Behavior on visits

When I worked in admissions, we had a few incidents where admitted students came for a visit and subsequently got in a little trouble. The excitement of being on a college campus, the rush of independence from your parents for a few days, the accessibility of free and plentiful alcohol, the freedom from your high school classes, the validation of a college acceptance coupled with the flattery of a college wooing you often lead to a loss of judgment.

If you visit a college, remember that your behavior is expected to be on par with what the admissions office assumed about you from your application. Get drunk, get arrested, or misbehave and you may find yourself on an early bus back home. Universities do have the right to rescind offers under certain circumstances and, for all of you who received waitlist letters, you know there’s an eager army of students who would happily take the place of someone seen as not valuing the opportunity.

Whatever you do, don’t do anything that would result in a phone call to the dean of admissions in the middle of the night because you’ve been picked up by campus security. Universities tend to frown on that sort of thing.