The College Visit Policy

A college visit must be approved by the principal or the college counselor. A college visit form must be completed (including all required signatures) at least a week in advance of the trip.  After you bring the necessary written request and information to the college office and have the request approved, you will be given a college visit form to present to your teachers and to a secretary in the main office.  You will be required to get each teacher’s signature on the form.   We do expect you to keep your senior year attendance a priority, and consequently to keep days absent to visit colleges at a minimum.  Approval of the absence for the college visit will be granted using the guidelines below.  After getting signatures from all your teachers and from the main office secretary, you must return the completed form to the college counseling office.

Visits to colleges within the state of Georgia: We encourage you to visit these schools during holiday periods, on the occasional out-of-school days (college work day, GISA meeting day, teacher conference day, President’s Day, etc.) or on weekends.  Holidays and single out-of-school days are listed on the school calendar.  Only in rare circumstances will absences to visit Georgia colleges and universities be approved.  These circumstances involve students with appointments for personal interviews with an admissions officer or other official auditions, scholarship competitions, class visitations, or special programs that are conducted during school hours.

Visits to colleges in states other than Georgia: We do recognize the logistical difficulties of visiting the more distant colleges and we do understand the need that some students have of making a visit.  For that reason, an absence from Mt. de Sales may be necessary for the distant visit.  We do expect the absences to be kept to a minimum, however.  To have the college visit approved, you should bring to the college counselor a note from parent(s) requesting the approved absence and written confirmation of a personal appointment with an admissions officer or other official, a class visitation, an audition, or a special program/competition in which the student will be involved.

Excessive absences for college visits: We expect students to request an absence only for legitimate college visits.  A student who has earlier abused the college visitation policy runs the risk of having a subsequent request disapproved, regardless of the nature of that request.

In summary, for a college visit to be approved,

1. Bring to the upper school office, one week before the absence:
   1. a note from parent requesting approval of absence for the college visit
   2. written confirmation of an appointment with a college official, an audition, a class visitation, or a special program/competition.
2. Circulate the college visit form to your teachers and to the main office for signatures.
3. Return the completed form (with all signatures) to the college counseling office.

A Reminder ...
As with all other planned absences, you are expected to remain up-to-date with your school work.  Remember to ask your teachers for assignments that you will miss.  Before you go, make arrangements to take tests and quizzes that you will miss because of the absence.  Some teachers may expect you to take tests or quizzes before your trip.