Nine Ways To Get Yourself Labeled A Shmuck By Your Dream School
Article Type: Quick and Dirty

There's always that one person.  You know who we mean: the guy busy playing Candy Crush Saga on his phone during a presentation; the girl who's more interested in her Pinterest-inspired manicure than directing questions at the hot campus tour guide.

Do NOT be that person.

And, just in case you're wondering how you get yourself labeled a schmuck by your dream school...

1. You do not speak to another living soul during your campus visit.  Congratulations, you've now shot your best chance to ask questions and get information about the school.

2. You pretend to be a British teenage tennis star when you really come from Tennessee.  If you want to be successful at college, you need to be at a school where you feel comfortable...as yourself, and not your British alter-ego.

3. You act disinterested during a tour.  It's like not eating your vegetables: the only person you're hurting here, is yourself.

4. You visit during a school holiday.  All you see is an empty campus, with not a professor or a staff member or a student in sight.  You've just wasted your time.

5. You make it all about your friends.  Chit-chat when you're back at your high school.  During a campus visit, you need to focus on mapping out your future.

6. You make it all about your parents.  Daddy went to college twenty years ago.  It's great that a campus visit takes him down Memory Lane, but this trip is about you.  Be the person in control.

7. You don't do your prep work.  How will you know what you don't know and what you need to know if you don't make an effort to know ahead of time?

8. You rely on your memory.  You are going to be inundated with information.  You will be drowning in it.  Take along a camera and a notebook so you can keep track of what you learn.

9. You misbehave.  Sometimes, the cops need to be called.  Just make sure no one calls them on you during a campus visit.