<p>thanks for this thread, since my son, too, has applied to a large string of schools (and for the same reasons) and we plan to visit those to which he has been accepted. It will get tricky because he has applied RD to all, some have rolling admission, others do not and he will have to wait to see if he got in. His top choices are MIT and Caltech (which are reaches) so if he got into either of those, we would only visit them. But my bet is he will have to choose from his next tier of choices. Only a couple are within driving distance - sigh - meanwhile he needs to keep hs grades up and work up to date at school, so it will be even trickier. Jeez, I don't remember it being so difficult when I applied to colleges. I applied to 5, got rejected by Bennignton and Oberlin, accepted at the other 3. Visited 2 of those that were in the same area (Vermont) and chose between them. I never felt like second guessing my own decision, yet here I am fretting over my son's.</p>
<p>Jolynne - Wow, that's quite the diverse list. Based on what I know of northeastern kids attending southern schools, I'd say it would be worth the investing $600 to visit that full ride school. The school further southwest costs significantly more to get to, unfortunately. As for the semi-local ones, you could hit all three over a long weekend's drive. Good luck, whatever you decide.</p>
<p>Similar situation here. S2 accepted to 4 of 6 apps very early. Have visited "top 2" per his ranking and are likely not to visit any others except for overnight visit in Feb to both. Is invited to full scholarship weekend in Jan at one of the other schools, but will probably cancel, as he just can't see himself there, and has very generous merit offers from top 2 anyway.</p>
<p>I say try to narrow down the list and visit only those that really interest your child. Make sure to factor in the money situation, especially the merit $$ already on the table. Traveling is expensive and just adds stress to the process. If there are current favs, pursue those. If they absolutely don't work, then regroup and look the remaining list and see if one or two need a look.</p>
<p>Several observations. Your son will get a better idea of a school if he has to go alone to visit. [plus it will cost a lot less than a parents/child migration and w/o the expense of the parents, your son may be able to afford to visit more schools] </p>
<p>In spite of best intentions, parents make it "easier" to visit the school than it really will be for the student is he attends and has to get back and forth for breaks, etc. Think about the difference in the student having to deal with airlines, baggage claim, campus transportation, etc and having you coordinate all this. Reading the threads over the years, the student who hasn't a clue about this can be lost when it falls to him after accepting admission.</p>
<p>I second (or third) the idea of contacting the near free ride school (assuming it was merit based) to see if they will fly your son out. My S contacted a school that had accepted him EA to tell the person in admissions with whom he had been dealing that he was planning to come visit. She told him to wait and that they would be inviting him to an accepted student (scholarship) 2 day event and would pay for the ticket. He asked if the return date could be extended to allow him a long on campus visit. She said yes.</p>
<p>Also, see if your son knows someone at the school so he can stay in the dorm with them. Also, if your son's HS allows absences for visits, have the visit connect to the weekend so he can experience both classes and the dorm/campus/social scene.</p>
<p>The visit to the other southern-ish school need not be risky if your son already knows the economic limits. This is one of those times you will have to assess his maturity. Can he visit but know that if the finances aren't right, he cannot attend that school? Some can and some can't.</p>
<p>Even though accepted student days/weekends are marketing tools I still felt they were as useful and sometimes more useful than just regular visits. Here's what we liked about them: Generally they had some sort of luncheon where current students mingled with the prospective students for a shy kid like mine that meant they got a chance to ask current students questions in a low key situation. Two of the four schools arranged overnight stays. There were usually big fairs where all the current clubs presented their activities. We got a real sense of the range of kids at a place - it was clear that there were both nerdy geek sci fi lovers AND outgoing singers or political activists or what have you at all the techie schools. If the food was lousy at the accepted student events - you could figure it would only be worse every day. The two schools with overnights basically gave him passes to the regular dining facilities. Two places had the events over the weekend, but encouraged you to stay for Monday classes. The departments often had open houses on Monday as well. At CMU the computer science school did a big lecture presentation on Sunday AND tours of their buildings on Monday. On the other hand RPI did their one day accepted student day mid-week, but on a day when they don't have lectures scheduled. Nor did they have an overnight scheduled with it. </p>
<p>That said, I think Jolynne should visit those southern schools now, because there just isn't that much time in April for those accepted student days and there may well be some overlap in the schedules. My son had four schools to visit in two weeks and that was as much as he wanted to handle - especially with APs coming up in May.</p>
<p>Agree with 07DAD -- have your S do the trip alone. When S came down to his top choices, he did the trips solo -- considering his final choices were all at least a plane flight or eight-hour train ride away, it made sense for him to navigate the travel. He might love the school, but realize that a 3,000 mile flight with transfers (compounded by holiday travel) was just more than he could stand. Some kids realize in that solo process that a distant school may limit their chances to come home to visit, and that becomes an important factor in the selection process.</p>
<p>my d visited most colleges in spring of senior year. it was difficult to schedule time away from high school for visits due to activities (sports) and difficult classes (2 ap classes). college visits in the fall of senior year were next to impossible. it all worked ok though because by the time she visited in spring, she knew she'd already been accepted by admissions.</p>
<p>I'm in a similar situation and I've just been trying to spend as much time as possible researching online before I go an visit. Try checking out College Confidential's campus tours or [url=<a href="http://www.universitytv.com%5DYOUniversitytv.com%5B/url">http://www.universitytv.com]YOUniversitytv.com[/url</a>] has some good videos as well. Hope this helps.</p>