By sophomore year, most students are tired of visiting SDSU and UCSD because they’ve already been there on field trips most of their middle school years. So, why are they still the only universities we visit on field trips even in high school? As a high school senior, I can honestly say that I wish I would have been exposed to more college campuses, especially those outside or San Diego. Now that it is college acceptance letters season, I have realized that I have not seen most of the campuses of the universities I applied to, which only makes it harder for me to make a decision.

There are some teachers and organizations who support students and believe students should visit more campuses out of the city and plan overnight trips for students to really become familiarized with the “college life experience.” These overnight college trips can help students find their dream school and become more comfortable with the idea of leaving the comfort of home for college. Based on my experience, my teacher has planned a college trip and asked our opinion about which college to visit so we could have an idea of what the colleges we applied to look like. Teachers understand the purpose of college trips, but it’s slowly being lost and is beginning to cause students to forget why they are constantly visiting the same school over and over again.

I feel that the main reason I didn’t apply to out of state colleges, or other colleges that are only a few hours away from my hometown, was the fact that I hadn’t visited as many campuses as I hoped to. I didn’t have an opportunity to familiarize myself with the environment that those college campuses could have provided me with. If it wasn’t for my involvement in extracurricular activities or Gear Up, I would not have been able to visit any colleges outside of the San Diego area like USC, Pomona College, CSU Long Beach, UCLA, and CSU Los Angeles.

I believe it is critical for students, mainly juniors and seniors, to become aware of their college options because they are the ones applying to college sooner and it’s harder to apply for college when you’ve only been exposed to two options. The more options students have, the easier their decision is when it comes down to choosing which university they wish to attend.