<p>Living overseas we have had no choice but to visit schools in the summer. There have been enough kids around to get a good feel for all the campuses we have seen (except maybe Villanova which seemed very deserted compared to other schools!). Then, as a previous poster suggested, if a follow up visit is needed to make a final decision between schools that have accepted your child then you can visit over spring break senior year.</p>
<p>Due to our location, we had to make all of our college visits in June and July. It’s not perfect, but you can get a feel of what a campus is like, and find out more about specific programs.</p>
<p>Karen Colleges beat me to this. RUs operate nearly year-round. With the exception of Princeton and Caltech, the highly selective RUs have UG summer semester/quarter classes (Princeton nevertheless offers guided tours all summer and Caltech in June). </p>
<p>The best time to go, in most institutions, is during the first / main sessions, which enroll the most students, i.e. from late June through July. Avoid scheduling trips during finals week (unless you want to see how stressful the school is at max). </p>
<p>Most LACs don’t have summer sessions, but many have students doing research, who are available to give tours and helpful information. </p>
<p>If you make a post-10th grade expedition, and find an especially attractive school, see if it has a summer program for post-11th graders, and if it does, enroll in it. Inquire early (generally Jan.) and apply for financial aid, if you think you need it. Then, if that’s a great experience, apply EA / ED.</p>
<p>One more note…</p>
<p>Visits can be very time consuming, or they can be fairly minor. Depends largely on the student’s wants/needs. </p>
<p>Some visits might demand a fair chunk of time…a tour, a walk around campus, a few classes, an overnight. Personally, I never sat in on classes and I never spent the night anywhere. I could easily have benefited from doing either of these, and I think many students do, but I did come through just fine in the long run. I only ate on campus when it was part of the tour, or when my parents made me 
</p>
<p>So for me, group tours (when available…walking tours, either organized or on our own, when not, or just a drive around if it was a place that really wasn’t interesting me) + maybe some wandering around campus + an interview (in most cases) constituted a full day. It was easy to fit more than one of these in an afternoon (when geography allowed), so I never had any college trips that needed to last more than 2-3 days, max., and I took these outside of the heavy competition season (which, like your daughter’s, was Nov-Mar).</p>
<p>I saw that the OP’s D was planning to play soccer in college. My S is a freshman now but dreams of playing football in college. At this point it’s hard to tell if he has a chance but I am willing to help him. I thought there were strict rules about how and when you can contact college coaches and the main communication was through email. So how does visiting schools fit into this? Are you visiting before emailing? My older D isn’t interested in sports so we haven’t gotten involved in any of this.</p>
<p>Yes, there are contact rules that vary by level of play(D1-D3). She has been in touch with coaches by mail and email. She is able to make appointments and meet on campus and talk with the coaches and has been on campus watching games over the past year for some of the local schools. There is a difference between official and unofficial visits. Soccer has college showcase tournaments where you can invite coaches to watch you play and they will contact you afterwards if they are inerested. If you play well coaches that you haven’t been in contact with will get in touch with you, also. Here is a link that may help you.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ncaa.org/library/general/cbsa/2007-08/2007-08_cbsa.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ncaa.org/library/general/cbsa/2007-08/2007-08_cbsa.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks very much for the information.</p>
<p>I have similar stories: Though my DDs are two sport athletes not three we have scheduled them around sports camp visits and this summer chose the camp because it is being held on a campus the girls are interested in attending. We are going to a 4-day three campus tour over spring break and other than that will attend accepted student events after acceptance to narrow down the field next spring.</p>
<p>After hearing how busy fall of Sr. year is it feels good to know that this part will be out of the way before September</p>
<p>Oh…and talk to coaches about your concerns. The best will see the importance of your D’s life beyond HS sports.</p>
<p>My son is very dedicated to his sport, and it is a year-round practice-heavy sport. He loathes missing practice for any reason. Just the same, he did take a day or two off here and there to make time for college visits starting last spring and into Sept. His coach didn’t like it much, but there are priorities. ;)</p>
<p>He has done well at his sport (he was state champion in his events last weekend. yay!), and being an athlete was one factor (I do believe) in his getting accepted to an excellent college. So definitely, the immense amount of time he’s spent in practice over the last several years has been well worth it on more than one level… however, it’s not up to a coach to control a high school student’s life to the point they prohibit them from doing something that is clearly in the best interest of the kid, both educationally and athletically.</p>
<p>I agree visiting campus when classes are in session is preferable, but we had to do a couple visits at off-times, and they still were worth doing. If your D has any plans to apply ED anywhere (which coaches tend to push), then she really has to visit first.</p>
<p>We live very far from anywhere, so when he had to take a day off, we’d try to make it Friday or Monday so we’d have the long weekend. That put us visiting schools on Saturdays more often than I would have liked, but it was a good compromise for us as far as my son missing practice days went.</p>
<p>My son is in choir and theatre and it seems like whenever there is a weekday off from school, someone schedules a “mandatory” rehearsal. Yesterday was President’s Day and no rehearsals, however, so my husband took my son up to Austin College (90 minutes away.) I think we’ll do a Saturday “Preview Day” at Baylor. It looks like the visits to 5 other schools will have to wait until the summer. I don’t think we’ll visit the state schools on the list…if one of them offers him a great deal, we’ll visit. He has one “reach” … if his SAT scores improve, we’ll schedule a visit there.</p>
<p>It’s not easy!!!</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota, you beat me to starting this thread! I felt very disappointed because we had hoped to do a couple of college visits with D over the long President’s Day weekend, but there was a championship-level track meet, mandatory practice for it the day before, etc., and not to mention the big homework projects that teachers like to assign over a long weekend. For some reason, scheduling was not as problematic for our older child, who was also an athlete.</p>
<p>The most D was able to do was sort through some college mail and e-mails and respond to some of the more interesting ones. She checked SAT scores and enrollments to eliminate those out of her academic range and those which are smaller than her high school. We also compiled a list of schools which are strong in her sports, but the list is much too long.</p>
<p>When I posted a question about athletic recruitment on another thread, I got the idea from posters that the selection process will be moved along somewhat by the interest that coaches first show in D. From that I concluded that too many visits right now might be a waste of time and money until we see how things play out. But my D is just a soph. It’s just that we already knew because of S and his sports schedule that if we didn’t take advantage of the in-service days in both soph. and jr. year, we’d never have been able to see the schools on even a short list, except maybe when they were out of session.</p>
<p>A comment on going during spring break. There’s practice then too, of course, but S’s junior year his spring break coincided with many colleges’ spring break, so that wasn’t ideal either if you want to see schools while classes are in session. Also, some schools did not even offer tours at all then because their guides were off vacationing.</p>
<p>I’m going to second Cathymee’s recommendation for the college tour tapes-
[Collegiate</a> Choice Walking Tours Videos - college videos, campus tours, college guides, college planning, college admissions](<a href=“http://www.collegiatechoice.com%5DCollegiate”>http://www.collegiatechoice.com)</p>
<p>they really were helpful. Will not replace an actual visit, but may help you eliminate or focus on just a few schools.</p>
<p>I’m so glad my kid’s sports days are over. We at least had President’s week to look at schools, though there was conflict with basketball playoffs. All the parents were glad once our team was eliminated , so we could spend the rest of vacation week looking at colleges. </p>
<p>Though it is not the best time to go, you may need to do some initial visits during the summer.<br>
Friends kid did some soccer camps at colleges which gave him the opportunity to work with the college coach and see the campus.
Worked out nicely for them- he applied and was accepted ED at one of those schools where he did soccer camp.</p>
<p>result_gi</p>
<p>We were fortunate that all of my son’s Spring break fell before decision day, but because he wanted to do overnights at 5 schools in different parts of the country, we encouraged him to take a whole extra week off from school. The 2 schools on the west coast, he’d only visited in the summer. When he did the overnights and experienced the campuses full of students, he realized that they didn’t feel like as good a fit as they sounded like on paper.</p>
<p>It’s a big decision and we decided it was worth the investment of time and money that he get the best possible view of his “finalists”. I think the trips gave him a lot of confidence that he was making an informed decision.</p>
<p>We did early visits summer after soph and junior years to get a basic list. Some were great and we got a one on one tour and got to ask a lot of questions and got some first hand info that you couldn’t get with a large group. Most of the campuses were very deserted though but it was a start. One campus was lovely but there literally was no one around. They were starting tours the next week so we wandered around by ourselves. They did have an audio tour but we didn’t do it. We’re waiting for acceptances to do the overnights after april 1st. We’re traveling a long distance so this will be hard. DD still doesn’t want to miss any school a month before graduation. 4 years of brainwashing that she can’t miss a practice, a rehearsal, a test or a day of school. She doesn’t get how important this is. Our best info came from this site. Email other parents about their visits, students about how they like their school etc. The tour guides were good but we learned so much more good or bad when we could talk to them one on one. Remember, they are selling the school on a tour. If your student isn’t a star athlete or going for an athletic scholarship they may have to miss some practices. Sometimes coaches are so focused just on their own team and winning that they miss the big picture-Your child’s future !!</p>
<p>I am with you all here. We are on our third child, and I have seen more schools than I can count. The problem is, if you go during the summer or even on weekends, the atmosphere is different. It really does color the experience. We don’t go on the “special” days, either. The best is to visit during a regular school day. This way we see it as it is, not as they want us to see it. We are finding it very difficult to see them all, and impossible to do midweek. One that we visited was completely dead on the weekend that we visited. I mean, it was like the place was closed. We expect a little quiet on weekends, but some human life is required. I can’t stress enough the importance of visiting. Visits changed some decisions for us. One really famous, very prestigious school became a definite no when we visited! We have learned that, sports and all of the other activites that take up so much time will be there when we get back. One teacher actually told me that my daughter HAD to be there for a planned activity on a Saturday, and there were NO exceptions. We had a two schools in one day visit planned and she missed that Saturday. Maybe it is because this is my last child and she is a senior, but I really did not care. She survived the teacher’s surly attitude and did not get the threatened lower grade. Oh, and the “star” athletes are the ones that are forgiven if they miss some practices. NO problem there!</p>
<p>quote–She survived the teacher’s surly attitude and did not get the threatened lower grade. –</p>
<p>What if there is not just one surly teacher with one threatened lower grade, but, about FIVE of them about now, in 8th semester? </p>
<p>S must decide between a spending a day for a <em>potential</em> $10k per yr scholarship interview and serving those five sr teachers. He already has taken a ton of time off for state music exhibitions and for election judge training and doing the election judge thing , and so is pretty behind now with Ds and Fs at this point in the semester. Something’s gotta give. I would think he 's got to get the grades back above C, else a ressission of the acceptances that he worked hard to get are in jeopardy.</p>
<p>On the other hand, he DOES have to see the colleges to discover as much as he can.</p>
<p>idic5</p>
<p>He needs to focus on the grades at this point.</p>
<p>sounds right. But the deadline for the $10k is this wednesday, and they dont do w/e’s. So we let that go.</p>
<p>There is a linkage to another thread on cc where the grounds for rescission is explored. Paradoxically, in this case, to the extent that the student was trying to serve the college god (doing due dilliigence in finding out about the school before going, trying to get the price down to make it not quite as oppresive, etc), that student might increase the chance of a rescission.</p>
<p>I am NOT talking about ‘senioritis’; it should properly be called ‘collegeitis’.</p>
<p>hmm - canwe say that us ccers might be afflicted a bit with this? :)</p>
<p>I’m a senior right now and have wayyy too many extra currics that take up all of my time. I did most of my college visitations over the summer. It took a bit of work on my part, but I started with a list of fifty some schools I was considering and then narrowed it down to twenty or so. Most of my schools were on the east coast, so my dad and I planned a trip (I’m from Oregon… so it’s kinda far =)). We visited ten schools in seven days from as far south as Duke and as far north as Rensselaer Polytechnic. It was a lot of driving, but well worth the hassle. I have only made one trip during the school year because I had two interviews. Luckily they were on the same weekend. I had to talk to my coaches (I swim year round) and my boss at work and explained the situation. They were very understanding. As long as you don’t usually miss practice or work, I’m sure you can work something out where you miss a couple days. I my case, I had to miss three days of practice about a week before the most important meet of the season due to my flight being canceled. Another thing… long weekends are always a great time to visit schools! Look ahead far in advance and match up schedules for all of your extra currics. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>Oh yeah… I agree with Adultparentmom! it is really different on weekends and on the special visit days, but a visit is better than no visit. It doesn’t matter if you think the school is absolutely amazing… you have to visit the campus to figure out if you REALLY TRULY love it. I ended up hating two schools that I thought anyone would love to attend. I just didn’t think I would be happy at those schools.</p>