<p>Also…there is just no way that it makes sense to visit these places 1 month before decisions come out. I assume you already have the international tickets booked and paid for, or something. If it were me, I’d just pay the change fee and plan to go in April.</p>
<p>Plenty of us can fill you in on UT and Vandy, especially in comparison to other colleges on your list. Trimming the list makes sense. I understand you probably can’t change the timing.</p>
<p>How is that not just random based on whether that professor or that class happened to be inspired, though?</p>
<p>PG, I’ll share ds’s experience. He did an overnight at his first-choice school. He sat in on one class in an area of interest and then consulted the list he was given to find a second. When he got to the classroom, he introduced himself and sat down, but it turned out the class skedded for that room had been moved and the class he was in was on a subject of which he had ZERO interest. He didn’t want to be rude and walk out, so he stayed and ended up really enjoying it. He said the prof was so engaging that he really learned a lot. He ended up writing about the experience for his “Why School X?” essay, saying if the profs in his area of interest were half as good as this guy, then he knows this is the right place. :)</p>
<p>Good to know!</p>
<p>One thing we noticed when we’ve done campus visits is that some/many do not include tours of the dorms. </p>
<p>Of course, the academics are important, but if the dorms are like dungeons, and your child will be living on campus for 4 years, the quality of campus housing can affect morale. :)</p>
<p>Also…at each location, try out the food venues and check out the off-campus hangouts. </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>If your son has a specific major in mind you might want to get in touch with the chair of that department to schedule a meeting. We found that faculty were very accomodating and these meetings helped a great deal when it came to decision time. You are traveling so far you should get the most you can out of the visits. Sitting in on classes is a great idea too. It is interesting to see how students and professors interact.</p>
<p>Important March factor- WEATHER. You’ll probably be ok with your southern tier visits, just remember that a late winter snowstorm in the Midwest could affect St. Louis.</p>
<p>Make use of Kayak for travel plans. Also Expedia and the other sites. Schools often list nearby hotels on their websites, but the online sites will add to your information. Be wary of guaranteed/paid for reservations in case your travel plans are amended. We often find reasonable, inexpensive hotels just days before. </p>
<p>You may want to prioritze your itinerary according to most desired schools- then you can decide to forget the bottom one on your list while in the US.</p>
<p>Make use of virtual tours via Google Earth and Bing- their 3D maps with various angles will familiarize you with areas in advance. There is an amazing amount of detail. Google Street view takes you right past places as if you were driving.</p>
<p>From New York and not applying to that region- hmm… Sounds like the East coast didn’t make the most desired region list. Good luck and enjoy your whirlwind tour.</p>
<p>pixeljig, what are the fixed elements in your trip? Are your departure and return flights already arranged?
While this may not be an ideal trip, it is doable, and I think your son needs to see these schools before making a decision. Your schedule will be like that of a road-warrior salesman. Most of your days have about 4 hours travel time; get to a school the night before, see the area at night and in the morning, do the tour and and maybe an info session (skip the general ones and go for the specialties), have lunch on campus (try to arrange to eat with a student, even if you have to shanghai one!) and leave in the early afternoon. Your student will sleep in the afternoon, and you’ll wind up having a quick dinner on the road or in the airport. Once you reach campus, he can go out while you crash. I’ve done four day versions of this, and survived. Seven days is a lot; if you could arrange one day off towards the end, it would make a big difference.</p>
<p>As you’ve said, the schools to take out of the plan would be the high reaches. You may want to look at the accepted students’ threads from last year and decide what his least likely school is. Also, look for the notification dates; it’s quite possible that some schools will post acceptances before you leave the country. If so, that may be a school you want to leave til the end, if at all possible.</p>
<p>Oh, and I agree with the traveling from East to West idea. It’s easier to get up early in the morning!</p>
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<p>Pixel has already stated that her kid has been accepted to Santa Clara and DOES want to see that school. The “reverse” trip proposed has them “touring” SCU on a Sunday. The school does NOT OFFER TOURS on Sundays…ever. In addition, the week that Pixel and family are scheduled to come here…SCU is on spring break. That means classes will not be in session at all. Finals are from March 15 to March 19 and I’m not sure there are tours that week. Call to be verify this. I know that MY kids (who does tours) does not work the week of exams. The week after that is spring break. I do believe they have tours during their spring break, but you would have to contact the office of admissions to be sure. </p>
<p>Re: Dorm room visits…visiting dorm rooms on tours has been discontinued at MOST schools due to privacy issues. Some schools have a “model” dorm room (there was one at U of Richmond when we toured, for example). The tour guides can take the tours into the public areas of the dorms but NOT into the dorm rooms at most places. The only time dorm rooms are typically ON a tour is during the summer when no one is living in them.</p>
<p>Pixel…call SCU and see what their schedule is for tours during the spring break. I’m sure they will work with you if possible.</p>
<p>Don’t mean to thread-hijack - but in general, would there be positive response to calling a college and saying, “We really want to see you, but our scheduled travel is such we could only do it on a Sunday … Is there any way?” Would that be perceived as “wow, they really want to see us, let’s try to work out something” or “how pushy and entitled do they think they are?”</p>
<p>Pixel…I just checked the SCU website. There ARE tours on the 18th and 19th…and 20th of March (the Saturday tour is at 10:45 a.m.). There are also tours during the spring break. Just go to the website and search “tours”…then go to the link for undergraduate admissions. </p>
<p>No Sunday tours.</p>
<p>The recommend you register at least two weeks prior to attending.</p>
<p>Pizza I had some luck arranging tours when I was doing west tours with S1 and again doing east tours with S2. Usually they would line up a student to meet us and tour us although their offices were not “officially” open for the 2 Sunday instances and occasionally the buildings were not open. There were 2 schools west, one on a Sunday and one during exam week and 1 school east on a Sunday. One school never responded to my e-mail although they still are sending S2 solicitations, mailings, e-mails. He “wrote them off” when they didn’t even respond to the original e-mail affirmatively or negatively regarding an “off time” tour. I think it’s hit or miss but worth asking about. My son actually enjoyed the one-on-one non-official tour times as they were very casual and personal and we appreciated the response of those colleges that went out of their way. Of course if you do this you don’t have the info sessions (which non of my kids are fond of anyway) and no class visit, which the kids aren’t that concerned with.</p>
<p>OK, I haven’t read all 4 pages of posts, so forgive me if this question was already asked and answered, but WHY are you visiting ALL THOSE COLLEGES in March, instead of waiting until after April 1 when you will KNOW where he has been accepted, then make some preliminary decisions based on where he got in, and then take a trip to help him make the final decision where he wants to go.? And I agree with Bruce that the original itinerary is NUTS. In addition, there is the strong possibility that you or your son will be seriously jet lagged, so trying to cram that many colleges and that much travel in that short a period of time is guaranteeing a really miserable trip. just my opinion.</p>
<p>“OK, you already applied, waiting to hear from them, and not at a stage where you are trying to decide where to apply. I would argue that you won’t gain much by visiting the schools at this stage especially when these are all reach schools. It seems you might even be setting yourself up for a bigger disappointment if you don’t get in after your son “falling in love” with one of the school. I would second targeted Spring visit after finding out about the acceptances.”</p>
<p>I see this was already brought up.
I strongly suggest you step back from “travel planning” mode, and think how futile all this planning will be IF HE DOESN’T GET INTO THE COLLEGES you are planning on visiting. Wait until April 1 and then make your plans.There may be colleges that he will eliminate immediately. My son was accepted at 13 colleges on April 1 four years ago, and we had only visited 4 of them prior to his applying. He eliminated all but the final 3, and we then made our travel plans to the east coast, based on those decisions</p>
<p>Menlo…OPs son has already been accepted to Santa Clara University EA. </p>
<p>I wonder if it’s possible to push that trip off for a couple of weeks…coming in April instead. SCU will still be there (and won’t be on Spring break)…and other acceptances will likely be received. Of course…making the airline reservations without knowing where you are heading…could be a shot in the dark.</p>
<p>"Menlo…OPs son has already been accepted to Santa Clara University EA. "
I know, but they are planning a long, convoluted trip based on hope rather than fact. If the OP’s son gets into Vandy, does SC go right out the window? If so, then they should WAIT to see where he actually CAN go to college in Sept. many kids from my son’s school apply to schools far from Calif, and I have never heard of seniors visiting colleges in March, before acceptances come out. A little patience can probably save them a lot of time, $$ and aggravation. Flying international into the US is going to be a much bigger hassle now after the Dec 25 incident.</p>
<p>An additional thought … out of state admission to UT is very difficult. I don’t know what your son’s stats are …but you might check their common data set to see if he is in the top 25% of their admission pool. My son was born in Austin, always thought he wanted to go to UT and back to Texas … he visited, the orientation session completely turned him off. They were basically told that out of states students have a very difficult time getting in, that if they were lucky enough to get in … they would not necessarily be guarnateed a major etc. Texas was scratched. So - might at least look at stats to see if this is a worthwhile trip.</p>
<p>Our tickets are set for the international leg (using miles - cannot change now without major penalty as taxes etc are quite high).</p>
<p>SCU does have tours, I have checked and also written to the CS dept head and he has kindly agreed to meet with son on the 19th.</p>
<p>We only have these 8 days to travel as our other son who is also in HS needs to get back to school. The reason we are visiting the other colleges is that in case he gets accepted to any of those reaches, he would have already seen and could make a well informed decision. DS2 will apply in 2 years time and this is a intro trip for him as well. We do not have any other window now.</p>
<p>Son is very keen on SCU and wants to see GT too, mainly its these 2 colleges. He has been accepted at SCU and deferred at GT.</p>
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<p>The info above came from DD in response to my query from below. However Pixel has made arrangements to see folks at SCU on the 19th (NOT a Sunday) so that sounds resolved.</p>
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