3 Tips for Business School Campus Visit

One of the best ways to get the most out of any campus visit is to take advantage of the opportunity to visit campuses while school is still in session. Waiting to tour a business school (or any grad school) during the summer months is almost a complete waste of time, because there are no classes in session and all you are seeing is a bunch of empty buildings.

With that in mind, here are a few suggestions for maximizing your campus visit:

1. Be the buyer, not the seller.

Too many people think of a campus visit as a chance to show off and impress the school. This is a poor use of your energy, for a couple of reasons. First, a campus visit is all about acquiring information – info that will help you choose your list of schools and info that will help you gain admission in the first place. You are on an investigative mission, not an audition. Second, MBA programs simply will not know whether you were amazing or an abomination. No business school has the resources to closely monitor and record the actions of a random visitor who comes to campus months before the next application deadline.

2. Work on your sales pitch.

If your reasons for pursuing an MBA seem odd, if your timing is all wrong, if your career goals are overly ambitious, there is no better way to find that out than by talking to a current MBA student who is dealing with a live marketplace.

You want to come out of a campus visit feeling like your personal pitch – your reasons for applying, your goals, and your passions – has either been validated or improved.  

3. Start composing your application.

We don’t mean literally, of course, but you should absolutely do some thinking about what the MBA program in question really cares about. Knowing that Wharton has an ongoing focus on student community and globalism helps you when you go to the Penn campus. Now you can ask questions, visit classes, take tours, and explore programs with those key themes in mind. You will leave your visit with a better idea of how you fit with that school and also with some specific conversations and interests that you will want to mention in your essays.

These are three simple suggestions, but they will make a big difference on your campus visit. If you stay relaxed about your own need to “perform,” it will allow you to stress test your goals and start building a powerful application story, even as you are checking things off your own wish list.