College · College Success

Score the visit
before it blurs.

By the third campus, the dorms run together and the guide’s jokes belong to the wrong college. Score each visit the same evening on the same eight things, note what you saw beyond the tour, and answer three honest questions. The College Visit Evaluation Scorecard ranks every college you visited by its average.

Score a visitWhat you get

Your visits

The worked example is made up: a student who toured three colleges in the fall, one of them online, with a dining hall skipped and a co-op program that stood out. Scores save on this device only.

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What you get

College · College SuccessAlso for College · Family ResourcesFree

What you finish with
A scorecard per visit with college, date, kind of visit and who went; eight ratings from 1 to 5; eight things seen beyond the tour; the moment you remember, what worries you, how a hard week would go, and a gut call. Flags any score of 2 or lower to explain and anything missed; ranks every college by average.
Who it is for
High school students visiting colleges, and the parents, guardians and relatives who go along and want their own scorecard.
Format
Browser scorecard with a saved record per visit. Prints one visit, every visit as a comparison table or a blank scorecard to take along; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The College Success space in Caveat College; also listed in the Family Resources space (as the College Visit Evaluation Scorecard for families).
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Before you go, print a blank scorecard and plan to sit in on a class and eat in a dining hall.
  2. Score the eight ratings the same day, before the next campus.
  3. Mark what you saw beyond the tour and what you missed.
  4. Answer the three questions in your own words.
  5. Compare the ranking with your gut call. When they disagree, find out why.

Score a visit

Beyond the tour

What a tour shows youThe tourbest of everythinga normal class on a Tuesdaythe dining hall at noonthe line at the aid officewhat the bulletin boards sayUnder the water: an ordinary day. That is the partyou would live in.What a tour shows youThe tourbest of everythinga normal classthe dining hall at noonthe aid office linethe bulletin boardsUnder the water: an ordinary day. That is the partyou would live in.
Score what you saw for yourself. Where you could not see it, mark it and ask a current student by email.

Two scorecards, one family

Students and the adults who come along notice different things. Each can keep their own scorecard for the same college on their own device, then print both and compare where the scores differ. The student’s gut call carries the most weight; the adult’s questions about cost and support are worth answering.

Check the numbers too

A visit tells you how a place feels. The U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and College Navigator show what it costs after aid on average, how many students graduate and what graduates earn. Look them up for each college on your list and note them in “What worries you”.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Education. College Scorecard (collegescorecard.ed.gov).
  2. National Center for Education Statistics. College Navigator (nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator).
  3. National Association for College Admission Counseling. Guide to the College Admission Process: campus visits (nacacnet.org).
  4. Federal Student Aid. Choosing a School (studentaid.gov).

The worked example is made up, including the colleges. Scores are your own judgment, not a measure of quality. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.