Chaperoned Carver students will soon board their chartered bus at the Carver Community Center for a life-changing road trip over their spring school break to the schools they aspire to attend.
The 49th Annual Spring College Tour will introduce high school students to the rigors and joys of a college education. School administrators, admissions and financial aid officers, college students including many former Carver after school and summer students, and others give the tours, make presentations and interact with the visiting Carver students. Whether asking questions, touring the campuses, or sharing meals with former Carver peers now excelling at these excellent schools, the goal is to motivate each visiting Carver student to envision their futures as a successful college student.
This year’s Spring College Tour begins on Saturday, April 13th, when the students depart from the Carver Community Center at 11:00 a.m. and travel to Richmond, VA, where they will spend their first evening. The students travel the next day to Columbia, SC where they’ll stay for two nights to visit South Carolina State University and Claflin University in Orangeburg on April 15th. On April 16th, the students visit Benedict College and Allen University in Columbia. On April 17th, the students go to Spellman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. The students stay in Atlanta on April 18th to visit Savannah College of Art and Design and then they travel to Montgomery to visit the National Museum for Peace and Justice. On April 19th, the students visit the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and then travel to Miles College in Fairfield, AL. On April 20th, the students enjoy the day at Six Flags over Georgia in Austell. They begin their return trip home on April 21st, spending Sunday night in Henrico, VA. And then the students arrive back at the Carver Community Center by early evening on Monday, April 22nd.
Here are some of the reasons why our students love the Carver college tours (also each year we visit colleges in CT on election day).
1. You won’t really know how you feel about a place until you’ve been there. A college catalog, view book, or website can only show you so much.
2. The college information sessions and the campus tours will give you a much better idea of what the college is like and if you would be happy there.
3. A small investment in time now can save significant time, money, and hassles during the during the college application period.
4. You’ll get a sense of the college’s vibrancy, character, and facilities. Visits will provide you with a more complete picture.
5. College tours allow students to ask questions, meet other prospective students and understand the college on a deeper level.
6. How you feel about schools once you visit in person may affect the direction your college search and application process takes. College visits help you to refine your search.
7. Applying to college is a complex process and visits to campuses will serve you best if you use them as a research tool, rather than a final decision-making aid.
8. Time, energy and money are finite resources and you want to use them wisely throughout the application process. First-hand knowledge will help you to clarify your vision and narrow your list.
9. Most colleges love students who are sincerely interested and visiting colleges is one way to show this.
10. You want to be able to relax and make a fully informed choice once you have been accepted. If you’ve already visited those schools at least once, that’s just what you will be able to do.
Watch here on this Carver blog in April for reports from each of the colleges our students visit, written in their own words! See some of last year’s reports here.