I am a Junior and I don’t have the transportation or finance to visit colleges, especially the amount of colleges I want to visit, as well as their varying locations. Are there any programs that pay for transportation? I could pay for a hotel and food. I know there are virtual tours but the feel and atmosphere of the surrounding city and the behavior of the students, etc. are very important to me and I really think I will be able to compose my final list best if it is based on physical visits.
Do an internet search for College Fly-In Programs - there are some schools that pay for students to visit, but you will need to apply and be accepted.
Some colleges do pay for visits but they are top colleges where the hardest part is getting admitted. State schools will not pay at all.
I think that it is possible to pick a college without visiting. I never visited the college I wound up attending until orientation and I literally lived 15 minutes away from it. My D didn’t visit her college until after she was accepted. I took her to see one other school before that, which she hated. My current senior visited 6 local colleges and applied to 4 of them. He will be attending a school he visited when my H wangled an invitation to a free weekend at a local accepted student function we went to. I have not yet seen his school but will do so at orientation.
If you qualify, however, check out the fly-in’s, etc. In reality, I would have loved to have done roadtrips to see schools with my kids, but that was not in our budget. Nonetheless, my D loved her school so much that one of my other sons also wound up going there and she didn’t visit till after we had paid the deposit.