I was under the impression that Schmaltz was overseas, but perhaps I am wrong?</p>
<p>The reason why I think seeing at least one campus in depth is because it can be a good kick in the pants for realizing that grades/scores/what you put in the essay/making connections with teachers can be important. I don’t think it’s entirely an accident that S2’s results (for a smart but slackery student) were in some ways better than expected while S1’s results (for a brilliant, but single minded student) were somewhat less than hoped for - though he ended up in a great spot for him. He’s ended up exactly where he would have wanted to - as far as job offers are concerned.</p>
<p>Quote:
“Can you explain why you can only be bothered to take one week a year to do this? There is spring break, in our state there is a fall break of 5 days, and summer vacation. What kind of work do you do that you can’t (or won’t) take more than one week a year off to do it?”
Quote:
“Can you explain why you can only be bothered to take one week a year to do this? There is spring break, in our state there is a fall break of 5 days, and summer vacation. What kind of work do you do that you can’t (or won’t) take more than one week a year off to do it?”</p>
<p>I think that is more than a little rude. Not everyone can just take time off all the time and he might have other vacation time spoken for.</p>
<p>I think people ask that question because in the US most people have minimum 2+ weeks of vacation, and most of us (after working for 25+ years) often have 4+ weeks of vacation, plus all other holidays. When someone says he only has one week a year to go on a college tour, it is self imposed. A lot of people use up most of their vacation time to tour colleges (if finance permits) and do not limit it to just one week.</p>
<p>OP also mentioned that kids are involved in sports and both spouses work, so I can understand how it can be hard to get in more than 1 week of vacation.<br>
When both of our kids were in sports, it was very hard to find a time to get away - not many weeks were there wasn’t a meet in one kid’s sport or a tournament in the other’s, or one or the other spouse had an important meeting or work trip. If one or both of the spouses in the OP’s family is in a high pressure job or one where there is a very busy season where vacations are not allowed, added on the kid’s activity schedules, I can totally see where he’s coming from.
When we’ve tried to plan summer get-togethers with extended family, it’s very tough because school schedules vary wildly from one part of the country to another.</p>
<p>Wow. We sure did not use up most of our vacation time looking at colleges. I don’t think most people do. Maybe a lot on CC do.</p>
<p>No doubt we could have looked at more than we did, but I really don’t think the end result would have been better. It might have been different, but not better.</p>
<p>midmo - did you use up more than one week of your vacation? I certainly wouldn’t be using most of my vacation and it is because I have 6+weeks of vacation. But a lot of parents out there only have 2-3 weeks vacation time and they do use their vacation time to visit colleges with their kids, and it’s not just limited to CC parents.</p>
<p>25 colleges in 7 days is way too much IMO. We visited 8 colleges in 10 days starting in the Midwest for 4 schools (UMinn, Macalester, Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern) then flying to Boston for 4 more (UMass, Emerson, Hampshire and Wheaton) then spending 3 days on Cape Cod to wind down. Do take your time and schedule info tours (we also scheduled 2 interviews). I printed out a full schedule with everything from flights to car rentals to hotels to college adminisrators. It’s a trip the three of us will never forget. Good luck on yours.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting “window shopping” concept…do the kids have any idea (yet) what majors they would like to pursue? Interested in playing (or watching) particular sports in college? As other posters have mentioned, any idea on test scores/grades that might help the family know if a school is a reach/fit/safety for the kids? Do finances/fin aid come into the picture at all? (A shame to have a kid fall in love with a school, or a dream of a type of school, if the credentials and/or money don’t make it possible.) If it comes down to needing to whittle the list, for time or tiredness or whatever reason, it might help to prioritize by some of these factors (and I see the OP DOES have some priorities – as in to see NYU because peers aspire to it, to see a school where a family member has history, etc), but I wonder a bit at spending the time (and gas $$) for schools the family would not even consider, just because they’re between Point A and B on the map. Would love a report afterward, of what the kids and adults thought of the trip!</p>
<p>oldfort, it is a bit hard to answer your question. Our family vacations must be during the summer, and I never thought summer visits were as useful as those during the school year, so we didn’t devote ‘formal’ vacation time to looking at colleges. On a couple of occasions, we were in the vicinity of a school that was already on the radar, so we made a quick stop. For the most part, we scheduled short trips to particular schools that were serious candidates during the school year, and in most of those cases, our kids lined up appointments ahead of time. (They did the lining up.) That approach has its drawbacks, of course. Son, who was very busy, canceled some of the planned trips because he wasn’t sufficiently interested to sacrifice another activity.</p>
<p>I think we were slackers, to be honest. On the other hand, neither kid seemed extremely interested in just looking around, and neither my H nor my kids wanted to interrupt our vacation adventures.</p>
<p>Also, I really don’t know many people who have done the kind of college tours I read about here on CC. I think it just isn’t that big a thing in the midwest, at least not in a smaller town in the midwest–even a college town.</p>
<p>Schmaltz, why even ask? You seem to have made up your mind that this is a useful and fun vacation for your family…and any suggestions or advice to the contrary, you get defensive about. That’s fine, but I’m completely lost on why then you asked in the first place.</p>
<p>You’d sound like me about colleges, only on steroids. Just try to tune into how much this is really your your kids idea of a vacation and is really useful for them, and how much it’s for you and your interests.</p>
<p>Like a few have said, OP knows his family best. I can only relay my experience I had with my trip. After 4 days with about 5 schools and about 1000 miles on the road, my mid to late teen kids just wanted to go home and not see any more schools. Also on another trip in the summer, a few small beautiful LACs we saw were completely empty and a bit of a turn-off to my kids such that my older S had no interest in applying to any of those schools.</p>
<p>I agree with midmo. The kind of touring we did - basically taking full advantage of every 3-day school holiday plus spring break - was pretty unusual for out here. I don’t think those of you in the northeast fully get that you have the ability to drive to a lot of places we have to fly to. It’s just not the cultural norm except for the very upper middle class.</p>
<p>Schmaltz - I had hs juniors, as I said, not younger teens - and while I’m not sorry we did what we did – we got a good range and really helped shape the final list – even my highly compliant and motivated kids had had enough. Even I, who could tour college campuses all day long, had enough. It all blurs together.</p>
<p>And the drivebys don’t really do much. When we were in Boston just this past week for an open campus at D’s school, as we were driving into an appt in the city, I showed D Harvard, MIT and BU. Well, she was tired from all the activity of the previous day, and so she got a glimpse of each of the 3 places. Big whoops. It didn’t really give her a feel for anything other than oh, BU has a huge high rise dorm, Harvard’s got a lot of red brick, MIT is eclectic and the traffic in Cambridge absolutely sucks. I think the traffic was most memorable. It filled my desire, not hers, to be honest.</p>
<p>I understand this. Our family chose to see some colleges while on vacations but certainly not 25 in one week. </p>
<p>Then, since both parents worked, and both parents also had other weeks of vacation, we took the ONE college kid who was really looking to see colleges…and we took turns both mom or dad…but not our younger child.</p>
<p>Even the OP must have an inkling that this is too much, as his thread is entitled. College Visit OVERLOAD…</p>
<p>If he didn’t think it was an overload to go to 25 schools, then why bother to start this thread?</p>
<p>All great plans
we all know that Ops grand idea of looking at 20-25 colleges in 7 days is over the top but the idea of being able to see so many of our great colleges in 7 days is definitely doable.
It seems that his main goal is to have his teens figure out if they are more interested in large,small,rural or urban campuses and to show them types of each.
After many of our own visits to schools,most of the info sessions can be skipped and a quick tour of the campus can be useful in keeping a school on your childs list or eliminating from said list. I think his trip will be successful in accomplishing his goal and I know his family will have a fun time.
I just came back from a small college trip with my son,his two younger siblings and my wife.
.Four days,3 schools,3 states and a red sox game. We had a fabulous time.
Used the off day to site see in vermont. Toured Holy Cross,wesleyan and Midd.
My gut feeling is OP will see less colleges,and more site seeing but his trip will be enjoyed and productive.</p>
<p>If you’re going to do this, I think some advance planning could make it more fun. For example, what is the weirdest thing on each campus? Make sure you see that (the statue of Jumbo at Tufts is a good example). Perhaps make a game out of it–which campus area has the most hipsters? Get a slice of pizza near each campus and decide which is the best. In my opinion, unless you do something like this, these are just buildings. You might as well be touring banks.</p>
<p>Bubble tea for my kid. D2 looks for it at every school. Brown had awesome bubble tea, Yale’s was so-so, and Williams didn’t have any. Guess which one is on top of her list now. Cornell (Ithaca) has a very good bubble tea store.</p>