<p>All our visits have included Q&A with students in the info session, student tour guides who answer lots of non-tour questions, and several places had lunch with students (for D, I was on my own) and/or sitting in on classes in her intended area, where she had chances to talk to students and ask general questions before or after the lesson.</p>
<p>I’ve always said if there is a school that your student thinks they want to attend and as a parent you don’t want them to attend - take them on a tour in the summer! They probably won’t like it! Take them to the ones you like in the fall! Seriously, the fall is the best if you can swing it. </p>
<p>My D did most of her first visits in late summer and early Fall at beginning of junior yr. I learned that the open houses weren’t great for us and instead went when we were with a smaller group of 2-8 other families. Got lots of useful info. When she thought some schools were definites for her list , she revisited in late spring/summer for interview and took another tour and met dept. people. All easily arranged though admissions.</p>
<p>After acceptances in Fall (hopefully) she will re-visit to make final decision.</p>
<p>It would be great if you can visit campuses when your child is at Fall/Spring break while the colleges are not. You should check with the college to see if they have campus visit sessions that you may register around that time. To register for the visit would also demonstrate your interest at that school. With a formal visit session, you will get more information about admission and financial aid. We did the campus visits in the Summer before senior of my D, so we did not have a chance to be in a class. We do have very pleasant experience from our visits and they are still very informative. I would suggest to do campus visits in at least 2 rounds. The first round is to let the kid get a feel on the different size and style of campuses to see what kind of school (large or small, metro or suburb, etc) that he/she likes. That would help to narrow down the list. The second round can be more focus and go deeper in for targeted (or even admitted) schools.</p>
<p>In response to an earlier post - You can sit in on classes at Yale. My daughter went during her spring break and contacted the Classics Department before she went. She was allowed to sit in a class, and though the professor was adamant that coming to class in no way would help her admissions chances, he was very helpful and gave her a wonderful overview of the Department.</p>
<p>It was definitely good to see the schools while class was in session. There is so much difference in the “feel” of different campuses and what is a “good fit” for one, may be a death knell for another. If you are lucky enough to know someone there (for the schools that are on the top of their list), then letting a student take them around or sleep in their dorm room is great. The kids gets a taste of the school without you hovering over them. At a couple of places - Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Amherst - we sent her off on her own with the student. She came back very excited each time.</p>
<p>I wish each of you luck in this journey. My D will be attending Yale in the fall - actually leaves in less than 30 days. I just left your space. You will survive and so will your kid.</p>
<p>My older son hated visits and after a few junior year over spring break, he ended up just applying to schools with good computer programs and then visiting them spring senior year when he knew where he was accepted. He’s a bloom where you are planted kid. He’d been on a bunch of campuses thanks to CTY and school year Saturday academic programs. The accepted students days were targeted for his interests and made it easy to meet people in his major. </p>
<p>Younger son really cared about visits and thought the feel of the campus and town was important. He saw one college (U Penn) in the summer with friends, but the rest with me during the school year. We used February break, spring break and an extended Labor Day weekend (for schools that started in August). Even so we flubbed a bit, by seeing one campus Friday morning (pretty dead) and one the afternoon before Passover started (empty except for a handful of students rolling suitcases to leave town). In retrospect this son says he feels visits often still gave a false impression of the campus and that you can learn just as much from their websites. He’s also a bloom where planted kid, but he complains more than my older one. Most of his gripes about Tufts are things you’d never find out in a visit, or were there, and were things he thought were fine, but later found annoying. (Gen Ed requirements. The nitty-gritty of International relations major.)</p>
<p>Hi Op, D was able to speak to kids on campus at all schools. She had to initiate the conversation. The students at all schools were very happy to speak with her and gave her some inside tips or places to see before we left. We went to the Open House which was our second visit to the school she actually is going to attend. We did not want the formal tour again since we had alreade seen it. We asked if someone could just show us the dorms again. We had a junior give us an insider tour that was so informative. She was also able to meet directly with one of the program directors and students currently in the program. I think that visit made her decide that the school was the one for her.</p>
<p>This is a very helpful thread </p>
<p>What I forgot to add to my post is that every campus that was unusually empty, my kid ended up not applying to even though he knew he wasn’t getting a realistic impression of it, I think it still colored the way he felt about it. (Though Bard was still in the middle of the woods so would I imagine have stayed off the list.)</p>
<p>We visited 6 colleges in 5 days over spring break and will do a few more in the fall. A couple were on spring break and that was less ideal. If you sit in on a class, do introduce yourself to the prof. D2 shadowed a student at MIT and went to a math class with her (2 or 3 levels above her current Calc AB) , student said that it wasn’t necessary to introduce herself. The prof called on D2 to answer a question–when she stammered and said she was only a HS junior he asked, “well, weren’t you paying attention??” </p>
<p>All of our visits included tours of the department she was interest in. We found in later visits to only tour the department and go on our own for the full campus look. Being a theatre major might make it a bit different, but the department tours were given by students and always had room for Q&A’s. Also many of the student ambassadors would give you ways to contact them for questions that came up later. Most students you run into are happy to answer questions. We found that professors were available at many of the campus visits and more than willing to chat</p>
<p>I agree with those who favor visits during the regular school year. This is especially true, I think, for art programs and schools, so that your student can see a lot of student art as well as visit some studio courses in action. It was also very instructive to see a “crit” in action, and observe how the students and teachers interact.</p>
<p>Also, some school offer overnight stay with a student. That is a great way to experience the campus life at that campus.</p>
<p>I think there’s a strong majority opinion that school year > summer > not at all. The dilemma into which I stumbled is that we took some generic, what-type-of-environment-is-for-me, visits during school year when she was a HS sophomore. She fell in love with one, and now we don’t dare do any visits this summer as we think any de-populated campus in the summer would (unfairly) pale in comparison to her now dream school. So, instead of knocking out a half dozen visits this summer, we’ll have to try to squeeze them in during the school year.</p>
<p>@billcsho, I agree that an overnight stay can provide insight into life at the school, but with the following caveat: if the student host is a partier and the prospie is a nerd (or vice versa), the mismatch in interests can unfairly turn off a prospective student and cause him to rule out a school that might actually be a good fit. </p>
<p>^ At least you know how the students are at that campus. Even with an overnight stay with a student, do not stay with that student all the time. Try to meet with other students and explorer the campus at different time of the day. You know there are certain type of students that would like to be a student host. Don’t take it as the norm in that campus there.</p>
<p>Overnights are also typically offered at schools as part of accepted student days, and there are often events organized so prospies can get a good flavor of campus life (the green light sabers made by and wielded by upperclassmen at D2’s school in a midnight duel were definitely a selling point for her!). I am a fan of day visit prior to application where possible (including tour, sitting in on a class, eating in cafeteria), then going back to the top 2-3 choices for accepted student overnights.</p>
<p>For our children college visits during the school year were very important. The ability to see the students on campus, in the dining hall, at the library and walking around the campus interacting with one another was extremely valuable. </p>
<p>We also had them sit in on classes. This gave them the opportunity to see if they enjoyed the style of teaching and to observe the students in the class. Did they speak up and participate? Did they look at their phones while passing the time? How engaged were the students? Did my children think the classes were interesting? (The outcome was different at many schools, so this did affect their choices)</p>
<p>Both of mine children were expecting to be part of their future college campus student life. They both wanted to “find their flock” or at least see if they could envision themselves on the campus and becoming part of the community. Depending on your student this may or may not be a big concern. </p>
<p>I also know quite a few students who can “bloom where they are planted”. They are really roll with the tide kind of people! Oh how I wish I got some of that!!</p>
<p>Best wishes in the search!!</p>
<p>I agree that it’s best to visit when school is in session. I’m a bit skeptical, though, about the value of sitting in on classes, especially if they are at similar colleges. You are not going to observe meaningful differences (for example) between Yale and Harvard by visiting classes. Both have fantastic professors and duds. I think asking to talk to somebody in your department of interest may be helpful, especially if your interests are pretty specific.</p>
<p>Unless you are really able to narrow down your list, I think its really hard to visit all of the schools you are interested in during the school year without impacting grades, sports, EC’s and parents’ jobs. I say again, we have found the Open Houses tremendously helpful and you do get to eat in the dining center, look at dorms and meet students. Our idea is to visit as many schools as we can in the summer and then we can either choose to revisit a few during the school year or wait to find out where D is accepted and THEN visit. This has the double benefit of not wasting time visiting a school you aren’t accepted by (or don’t give you the merit/aid you need) and then you can take a day out in the Spring when things are less hectic and a low test grade isn’t going to seem so incredibly important. </p>