Looking for some feedback on visits/tours. With spring sports starting and the distance to the schools, we will be unable to do any visits/tours during the week. Is it worth it to go over the weekend? Can you still get a sense of the student vibe? We would mostly be visiting schools where most live on campus. I know summer you don’t get a true student vibe and we have a long list of schools to visit. Thanks!
We did tours during the week, tours on weekends, and tours when the school was not even in session. In some cases we got to chat with the professors and/or sit in on classes, in some cases we did not. We attended a few events for admitted students (some on-campus, some near where we live). We even had one guided tour during a time when the school was not in session and was not offering tours (we asked politely and the head of admissions said “okay” and gave us a tour herself).
I think that all of this was of some significant value.
The most valuable tours were the ones when the school was in session, and we got to sit in on classes, and we got to talk to a professor.
Second most valuable were probably the weekend tours. On the weekend students were still around and were still walking around campus. We saw students in restaurants and the dining hall.
Also, the visits that we did after the student was accepted to the university (with an affordable offer) had the advantage that they knew that they really could be here next September if they wanted to. I felt very real.
Another advantage of on campus tours is that the student got a sense of what the travel would be like. Given that we had either driven or flown from home to the school, they had some sense of what it was going to take to get here each time.
Generally I think that it will be easier for a student to pick a school to attend after doing some visits, rather than without doing visits. Visiting whenever you can is going to be way better than not visiting at all.
Which is a very slow way of saying YES, it is worth it IMHO.
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Yes, it’s worth it if the alternative is not going at all.
The campus may be quieter but there will be people around to chat with and we actually found a prof on the quad to talk with. you never know.
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Most admissions offices conduct tours on the weekend day(s). Contact them and set up a formal info session and tour if you want to and they offer this on Saturdays (most are closed on Sunday).
A weekend tour is far better than no tour. Do what you can.
Many colleges do have weekend tours/information sessions so sign up in advance whenever possible. And if you go early on a weekend morning you should anticipate a quiet campus as many students will be sleeping in LOL. In contrast, on an afternoon visit on a nice day (other than midterm week) you will likely find more students out and about.
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Even without a tour, any visit is better than no visit. If campus is quiet, walk around the area where the dorms are. Walk through the library. Find where the students go for pizza, boba, grocery shop. That will likely give you some idea of the culture and vibe.
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