<p>My parents tell me that I should go visit schools this summer, but I don't know if I should. I feel like I won't really know the general student " vibe " of the school if I go now, and I will perceive the school in a way that is totally different from what it really is during the school year. My parents say the point of the tour is to view the architecture, size of the campus, surrounding area, Ect, not to go view the students. </p>
<p>However, I am really interested in a lot of eastern schools, but I live in Texas. My winter/spring breaks are only a week long and my parents work all year, so summer is the only true easy way to visit schools for my parents. </p>
<p>It's not often we can visit the other side of the country so we wanted to make this visit count. </p>
<p>Here is my (current) list: </p>
<p>Northern/East Schools:
Penn
Northwestern
Cornell
Northeastern
Carnegie Mellon
RPI
Rochester</p>
<p>I'm really a bit hesitant on the nerdy stereotype of CMU...</p>
<p>Go visit during the summer. There is no guarantee that you will get time during te year to visit these. I took all my visits during the summer and I still got a sense of the vibe, and used that to either eliminate or add schools to my list. hose are some great schools you mentioned, so it’s a good idea to get a feel for some of them now especially if you end up applying EA. Then for the schools you are really interested in you could always do one or two follow up visits for your final decisions once you’ve compiled your list or after you applied and got accepted to whatever schools you are considering.</p>
<p>Texas has one of the top public schools in the country as well, so definitely look into those if you haven’t already. Oh and the point on the students, you can always get the contact info of the students there, and there are plenty of students from those schools on CC, with others on various review sites that could help determine those feel of the schools, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.</p>
<p>I’m also a student who’s been visiting colleges this past year, and I’m actually going to visit a school this Friday (Lehigh) and seeing some other schools this summer that are further away from me. (I live in CT, the schools I’ll be visiting are in SC and GA). Anyways, I think if you CAN wait until students are in session at these schools, and they aren’t so far away that you could make a visit in a weekend, wait till then. I think you’ll find yourself much more comfortable with making a decision on the school and whether you want to apply/go there. </p>
<p>You say that it won’t be often that you’ll be able to visit the east coast often. Honestly, if you really consider yourself going to these schools, i.e., that they’re high on your list of schools, you should try and make the visit especially if you feel that you won’t have another opportunity to make a trip out here. Depending on the magnitude of the school (safety, reach, etc.), I wouldn’t make the trip given that these schools are all safeties, meaning you wouldn’t even need to demonstrate interest. However, if some are reaches high on your list, make the visit. Good luck with your trip!</p>
<p>That’s a lot of driving and expense. Even if you toss Northwestern, you’re left with six schools. Northeastern is a day’s drive from RPI; then it’s drive to and see Rochester the next day; then drive to Cornell and drive to CMU; see CMU and drive to Philly. Rental car will be expensive as will flights because you’re not going in into and out of the same airport. You could save some money and time by leaving Norteastern and Northwestern for Accepted Student Days. </p>
<p>However, these are all universities, so there will be some faculty, most staff, all the architecture, and graduate students on campus. Whether or not you can get enough of the feel is not certain. Sometimes students walk on a campus and say “this is it” or “there’s no way.” Then other students never see the school that has the right feel, or never visit the school ahead of time, and they still make good decisions. It is you and your family’s call.</p>
<p>It sounds to me like you’ve chosen schools based on their having your major(s) and their prestige. Can you get into all of these? can you afford all of these? </p>
<p>Be sure to run the net price calculators for each school you intend to visit and ascertain with your parents that your family will spend that much money if you can get in.</p>
<p>I think you’ll still be able to get a decent feel for the campuses even in the summer. I visited a few schools right before Easter, and on weekends, when there weren’t too many kids around, but I was still able to discern if the place was a “this is it” school, or a “no way in heck” school. And even if you don’t run into too many kids, your tour guide usually provides a good example of what an average student at the school is like. It’s more important to go see the schools, regardless of when you can go. I’m visiting multiple colleges this summer that are further away. I would say it’s better to see the schools in some way than not at all.</p>
<p>I would pick a favorite match or two in proximity and visit those. You will be on record as having interest - you will get a better feel for the school if not “perfect” with students on campus, and you will really be able to picture it (or them) when writing your essays. I could be wrong, but my feeling is that it wouldn’t be the best use of limited time and $$$$$ to visit Penn and Cornell until after you get in. They aren’t likely to care as much either.</p>
<p>During the school year is ideal but not always possible. We found summer tours useful at least in narrowing down whether S wanted a big or small school , rural or urban. Even without the students there, these differences were obvious. We may do a couple more road trips, but we won’t fly anywhere except to look at places he’s been accepted to.</p>
<p>Most schools have students there all year round - the tour guides are always students and you can certainly talk to them - plus many students do research over the summer, so there’s always someone around. Faculty and admissions people also tend to have more time to talk to you in the summer - things are a lot slower and the crowds are smaller.</p>
<p>Weekends are often the worst time to go, many schools don’t run Saturday tours and none that I know of run Sunday ones, so weekend visits are kind of difficult.</p>
<p>We’re doing it in the summer. Visiting NEngland, South, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Texas & CA. Don’t know how it wd otherwise be possible to take that much time off from school in the fall, before EA deadlines. </p>
<p>Since all of these are universities and all, to my knowledge, have summer classes, you will be able to see both students and campuses during the summer.</p>
<p>Only liberal arts colleges tend to have no students during the summer, and even at those you probably would not be able to get into the buildings anyhow.</p>
<p>CMU is probably less nerdy than RPI. Plus it is literally next door to the University of Pittsburgh. So, if you want to get out of the nerd-bubble it is a very short walk. Pittsburgh, by the way, is a fabulous college town. Give CMU a chance.</p>
<p>I agree with “saintfan” that Cornell and Penn are such high reaches (for everybody) that it might be best to visit after you are accepted. This might also apply to Northwestern.</p>
<p>Also, being in Texas, you should give Rice University a chance. It is among my personal top ten favorite universities. Fantastic school!</p>
<p>For many students and families summer is the only time available for lengthy visits. It’s not ideal, but it’s workable. Larger universities are active during the summer – not as lively as they would be from September to June – but still operating. </p>
<p>Smaller liberal arts colleges are definitely quieter, but in either case, you can take the tour, hear the information session, interview in some cases, and get a general sense of the prevailing culture. You can often visit facilities that are of interest to you, you can eat in the cafeteria, you can see the residence halls etc. We made all of our visits during the summer and did all of those things.</p>
<p>After your acceptances come in in April you can go back for a re-visit to your top 1 or 2. Often schools will help admitted students finance these visits.</p>
<p>Northwestern is kind of the odd man out geographically on your list. I’d concentrate on the Northeast for this trip. You could add in some other less selectives and perhaps some smaller LACs.</p>