<p>My son is a junior and we're just starting the process of narrowing down college choices. I thought it was going to be a fairly easy process until I started checking the net price calculators; now I realize we have work to do. Most of the colleges in our area have Junior Visitation days coming up in late March or April; some are during the week and some are on weekends. Does it make a difference whether we visit on one of those days or if we just go on our own? We won't be able to get to all the Jr Visit days because of his school and work schedule, but if its best to go on those days I'll try to make sure he goes to as many as he can. Thanks!</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of these days. IMO, it’d be better to visit on a normal day when the campus won’t be flooded with high school students. You’ll probably get a better idea of what actual student life is, and most colleges have tours/info sessions every day of the week.</p>
<p>I visited my schools over the summer which was both good and bad. Of course there weren’t any students there but I kind of liked that so I could get a feel for the actual campus rather than the students. I could see why people wouldn’t like this though. I also did a fall open house and that was nice, there were students there and I got to eat in the cafeteria. However, the school broke up the visitors by their intended major which I liked but the bad thing was our tour guide wasn’t studying the major. So I signed up as an English major but our tour guide was for Communications or something so she couldn’t tell us much about classes.</p>
<p>We visited during open house events as well as just touring on our own ( with other prospective students on the tours too ) If it is more economical to tour without an actual scheduled event, I would say go for it. It’s a good time to get a feel for the school on an everyday basis</p>
<p>As parent of now college freshman, the junior visit days were an easy way to “get our feet wet” in the college visit process. He was surrounded by others his age, rather than seniors who were deep into the process, and the programs were tailored to juniors – more informational, less anxiety about admissions etc. He was very interested to see what kind of kids were also visiting those schools. </p>
<p>For someone beginning to sort out priorities, we found it an effective introduction to the whole process. As I recall, we signed up for a number of junior visit days, that were often on a Friday or Saturday, but with his academic and sports schedule, found ourselves canceling a few, which then became fall overnights.</p>
<p>On balance, an easy, effective way to get a feel for specific campus as well as the whole process. I would recommend!</p>
<p>It is helpful that the school know that you visited since at least some colleges count “demonstrated interest” in their admission decision. That said, you don’t need to go to the Junior visitation day. Most schools have information sessions and campus tours going on all the time and those are fine to attend as well. Check each school’s website and see when information sessions/tours are offered. Some schools ask that you sign up in advance of your visit and other schools you just have to show up and again, that information should be on each website.</p>