Road trip: Five must-see things on your college visit

1. Don’t forget: it’s college life. You can tell how much a school values life outside the classroom by looking at things like its recreation center, dining options, and green spaces. Cincinnati’s nationally ranked rec center, for example, features sweet amenities like a climbing wall and a lazy river. But even if you’re not a gym rat, yoga classes, meditation groups, healthy food choices and on-campus activities can go a long way toward creating a balanced (and more enjoyable) environment.
2. See a residence hall – a real residence hall. For many visitors, the dorm visit is the most anticipated stop on their campus tour. But are you seeing a typical residence hall, or only the newest, biggest – and perhaps the most expensive – a campus offers? So be sure to ask, and be prepared to check out a variety of accommodations.
3. Check out a class. If you can sit in on a class when you visit, do it! (Be sure to put in a request as early as you can.) But if you can’t arrange seeing actual classroom learning, definitely step into a classroom or two, even if they’re empty. Picture yourself in that classroom, and see yourself in that seat.
4. Take your campus tour off-campus. As important as it is to size up the colleges and universities you visit, make sure you spend time in the surrounding neighborhoods, exploring the bookstores, cafes and other hangouts near campus. After all, one of the differences between college and high school is that you’re not going to class and going home.
5. Get some news you can use. This isn’t exactly a tour stop, but don’t forget to pick up a copy or two of the student newspaper, look at the bulletin boards you pass by on campus and read the institution’s social media feeds. You’ll get a sense of not only what’s important to students, but also what matters to faculty and administrators.

If the University of Cincinnati is on your short list of campuses to visit, make sure you don’t miss these five highlights:

1. Air it out at Nippert Stadium. When it’s not in use for game day, that 40,000-seat football stadium smack in the middle of UC’s campus is more like the Bearcats backyard. That’s why you’ll see students eating lunch in the stands, studying, or playing pickup soccer on the field. The philosophy at UC is that the football field is simply another part of campus.
2. Go people-watching on MainStreet. Tour guides can be great sources of information, but so are your eyes. So grab a seat and watch students in their natural campus habitat as they eat, study and just hang out. On Cincinnati’s campus, the places you’re most likely to find students doing those things are connected by MainStreet, a wide pedestrian walkway that links the Tangeman University Center, Campus Recreation Center and other vital parts of campus life.
3. If you see just one beautiful building… Nope. It’s impossible to pick just one standout building at UC. Our Signature Architect program, launched in the 1990s, is one of the reasons that The New York Times featured our campus and called it “the most ambitious campus-design program in the country.” And Forbes named us “among the world’s most beautiful college campuses.”
4. Check out Hammock Village. It’s called Sigma Sigma Commons on the map, but you’ll get an idea how it earned this nickname on a warm spring day. You might find dozens of students literally hanging between the trees at the largest green space on Cincinnati’s campus. The commons also hosts concerts, festivals and other events.
5. Ask about co-op. UC invented cooperative education in 1906! And today, Cincinnati’s "classroom" extends to nearly every corner of the globe — from internships at the city's Fortune 500 companies to trailblazing experiences in places like China, Tanzania and South America. Chances are, you won’t have to go far to find a “cool co-op” story.