I must admit a secret: I haven’t gone on any college visits yet. Because important as they are, I simply haven’t had time enough to go anywhere, especially since things have been piling up around this time of year. (And it doesn’t help that the colleges I’m most interested in are quite a long way away…)

It’s almost a cardinal sin by this time of year — I really should have already seen at least some of the ones I’m most interested in, and begun deciding which ones suit me best. And though it’s the truth, mounting schoolwork ends up being an ironic excuse. But that’s just the way things have fallen this year, and I’ll definitely be turning my attention to these things in the next couple months, when things begin to unwind at the end of the year.

Why exactly is it important, though? Well, it’s a great chance — practically the only chance, really — to get a picture of the college’s atmosphere, from the size and look of the campus to the friendliness of the people there. Numbers are great and easy to get to — acceptance rates, average scores of those accepted, and all — but they don’t really tell us about what it’s like to be a student there and whether we’d enjoy it or not. For that, we have to be right on-site, taking it all in ourselves.

That’s what the visiting process is all about and many colleges have guided tours to make it all the easier. We might find that, yes, this college is all that we thought it was, the mood is great, the people are friendly — or we might find that, maybe the aesthetics aren’t all we thought, or that the staff aren’t as welcoming as we’d have liked. But either way, we have a better idea of whether we want to apply, and in general, what we most prefer from a college.

It’s also the one chance to meet directly with the admissions office and simply introduce yourself to them. An outstanding performance in high school is one thing, but it is just as important to show the college that, yes, you are interested in going there! If the college is certain that they are your dream school, and that if accepted you will definitely go there, then that will certainly give some more weight to your application. Plus, it helps set you more at ease about the whole applications process if you know that the person reading it on the other end is indeed a friendly, likeable person and that they’re not in fact eager to stamp “rejection” on your application. If you’re stressed about writing something, then it’ll definitely show through somewhere — better to have a relaxed, focused mind and be able to give it your best.

Of course, it might be odd that I’m talking about how important this is when I, myself, have been dropping the ball a bit on the whole thing — but make no mistake, it’s definitely an important element of the college process. And I, for one, definitely plan to fix my current situation within the next months.