Summary
After students have participated in the campus visit, you may want to follow up the lesson with a short activity that personalizes the experience.
Essential Question(s)
What types of steps do students need to take to ensure they meet college admission criteria?
Snapshot
Engage
Have students look at the requirements from the campus visit they just attended and compare those requirements to another college they might be interested in attending.
Explore
Have students then look at the sophomore checklist sheet and determine what they are already doing from the checklist and what they need to start doing according to the checklist.
Explain
Have students share out as a class their answers to: "How can following this checklist help your college application be one that is considered for admission?"
Extend
Have students research requirements online for colleges out of state that they might be interested in.
Evaluate
Materials
Folders with copies school admission requirements for seven schools*
Sophomore Checklist handout
Pens or pencils
Engage
Provide students with copies of the admission requirements from the college they went to for their campus visit. Ask students to look at the college requirements for another school(possibly one they might be considering). They can choose from the six remaining colleges provided in the resource section. Have them think about how the requirements compare to one another.
Have students turn to an elbow partner to discuss differences and similarities between the college they visited and the other school they chose to look at. Ask them to talk about how the differences and similarities might affect how they should prepare to get in to the college of their choice.
Explore
Provide the students with the Sophomore Checklist. Have them check off things they are currently doing. Have them jot down ideas for how they might do the things they haven’t checked off. Students may work in pairs and compare lists if appropriate for the group.
Explain
Bring the group together for a final chance to answer questions they might have. Pose a final question to the whole group, “How can following this list help your college application be one that is considered for admission?” Ask students to think about their answer in terms of what they have seen in the fictional application activity they did before the campus visit, what they saw on the campus visit, and the requirements they looked at today.
Close with a positive statement stating that college is possible if they are willing to put in the effort to make their college application the best it can possibly be.
Extend
If computers and internet access are available, a possible extension to this activity could be to have students go online and research college requirements for these and/or other colleges they might be interested on their own.