<p>I am a big fan of admitted students days - my daughter made her decision after attending admitted students days for the three schools she was trying to choose from. These days are usually filled with better information than your typical visit/tour, specifics on majors/programs etc.</p>
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<p>Spot-on, JHS, in my personal experience. A visit that happens to include bad weather, a terrible tour guide, and random rudeness from students or staff will almost definitely lead to the conclusion that the school is a poor choice, regardless of reality.</p>
<p>Clearly, some things CAN be learned from visits, and they are worthwhile activities. It’s very tough to overcome the effects of random experiences, though.</p>
<p>I too am a big fan of the admitted student days. We learned quite a bit about D1’s final three during the accepted student days… she ended up attending the #3 school, the one she was sure she wasn’t going to go to. Her #1 and #2 schools were highly ranked in her major with her #3 school having a relatively new program. It was the Dean that headed up her program that made the difference…it was no contest, he was head and shoulders over the Deans that ran the established programs. Fresh new ideas that fit into today’s reality. We would never have seen that unless we attended the accepted dog and pony show…it was worth it.</p>
<p>Great link, Beliavsky - totally agree that the findings from cars and houses are relevant to college visits (and no doubt many other domains). Weather, of course, is just one factor in a complex decision. But, for a student who is looking for a pleasant climate, or plans to engage in specific outdoor sports, the visit weather conditions probably do have undue influence.</p>
<p>bclintonk – I think we must have the same taste in movies!</p>
<p>Visiting the school could be the tipping point in deciding between comparable schools. </p>
<p>I applied to 12 schools and as I got accepted into the higher ranked schools I disregarded the lower ranked ones. Granted I have never been to UCSB, UCSC, UCD, SFSU and some of the other C. California and N. California campuses that I applied to but when I got accepted into LA I decided to attend regardless. </p>
<p>I actually hate the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and I’ve been to the other S. California UC campuses(which are much less stressful cities to live in) due to visiting friends who were attending there. Ultimately, I still chose LA for the name and relatively close proximity to home. </p>
<p>So a campus visit is NOT absolutely required and you can get all the info online. However, for some students who were accepted to comparable schools a visit to the campus and surrounding neighborhood might be necessary to make a decision. Just to kind of “get a feel” for the place.</p>
<p>There are some things you can only learn on a visit. DS and I visited a school that he’d been accepted to with a great scholarship. He really liked the students and staff, the campus was pretty and he thought he’d fit in well. However, when he sat in on two different classes, he ruled the school out because the desks were too small! He’s 6’5" and he just could not get comfortable. We looked in some other classrooms and he found the same thing. He said he just couldn’t see being uncomfortable for four years. That was the only place where he ran into that problem and we never would have known about that without a visit.</p>
<p>S visited a few east coast schools and a few west coast schools. He said it was very important to him. All the schools he visited he had a pretty good idea what to expect. The ones he hadn’t, he had no idea at all.</p>
<p>Are you serious, beliavsky? I know my own tastes; the collected average preference of random other people isn’t useful unless I know that they have similar tastes.</p>
<p>Again, I would agree that visiting is a luxury, but if you can afford it, a very worthwhile one. Everyone has their own tastes and preferences, and no one else can tell you what you will like. We visited several schools that other raved about for their beauty yet both my son and I did not like them. However, we could understand how the environment might appeal to someone else. Each person is so different. </p>
<p>My older son knew right away which school he liked the most when we visited, although interestingly, he almost refused to go on the visit at first. Even so, we had to return and compare it with another college for him to make the final decision after he was accepted, since it obviously wasn’t “perfect” despite its many great qualities. No regrets.</p>
<p>And just a comment about weather. We have been to schools in the snow, in horrific heat and in the rain. Despite miserable conditions, I think you can still get a sense of the school. One of the most beautiful campuses my younger son visited was toured during pouring rain, and it was still beautiful.</p>
<p>I think visits are important for writing essays…if you have personal experience at the school, you can better describe how you fit in to their class. At highly selective universities, anything to distinguish yourself matters, and while visiting in itself doesn’t help, what you learn from the school will help you write an essay that improves your chances of being admitted.</p>
<p>When I was looking at colleges, I walked around this one campus and just felt an inner peace, like I was at home. When I was looking at houses (both times I’ve bought houses), I looked at many that were similar in amenities and met certain requirements, but each had a different vibe. When I walked in, I just felt it was “home.” When I’ve bought new cars, I test drove them first to see if they “felt” like an extension of me. </p>
<p>I tend to be a person who goes with my gut when making a decision. Some use cold, hard facts and statistics. Neither method is wrong, they are just different. But if you’re a “gut” person, visits are essential.</p>
<p>I think if you are applying to small LAC and you live close by, visits are important. DS’s GC said if you live within a 2-3 hr drive the small LACs expect you to visit. Our high school also has 3 admissions counselors give a seminar last year, one said if it was a choice btw 2 equal applicants; 1 visited , 1 didn’t, the 1 that visited would get in. It’s all about “demonstrating interest”. The visits did light a fire under DS, his whole attitude changed because he realized he really wanted to go to college
So far in DS’s application process-he applied to 5 schools EA, visited and interviewed at 4 of the 5, was accepted at those 4, deferred at the 5th.</p>
<p>For “demonstrating interest”, you can check the colleges’ common data sets (section C7) for whether “level of applicant’s interest” is considered in freshman admission. [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com) also has this information. Of course, a visit for the purpose of “demonstrating interest” needs to be recorded by the college in a way that is visible to the admissions office.</p>
<p>In the past folks used college visits to make a SMALL list of colleges to apply to.
Since the number of applications has exploded, why not visit AFTER the acceptances?</p>
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<p>That certainly makes a heck of a lot of financial sense, considering the acceptance rates at some top colleges; unfortunately, high school is mostly in session during those weeks that the student has to decide, AP classes are close to wrapping up, and one needs to maintain one’s grades to not get one’s acceptance rescinded. There is probably opportunity to visit a couple of colleges near each other, but if the final choices are in widely-different parts of the country, it becomes tough to fit them all in within the timeframe permitted.</p>
<p>Both of our sons chose schools that were not on their original lists, thanks to the time we took to visit. S2 fell in live with Chapman University when we were in the area to tour UC Irvine. Chapman was so close, we thought what the heck, let’s pop over there. Halfway through the tour, S2 was telling me that this school might be the one. </p>
<p>I echo others’ comments here re: how much we enjoyed spending time with our teens on all those trips. It was so much fun.</p>
<p>College tours = the best bonding experience ever with your disengaged teen.</p>
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<p>Can small things take on a bigger life than they should? Sure. To me, the question is does that misinformation outweigh the value of the true more substantial information. </p>
<p>I know three sets of college visits in detail and in all three cases the student honed in on global attributes that they preferred … to the point that I could predict reaction before asking them … not just yes/no but what the pros/cons are even on intangibles.</p>
<p>On my experience the random false info could have affected things but only within a subset of school that met more global true criteria. Of course YMMV.</p>
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Yup. When we moved into our bigger house we spent about a year looking at houses … Mom3ToGo probably looked at 25 houses … she made it to the front entry way of the house that we now live in and gave me a call and asked me to come over right away because this could be it.</p>