Before you go
- Register for the official tour and info session — many schools track demonstrated interest.
- Email the department of your intended major and ask to sit in on a class.
- Write down three questions you cannot answer from the website.
On campus
- Eat in a dining hall and read the flyers on the walls.
- Walk one block off campus in each direction.
- Ask two students what they would change about the school.
- Note the specific class, lab, or club you would join — that detail is your essay material.
If you cannot travel
Virtual tours, a department Zoom session, the student newspaper, and a 15-minute call with an admissions rep get you most of the way. Read three weeks of the student paper: it tells you more about daily life than any tour.
Within 24 hours
Write half a page in your notes for that school while it is fresh: names, courses, one moment that surprised you. In November you will not remember it, and generic 'Why us' essays are the easiest rejection a reader makes.