Out of State Out of Options: College visits should become more accessible to students

I’ll be missing my senior-year Halloween weekend to visit Florida State University. It’ll be my first college visit because it’s cheapest over this weekend because of the holiday. 

I’ve been asked by peers and parents, “Why are you looking at schools so far away? What’s wrong with KU or K-State?” 

While those are both great schools, let me tell you what’s wrong with them. 

I ran the official net-price calculator for both schools with my information. If I attended either, I would have an expected debt of $75,000 after completing a four-year degree. 

And that’s in-state. 

Neither Kansas school gives good financial aid, that’s a fact. This is fine for students who can afford it and are willing to go into some sort of debt, but I’d argue most students don’t want to go into debt, me included. 

Students in need can’t visit colleges across the country that have cheaper prices and provide more aid because they are in need right now: living paycheck to paycheck or in a similar situation. 

If a student is interested in schools further away but can’t visit them to see if they would actually want to go, that defeats the whole purpose of having that aid. 

So, I’m looking out of state, where need-based colleges are available (with the exception of FSU, which is just a cheaper public school). I can’t say the same for a lot of my peers.

Out of all students attending the University of Kansas, 60% lived in Kansas before attending. K-State is even more disproportionate: 86% of students were Kansans before attendance, according to College Factual.

Although there’s definitely a portion of those students who genuinely love the schools as their first choice and want to stay close to home, it’s highly likely some of those students think they’re going with the cheapest option besides community college. And though that could be true for some, I doubt it’s true for the majority based on the sheer size of Kansans attending these colleges.

Yes, there are virtual tours, but no one can truly get the full feel of a school from behind a screen. I wouldn’t go to a school I haven’t visited. I don’t think many other people would either. 

Some colleges, like Columbia University’s Small-Town and Rural Students program, offer small “fly-in” programs that cover the cost of an all-inclusive trip for those accepted. The problem is that these programs are either specific to a certain group — like small towns — and have an extremely low acceptance rate. 

If “need-based” and “no-debt” colleges like Columbia actually cared about their students, they would provide ample opportunities for students to visit the college cheaply. No school should assume a student will attend upon the slight possibility of acceptance without visiting. 

Let me get something straight: I’m not currently in need financially and have a household income that is well above average. However, I would definitely be “in need” if I went to KU with how much debt I would be taking on. 

I hadn’t visited a college until now because I’ve been working every day of the summer, after school and weekends — just like 40% of the high school student population, according to College Vine.

I should’ve planned earlier, that’s my fault, but I was also never told to by a counselor or advisor; it goes both ways. 

Additionally, the schools that have the best aid have the lowest acceptance rates. I used a list of colleges with need-based aid from College Vine and averaged the acceptance rate between all 30 schools: 7.95%, with the highest on the list being 20%.

That’s a ridiculously low acceptance rate just to be debt-free. 

So yes, Princeton would give me a full-ride grant based on their net-price calculator. That’s great, except in order to get into these schools, you need to have insane extracurriculars and essentially no free time. 

That means no time to skip town for a few days to walk around New Jersey for a college visit or work as much as 40% of students do. 

There are still alternatives, though. There are community colleges or smaller schools that are cheaper, yet I still believe that every student is entitled to as rigorous an education as they like, which might not be found at your local 4,000-student college.

For the short-term solution, students need to be educated about their options while simultaneously planning their visits ahead of time to avoid overt costs. If they don’t, there’s no benefit to looking at other colleges if you won’t get to physically see them.

Long-term, schools and colleges should be held accountable for either helping all students in planning their trips or aiding students going on said-trips if needed.

That is only, of course, if colleges are truly invested in our futures like they claim to be.