{"id":139147,"date":"2021-04-15T12:36:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T16:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=139147"},"modified":"2021-04-16T13:41:41","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T17:41:41","slug":"ask-the-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2021\/04\/15\/ask-the-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask the College Experts: Evaluating what your experience will be like"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During their college search, prospective students and their families often look at numbers \u2014 a college\u2019s rank, the number of majors  \u2014 and at things, like buildings and campus amenities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s important,\u201d says Carl Steidel, senior associate dean of students. \u201cYou should pay some attention to those things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he says, prospective students should also try to suss out what the \u201cexperience is going to be like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, when visiting a college \u2014 whether in person or poring over social media and online tours<\/a> \u2014 a prospective student should \u201ctry to picture yourself in that place,\u201d Steidel says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot just the physical<\/em> place, not just imagining the good food that you\u2019ll eat there, but what it will be like actually interacting with the people who are there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/lite-youtube>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

This requires some imagination, introspection, and self-awareness, says Steidel. \u201cThink about what has worked for you during your academic career so far. For example, do you have close mentors in your high school that you connect with?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If yes, you might look at a college where you can have really close relationships with faculty and staff. \u201cThat might mean a smaller college where those faculty-student ratios are a little bit closer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Ask and Receive<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Now in its second season<\/a>, Ask the College Experts<\/em> helps prospective students receive information about the college-search process. Subscribe to the Bates YouTube channel<\/a> to receive new Season 2 episodes as they debut.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, if you\u2019ve had success walking a more solo path through high school, \u201cmaybe that means looking for a bigger institution where you don’t necessarily need to have those connections quite as much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Steidel\u2019s responsibilities are Student Affairs programs that help students make connections between their academic lives and co-curricular opportunities. Success in college is \u201cso often about the connections that students make once they get to campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s no hierarchy when it comes to the folks you can connect with. \u201cJust try to make a connection with somebody<\/em> during that first year, whether your peers in your residence, an academic advisor, the custodian in your hallway, or the person who drives the shuttle.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steidel says that students should also think about their day-to-day lives, and the challenges they face and how they respond to them. To that end, \u201cwhat does a college have in place to help you succeed? What kind of support team does the college have set up for you in advance?\u201d Steidel asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt Bates, we have an academic advisor. We have a student support advisor. We have residential life staff. Colleges have lots of different ways of supporting students, so try to find the structure and the kind of support network that matches what you think is going to make sense for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rankings. Buildings. Those matter in the college search. But it’s also important to imagine what your experience will be like. Senior Associate Dean of Students Carl Steidel explains how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":139148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11012,11009],"tags":[12238],"class_list":["post-139147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life","category-the-college","tag-ask-the-college-experts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139147"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139153,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139147\/revisions\/139153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}