is set on what they want from their future or completely lost, the resources are there for the taking.
“That’s the beauty of coming here to Fairfax County. It’s an opportunity to know people, it’s an open forum. Having career centers, that’s what sets these schools apart,” said Bradberry.