With college applications season coming next fall for them, many juniors are taking advantage of their vacations to visit college campuses this semester.

During February break, junior Meera Ravichandran was among many who toured college campuses within California, and went on a one-day trip to The University of the Pacific in Stockton. Ravichandran was initially interested in the accelerated programs the university offers, which allow students to pursue combined bachelor’s and dental or pharmacy degrees in fewer than the traditional eight years, so she decided to visit the campus and look at the dorms.

Although UoP’s campus is relatively small, Ravichandran said that she still liked the feel of it, though she admits she wasn’t looking for anything in particular this early in the college search process.

Like Ravichandran, juniors Kimi and Miya Uenaka opted to stay within California for a college visit, and went to San Jose State, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine. The tours mostly started with an information session and ended with a walking tour around campus.

Although the twins are looking for different things in college, they both, as of now, intend to stay in California because of the warm weather. They also say they prefer not to attend the same college.

Miya said she “[wants] to go to a college that’s more on the smaller size and isn’t in a busy city with traffic,” while Kimi doesn’t really have a preference.

Since they knew other people attending some of the colleges they visited, the Uenakas said that they liked how their friends there were able to show them everything that the tour guides didn’t cover on the typically hour-long tours.

“Seeing their dorms was nice because we didn't have to pay for another tour just to see a model dorm,” Kimi said.