When thinking about your future, choosing the right college is crucial. With so many options for higher education available, making the decision can be overwhelming. Thankfully, many colleges host open days and weekends to aid you in the decision. Attending open days can be massively beneficial; once you get a feel for the campus, you can make a well-informed decision about your future school. Education doesn’t come cheap, and travelling to every prospective school can be very expensive. Fortunately, there are some measures you can take to help manage the cost of visiting the different campuses.
Look Local
It can be expensive to travel, especially when you are taking part in long journeys. The best way to prevent travel costs from racking up is to look local. Although searching locally may not be as exciting, state-run schools often have great reputations and they charge smaller fees to in-state residents. You should start with the colleges that are closest to you to avoid unnecessary travel costs, such as flights, luggage, and hotel expenses.
Narrow Your Choices
When choosing a college, you are faced with a lot of choices. Would you prefer a small town or living in a big city? Picking the right college is exciting and you may want to see as many options as possible. However, you can’t do it all and in order to save on travel, the best thing you can do is to narrow down your choices. We would recommend that you seriously consider no more than five schools. It will ease the process of attending open days, lessen your workload for applications and make your final decision easier. That said, be smart about how you narrow your choices down. Your education is important, and you should pick a school that will best suit your needs. You shouldn’t let high fees stand in the way of you getting a decent education. Today, young people have the option to take out Earnest student loans to pay for their education. A student loan will ease of the high cost of education, and they can be easily repaid after graduation once you begin working.
Make Use of Virtual Tours and Fairs
When considering a college, visiting in person can be important. However, it is not your only option. During the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges were unable to accept prospective students on open days. This led to the rise of virtual tours. If there is a college that you really like the look of that is a long distance away, you could try attending a virtual open day from the comfort of your own home. You will still be able to hear from professors and students, while also having a look around campus. In addition, there are many college fairs that travel around the country to attract new students. At fairs, you will have the opportunity to speak to current pupils at your prospective schools who can help you make an informed decision. With virtual tours and fairs, you can have the whole world on your doorstep without having to spend big bucks on travel.
Travel in Groups
If you are determined to see a distant school in person, there are still ways that you can save some money. In accordance with one of the biggest travel trends, if you need to travel a long distance, you should try get a group together to cut down on costs. Some schools will organize trips if there is enough demand for a particular college. If that option is available to you, your teacher will be able to get group booking discounts on transport and accommodation, which will cut costs dramatically. If your school won’t organize a trip, you could still get a small group together on your own. Even though you may not save as much, ridesharing and bunking together will still be a fun bonding experience for you and your friends. Even if your friends don’t want to see the exact same colleges, you could try and go to the same regions together. If you all have options in the west coast, you can go to those open days in the same week and make some time for some social outings too.
