Rice University. A&M University. Just two of the stops on my journey through east Texas.

While most people spent their February break skiing or going out with friends, I spent mine going on college visits.

Sounds boring, right?

Actually, no. I got to see what most people my age don’t get to see until they become upperclassmen—the real action on a college campus.

I started my college exploration in Houston by visiting Rice University. While touring I got to sit in the library, view a student’s dorm room, and eat lunch in a beautiful glass building in the middle of campus. Touring the campus gave me a great feel for what it was like to go to a small and selective school.

My next stop was College Station. I toured the A&M campus for two hours and visited Kyle Field and The Memorial Student Center. This tour showed me the other side of what a college campus could be – a huge school with thousands of students.

Visiting these colleges gave me a good perspective of what to expect in the future. Seeing the vast differences in the two schools I visited showed me the pros and cons of a small versus large school and a city versus country school. The vast differences between colleges opened up my eyes to what my future can hold and showed me my different options for how I can someday experience college. The student tour guides on these visits gave me valuable tips for how I can start preparing for college now as a freshman, and I appreciated that they would give me the information they learned from when they were applying.

Spending my February break touring colleges was an experience I would never take back.  I am grateful that I was given the opportunity as a freshman to see what college is really like, and I plan on using the knowledge I gained while visiting to prepare for the future.