In these days of multiple electronic applications and heightened competition, Justin might have elected to delve even deeper to show colleges the quality of his research about each school which he was considering.

• Consider keeping a detailed diary of your impressions of each college you visit
• Complete with the exact date as well as accurately spelled names and of anyone with whom you converse
• What differentiates its program from the other schools?
  Cite these details in your essay.
• There’s also information available about each college on the Internet, often on a school’s own website, your prospective school might not be too happy you’ve discovered.
  • To learn about crime statistics on a given campus, visit www.ope.ed.gov/security, a government research site which documents all anti-social incidents by type at 3,000 schools;
  • At the Student Health section of a college website, see how each school is handling binge drinking, bulimia, abusive relationships, and depression;
  • Under Long-Range Planning, discover what heavy campus construction projects you’ll have to live with;
  • At Human Resources, check out faculty issues: how many job vacancies there are among the deans;
  • Check out the student newspaper for any student issues brewing just below the surface.

Sort of puts the ball in your court when you have your campus interview.

How can you possibly go into this degree of depth if you’re applying to eighteen schools?

Exactly!!

But, come April 1, your equally qualified fellow classmates who didn’t take the trouble to winnow out the number of schools to which they applied or demonstrate their intimate familiarity with each, will find themselves wait-listed or worse, while you may have eight schools to choose from, a choice which can only get resolved one way: by taking your diary along on another round of college visits when you return to check them out again!