<p>Hi. I'm a rising sophmore, and my family and I are gong to up north to look at some of the Ivies up there, such as Harvard, Princeton, and UPenn. I really want to make the most out of it, so do you have any advice on what to do other than just take the tour (which I think is to passive) and read the pamphlets they give you. I want to start on college research, and I am hoping this is a good way to start.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Are you planning to visit this fall when the schools have students on campus?</p>
<p>I think you’ll get more out of it if you wait until later. It’s a bit early. Take lunch in the dining hall (preferably without parents with you) so you can talk to students.</p>
<p>I’m leaving in two weeks!</p>
<p>Maybe visit some non-Ivy league schools that are in the same area. It is a mistake to focus only on Ivy League schools since their acceptance rates are under 10%. There are lots in the Boston area - Tufts, Brandeis, Northeastern, BU, BC, Wellesley etc.</p>
<p>I agree with BeanTownGirl. Do not get fixated on the Ivies. This is a good time to start finding out about the many, many excellent schools out there which don’t reject almost all of their applicants.</p>
<p>I’ve been to a ton of schools with my kids. Both my kids, on their own, has similar likes and dislikes about visits.</p>
<ul>
<li>Liked the formal tours … stayed near the front and the guide … more good stuff was shared while talking while walking then while talking to the big group. (PS - I went to the back of the group (this let students be up front and kelp my mouth shut))</li>
<li>The kids did NOT like the info sessions … if they had done any research on the school they typically did not learn anything new at info sessions and found then a waste of time. (2 great ones … 20 lousy ones)</li>
<li>Eat a meal on campus somewhere </li>
<li>Hang out in the “middle” of campus for awhile</li>
<li>Go to the student hang out area right off campus</li>
<li>At some point while on campus … ask yourself can you imagine this being home for 4 years.</li>
</ul>
<p>My kids preferred planning 2 tours a day … especially for initial visits … if you’re going to take the time to visit school check out lots of options … big/small … urban/suburban/college town/rural … research U/LAC … private/state school … etc</p>
<p>Have fun!</p>
<p>It’s a fine way to start looking at colleges. For the college visits before spring term of junior year, the highlights of our tours involved checking out the various ice cream offerings at each school. We also followed the Red Sox around visiting colleges by day and rooting for our team at night. </p>
<p>Don’t get too serious because these visits are really to help you understand what differentiates colleges, not where you plan to go.</p>
<p>It helped us to take lots of photos on each campus, because everything blurs by the end of a trip.</p>
<p>First of all, if you ask a lot of questions on the tour it won’t be a passive experience. At some schools we split up and took tours with different guides and compared notes (sometimes similar, sometimes not).</p>
<p>Normally I’d say to eat in the student cafeteria. When we did this my D would try to seek out a group of friendly looking students and eat with them which generally worked out very well – she got a lot of insight into the schools. However, this may not be possible in the summer when there may be more campers from summer programs than students on campus. My husband always liked to go into the library and the gym of each college we visited. You may want to walk around the area near the campus to get a feel for the location.</p>
<p>And I agree about not limiting yourself to the Ivy schools. They are hyper-competitive.</p>