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" Hey y&amp;#039;all! Choosing a college is one of the most difficult, important decisions you will ever make. Although you&amp;#039;ll have fun and be challenged no matter where you go (every experience is what you make it!), picking a school that best fits your wants from college is essential and can really make a difference.   But sometimes it&amp;#039;s hard to make that decision when you don&amp;#039;t really know what a certain university is all about \u2014 what is the dynamic behind the classes, the people, and the parties? That&amp;#039;s why, if it&amp;#039;s financially manageable, staying on campus overnight with a current student is a great idea.  This past weekend I had a family friend&amp;#039;s daughter, Anna, come stay with me in my dorm to check out Duke life to help her decide if she wanted to apply Early Decision in December. She met with a professor, went to a class in global health, and hung out with the students in my dorm. By literally living on campus for a couple of days, she was able to see the ins and outs of Duke \u2014 a top-notch &amp;quot;work hard, play hard&amp;quot; university with its share of great (the intellectual community and friendly student body!) and not-so-great (the freshman meal plan!) qualities.  When looking at colleges, disregard the stereotypes you&amp;#039;ve heard about a school and the expectations you&amp;#039;ve created, and plan a trip to stay with a current student to check the university out for yourself. In fact, most schools have programs that will match prospective students with current students for a weekend. From my experience, your beliefs about a school can dramatically shift by visiting, so don&amp;#039;t let your beliefs about a university be shaped by only Atlantic Journal articles and U.S. News and World Report rankings! As for Anna, I hope that she could see herself at Duke, but if not, I&amp;#039;m sure that visiting campus helped make her decision much easier.  In addition to traditional college tours, have you thought about shadowing a current student? If you&amp;#039;ve already done it, did it help you make your decision easier? Sound off in the comments! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/a16879/shadow-a-current-student/>