<p>We're thinking of seeing some colleges in two weeks when most colleges are on spring break. The tours will be operating, but no classes to visit and probably not too many students hanging out. Has anyone tried this? How much do you lose if the college isn't fully open for business?</p>
<p>D and I visited some colleges on the East and West coasts the past two summers. Took the tours, saw some kids on campus, but didn’t attend or look in on classes. You can at least answer the basic question of whether or not this would be a school for further interest. D was able to rule some out just on size, looks, or feelings. If one or two really pique your interest, you can schedule a better time to visit if convenient.</p>
<p>We’ve done this, and frankly, if you’re touring on a Saturday morning, there’s not much difference! Obviously, if one was really interested in a particular school, you’d want to revisit when the natives are in town.</p>
<p>It’s not ideal, but when travel is involved, you go when you can go. We visited one school during the summer. It was a ghost town, but d1 didn’t reject it outright. She had a chance to go back on scholarship interview day. Even when school wasn’t in session, d1 had appointments with professors in her area of interest and with the choir directors. They weren’t wasted trips.</p>
<p>It’s better to see a college when classes are in session, especially once a school becomes a top choice. </p>
<p>But frankly there is not enough time in a busy student’s schedule to catch many schools in session. So visits during the summer or break time a perfectly fine in the beginning. The family learns a lot of general things on the initial tours anyway. And a lot really can be learned via tours and info sessions. It is only the “vibe” of the campus that you miss, and that could be done on a return visit senior year.</p>
<p>You probably get a better feel of the campus when school is in session. But do you really get a good feel of your potential experience? </p>
<p>The class you visit could be the best or the worst one on campus.</p>
<p>Your performance in the classes goes a long way to determining whether you like the school or not.</p>
<p>The friends you make in school also go a long way to defining your college experience.</p>
<p>Talk to your tour guide, ask questions. He/she will typically give you a good feel of what the students think.</p>
<p>So, visit while classes are in session, but if that is not possible, go see it anyways.</p>
<p>College student here…I agree with another poster-it is very similar to Saturday morning or any other time when a lot people aren’t around (my campus, at least, has a lot of people going out on Thursdays/Saturdays, and much more subdued on Friday night…and Sundays are completely dead everywhere but the library!). It’s definitely an important factor to see other students, but for an initial visit, it’s not bad. The college tour can tell you a lot about what’s important and not important at that school…you can also get a feel for whether you like the actual buildings/mood of the campus.</p>
<p>Our experience was that you could get enough of a feeling to decide whether to apply or not. But not enough to know for sure whether to enroll when accepted. Most colleges have accepted students weekend, so our strategy with D1 (and now D2) is visit when we can (in session is best, but won’t work in all cases), and plan to go back for accepted students weekend if the college is being seriously considered and student has been accepted.</p>
<p>Some colleges offer opportunities during senior year to do an overnight stay, sometimes as part of a bigger event (Carnegie Mellon has “sleeping bag weekends”, parent attendance is optional.)</p>
<p>Once you can narrow down the list of colleges, I suggest your son/daughter stay overnight. That made a huge difference for my son.</p>
<p>I have visited colleges with my daughter during the summer, during admissions open house days, and for overnight stays during regular class days. The overnight stays were by far the most helpful, but even the summer visits to deserted campuses were worthwhile for a first look. We visited eight schools last summer, and she applied to four of them. She has since revisited three of those four for a more detailed look.</p>
<p>For those schools that want to see demonstrated interest, it’s beneficial to visit whether or not the school is on break, even though the student will get more out of visiting when classes are in session.</p>