<p>We just got back from a whirlwind summer tour of 7 colleges. With the exception of one very large college with a huge tour group, we found that being one of a handful of families or the ONLY one, got us personalized tours with a chance to meet people much higher up on the food chain than in larger groups or busier times. At one school, unasked, we were taken to meet the department head and the head of a program related to DD’s major, the director of retention AND the college president. The tour lasted 3 hours. I don’t think people would have had the kind of time they took to speak with us if we’d gone at another time of year.</p>
<p>Re: sitting in on classes - While it may be true that you can get a “dud” professor or class anywhere and that could skew your perspective, I think it is far more likely that the experience gives you a good feel for the character of the classrooms at a given school. Does the professor go out of his or her way to greet you and involve you? Are the students welcoming and forthcoming about their experiences? Are students engaged or (God forbid) playing Candy Crush on their phones? </p>
<p>We made it a practice for d to attend about 3 classes per school to get a variety of experiences, and I think that it really helped to clarify the process.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, LACs tended to be the most welcoming, but some universities really surprised me positively (Rice and Brown come to mind).</p>
<p>I agree totally with SAkarcar. so only visited top 2 colleges after accepted. His treatment at 1 school lacked a lot, while the other U bent over backward to woo him. He went to U #1 on admitted students’ weekend. His host for the night was absent, so he slept in lounge with 4 others misplaced kids. The head of department he wanted as minor made a fuss when a group showed up at her office at 11:00 am., and she spent 20 minutes insisting the meeting had been changed to a different time. I spoke up and said, as long as we all are here, can you give us 10 minutes? She refused. School #3 gave him an hour interview, a private tour, and 1 1/2 days of classes. They got him.</p>
<p>We did our first college visits the summer before junior year. We viewed it as more of a vacation than hard core college touring. So we did a DC trip and saw GW and American (with info sessions/tour) and drove through U of MD at College Park on our way to Baltimore. From that alone, we figured out that D liked a city vibe, but that a school like American with more of a campus worked too. Eliminated MD due to sheer size and location. Another trip took us up to Boston area. Toured Tufts, BU and Brandeis, drove through Northeastern and walked through Harvard and MIT. Just based on those visits we eliminated Tufts and BU. In the fall of junior year–maybe Columbus Day weekend-- we visited and toured Binghamton and Skidmore. Another weekend we drove to Muhlenberg (tour and info session) and drove to Lehigh and Lafayette (visited Crayola Factory, but no tours.)</p>
<p>The trips were all low-key and I think it made D better to know that there were colleges that she had seen that she could see herself attending. It helped narrow down our list and as we came closer to senior year, it allowed us to concentrate on the 7 schools she would apply to. We ended up revisiting most of the schools she was interested in for interviews and auditions (late spring junior year or fall senior year) to see the campuses in session. I feel our summer visits allowed D to be familiar with the schools and knowledgeable when we set up departmental meetings or interviews on the second go round.</p>
<p>uskoolfish, I think your approach was terrific. My son surprised me when he came home from school, 2 days before winter break in junior year, and said he was applying to college, with encouragement of his GC.
fortunately, son had been to Duke and UMich, and had driven by MIT and Harvard years before on trip to Boston. He had also seen UCLA and Stanford when on a teen tour of CA. I am a fan of LACs, but he would not consider them if in a remote location. </p>
<p>Your approach is really good, and I hope others follow your path.</p>
<p>Good info-thanks all!</p>
<p>I agree with the vast majority of the posts that the best time is to visit while the college/university is in session but HS is not. This can pose a challenge for visiting schools that are more than a short drive away. This leads to bunching multiple schools into a short period – often HS spring break. This leads to large tour groups and necessarily a less individual interaction. It can also lead to confusion trying to differentiate information and impressions after the fact. Not to mention the fatigue of visiting five, six, or even more school in a week. (My S called our visit to six mid-Atlantic schools over Spring Break two years ago “Sherman’s March to the Sea.”)</p>
<p>If we had it to do over again, we would have asked for tips about how to effectively visit and experience several similar schools during a short and crowded period like Spring Break.</p>
<p>One last thought. Spring and early autumn are very pretty and temperate times at many locations. We had a rule to visit northern schools in the winter and southern schools in the summer to get an idea of what the environment would be like during other times of the year.</p>
<p>Our experience:
- Over spring break of DD’s sophomore year, I sent her on a big bus college tour with one of those private counselors parents sometimes hire. She went with a junior friend. They visited public, private, and Catholic colleges and universities in So. Cal. The schools ended up being something of a blur, and as a sophomore she really wasn’t focused on school choice because her class peers were not (so parents of younger students you may want to keep this in mind). She did conclude, however, that large universities like UCLA were not for her. To me, this was a huge win, because I had felt that a LAC would be a better place for my particular kid, but most California public school kids only apply to California publics and maybe a few big name universities.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>On school holidays junior year, we tried to visit schools within driving distance. I soon learned that you don’t see many students on Fridays, so Monday holidays are better. </p></li>
<li><p>Thanksgiving week we tried to visit a few schools in So. Cal. Monday and Tuesday were pretty good for tours and meeting students, but even though Wednesday was technically a school day, a lot of professors probably cancelled classes and/or students didn’t attend, at least at the C5.</p></li>
<li><p>Junior year over spring break, we made a week long trip to the Midwest to visit LACs; one day for each of the four schools. We told her this was her only shot and that we would not be flying her back for Admitted Student Day. These schools bent over backward for us. We went on their tours, she attended a class, and she also had an interview. Because she is a choir nerd (who never considered being a music major), she sat in on a choir rehearsal because she knew she wanted to participate in choir as a college EC. This trip was invaluable. It gave her a feel for the <em>flavor</em> of students at each school, and she made it a point to chat up the students in the classes she visited and learn what type of music students listen to – which is apparently important to her and which you can’t glean from a school website. It also showed her that she is an urban girl at heart who would be unhappy at a semi-rural school – which alas describes most LACs. One school ended up pursuing her pretty vigorously, and despite its stellar conductor she decided not to apply due to its location. We were worried that they would offer so much money to get her that it would be hard to turn down. She ended up at another school we visited which I think is a better match. We saw it in pouring rain so apparently weather didn’t make a difference. She is looking forward to being a school ambassador and giving tours next spring after she returns from her semester in India.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We liked the tours best when school was in session as opposed to summer/breaks. My D really got a sense of the student body and liked being able to speak to students and sit in on classes.</p>