We visited a few schools during junior and senior years but not all of them, and not with the same eyes as being accepted. With so many Accepted Student days either cancelled or unsure if they’re happening, I’m wondering how many of your kid)s) made a decision without having visited before accepting?
As a parent that is paying the tuition, I know that I’d like my DS to be able to visit his accepted schools to be certain.
DS has 1 school he hasn’t visited, which is out of state. Unless we make the planned trip
In mid-April, it’s pretty unlikely he will go there. Holding out until closer at this point.
This is weighing on me as well. We had planned to wait until all decisions in then visit or revisit the top 2-3. That’s not looking very promising at the moment. How do our HS seniors decide? Most of our initial visits were over the summer without students on campus, so we were really counting on admitted student visits for a better feel of “fit.”
There are a couple of different levels of potential visits. I would look carefully at the admissions pages for the schools you hope to visit and see what’s still available, and maybe reach out the your student’s admissions officers to get their suggestions (the schools are also worried about this problem). Even if Admitted Students days are cancelled, many schools are still doing normal tours and visits. And even when those become unavailable, in most cases you can still walk around the town and campus to get a feel for the school and the students. Every year there is a debate on CC about Admitted Students days and whether they are actually better than ordinary visits. We went to one and it was fine, but I think overall we preferred the ordinary visits where the schools were more their normal selves. I agree that visits are important if you can possibly do them. Our S19 visited his school for the first time after he was accepted, just about this time last year I guess, and the visit was what decided things for him. (Just a regular visit, not Admitted Students day.)
Many colleges have switched to distance learning for the next week or few, so a visit may not reveal how they would “normally” be like.
@ucbalumnus, good point. So far, it seems to be mostly largish universities plus a few smaller NE schools like Amherst that are doing this, so it may depend upon where the schools are and what type of schools. I checked my S19’s school, a Midwest LAC, and they are still accepting appointments for tours and info sessions - maybe there’s still a window of opportunity.
I agree. Which is why I can’t figure out how my kid is supposed to make an informed decision. Ugh
I’m really regretting putting off accepted visits to the EA schools. My thinking was to avoid plane fare/hotel/rental car etc. costs as well as skipping school, until kiddo has all decisions in and can narrow the field. In this case, you snooze you lose.
Totally agree. They can’t make an informed decision without visiting. I wish the remaining schools that haven’t released would release soon so that we could try to compare the offers, and keep our fingers crossed that we can still visit.
I thought waiting on the releases would be the hardest part, but the uncertainty of making a decision without visiting is a much harder issue to deal with.
When my eldest applied, we were living in Germany. We did do a college tour…but when it came to deciding, it was not practical for her to go to admitted students days.
It would be harder if you hadn’t visited at all…but quite frankly it seems to me that all Big State Schools are similar, all little SLACs are similar…so if you have visited any you get an idea of what it is like.
Once results come out if there are any that your child really wishes they could visit, I would call the school and see what your options are. Right now schools are scrambling but you know this is weighing on them too. My D visited all her serious contenders except one before she applied. When she got accepted to that one we quickly scheduled a trip. She never would have gone without visiting (it was the furthest from home and that worried her) and it’s where she now attends. Schools are aware that the visits are important so you know they are trying to figure something out.
Lots of college students make matriculation decisions without visiting, because of various impediments to visiting (e.g. cost, time off school/work for travel, etc.).
In addition, the value of a visit is often compromised by random factors (like the weather that day, chance encounters with students who may leave an unusually good or bad impression, or how slick the college’s sales and marketing is to prospective students), so that a student doing visits needs to do some homework first to (a) compare each college based on criteria findable without visiting and (b) determine what to look for at each college visit.