Senior Alistair Fortson applied to the University of Southern California only after some serious cajoling by his parents. Yet if Fortson hadn’t checked that small box on the Common Application, he would be facing a very different future.

Last week, Fortson sent in his deposit to USC—the school he now sees as the perfect fit.

“I realized that I want different things now than when I applied,” Fortson said.

Fortson visited USC three times. The first two visits he was interested, but in no way enamored. On the third time he fell in love.

On the latest trip, he was overcome by the “crazy school spirit,” while still being impressed by the professionalism the school exuded.

“Everything they put together—from the way the tour guide looked (think fancy summer dress, very well coiffed) down to the personal way they answered all the questions in a room full of hopefuls—impressed me,” he said.

And of the other seniors making college decisions between now and May 1, many have found it’s that final visit that makes all the difference. Some are now leaning towards schools they never would have considered in the first place.

When Cabot Jackman received his acceptance letter from Cornell University, he was hesitant to make the transition from a high school of 134 to a college of 12,000 undergraduates.

But on Jackman’s overnight visit—last week—his perspective shifted drastically.

“When I saw the dorms, I realized they formed a close, warm and friendly community. On Sunday nights, (students) would gather in the common room and two students would share their life stories,” he said.

And a visit to another school he was accepted to—Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Trenton, N.J.—helped finalize his decision to attend Cornell.

Though RPI had all the programs he wanted, Jackman’s tour made him question campus safety due to the many Blue Light security posts there—something that might have seemed a plus on the Internet.

“Most of the time I could see three or four (Blue Lights). At one spot on campus that number went up to eight,” he said.

“The way I see it, having more Blue Lights means that the campus police feel they need to have more Blue Lights.”

Jackman isn’t the only one who has stumbled upon decision-altering details on a tour.

Zach Lemos was set on going to the more “prestigious” UC San Diego and was not even considering University of San Diego. But then he took their accepted-students tour, talked with the crew coach and realized the small Catholic college offered him a business administration major and a Div. I rowing team. After two weeks of internal debate, Lemos sent in his deposit to USD last week.

In a similar scenario, Camille Getz was admitted to both UC Santa Barbara and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Because her parents are UCSB alumni, she had a special visit where she not only toured the specific programs she would be attending, but met the professors she would have in the fall—and Getz loved it.

However, because so many people have tried to persuade her to choose the prestigious Tisch program, Getz went on a tour of the film school last week.

“Now I am going to have to start to picture myself going there and ask myself questions like, ‘Am I really going to want to walk down this street to go to class?’” she said.

Like Getz, Hayley Graves thought she had decided on her college until outside influences changed her mind.

At first, Graves didn’t plan to visit Syracuse University because she’d decided on DePaul University in Chicago. But after meeting Syracuse alumni in the Bay Area, Graves is flying to New York.

Similarly, Mollie Berg wasn’t too keen on USC when she applied. The school’s large size and undesirable location concerned her.

But when she stepped into USC’s Annenberg School of Communication, her worries faded.
Just under 600 students attend Annenberg, which means that the school offers a tight community in the midst of a large school.

And during her visit to the nearby film school, Berg learned she could easily minor in screenwriting—a fact that surprised her.

“When you call colleges, you never get a straight answer,” she said. “I wouldn’t have found out I could minor so easily until I actually walked into the building.”

Now Berg is seriously considering USC but touring NYU and Barnard College this week.

Yet some seniors deposited at a school without ever setting foot on campus.

One is Ian Cardle, who will also attend Cornell. When he received a large financial-aid package from Cornell, he began his research—online.

There Cardle discovered videos featuring parties, dances and lots of student interaction that proved to him Cornell “really isn’t just a place where you are in your dorm room the entire time,” he said.

So Cardle deposited. But orientation won’t be the first time he sets foot on campus—the university is flying him out to visit this week.