Hey y'all! I'm going to talk about official college visits. Before I took my first official visit, I was clueless as to what really takes place during the visit; so I figured it would be interesting to hear my experiences after taking a few.
As a senior, I have the opportunity to take up to five official college visits, and these visits can last up to forty-eight hours. Also, the school pays for everything, except merchandise, during the official visit; this includes travel, hotel rooms, meals, and etc. I mean. . . I thought that was pretty legit! For me, an official visit is a chance to tour the campus and track facilities, meet with the academic advisers and coaching staff; but most importantly, an official is all about meeting the team, seeing how they interact, and figuring out if I could easily see myself happily attending the school and competing on the team.
Every school handles an official visit differently, but my past two experiences have been both similar and different from each other. A typical visit usually flows by starting the visit Friday morning and going on an easy run, attending a college class with a few of the athletes, and meeting the academic counselors and coaching staff. and the day finishes with tours of the student-athlete center, weight rooms, training rooms, locker rooms, track facilities, athlete dining, freshman dorms, and other unique and important buildings on campus. I always love the tours because every athletic facility is so incredible, and I like trying to imagine myself putting every facility into full use. The next day is mostly geared towards hanging out with the team and finding out what they do on a daily basis when not running. This has to be my absolute favorite part of the visit because I have the opportunity to be "a part of the team" for the day and see if I'd be a good fit for the team. Like I said, all colleges handle their visits very differently.
As of right now, I'm taking four official visits to Baylor University, Ole Miss, University of Arkansas, and Oklahoma University; and I've had nothing short of awesome experiences on my visits so far to Baylor and Ole Miss. The Arkansas and Oklahoma visits are scheduled for the upcoming weekends, and I'm beyond excited! I'm also talking to Mississippi State for a possible fifth visit, and I'm very thankful and blessed to have the opportunity to visit these college campuses.
Morgan Claire Rose, Kirk Academy.
