<p>quiltguru--
Experienced the same thing with our D. Thought she would like Pomona so arranged the school visits to begin with Pitzer, then Claremont McKenna, and end with Pomona. With each succeeding tour/info session, she gained a lot of insight into school culture.</p>
<p>Who knows? Maybe your DD will experience a similar epiphany!</p>
<p>Coureur - same experience here. Wanting to buy a t-shirt at the end of the tour equalled application!</p>
<p>My daughter and I have (finally) reached an understanding in the college search. If I like a school, she has learned to understand that all that means is that I wouldn't mind going there (if I were younger, richer, and/or had her talent :)). We used to do serious battle if I said anything positive about any school, but one day, in a fit of frustration, I exploded with "it's not all about you!" She looked at me strangely and said, "But isn't it [the college search] supposed to be about me?" After that little reality check, which first had me spluttering before the laughter started, we were able to communicate much more clearly. Now I'm "allowed" to like a school, and my daughter understands that it doesn't mean she "should."</p>
<p>I think visiting is the best way to decide whether you like the school or not, especially if you get to interact with some professors/students there. I visited every school I applied to except one and it really gives you a good solid opinion of the school. Visiting has definitely been able to turn me on or off to a school.</p>
<p>Buying T-shirt = total jinx at our house. I knew she wasn't going to apply to yale when she came home with Yale sleep pants.</p>
<p>I was so disappointed when neither of my children wanted to even think about UC Santa Cruz. I had a fantasy about visiting them there. Prettiest campus I've ever seen, in a cute town. They even have a major in ecological history that I think would be fascinating.</p>
<p>I had another fantasy that my son (the fanatic scuba diver) would major in marine biology, so that I'd finally have someone to discuss marine bio with (it's a hobby of mine). Oh well. Now I just hope he'll dive with me from time to time.</p>
<p>Originally, I thought I would apply to Columbia University early decision. After visiting Columbia and Johns Hopkins, I knew that what I really wanted was a liberal arts college, not a research university - clearly my visits made a huge difference. I fell in love with the school to which I actually applied early the moment I stepped on campus; it didn't matter to me that it was during the summer and there was loads of contruction all around. :) A second visit in the fall only confirmed what I had previously thought. And if I hadn't been accepted ED, all the schools to which I would have applied were basically extremely similar to me ED school!</p>
<p>Also, I bought a keychain from aforementioned school before applying (for good luck.) I talked about it in my "why our school" essay.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Wanting to buy a t-shirt at the end of the tour equalled application!<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Even though she has enrolled and completed one year at the college she chose, she will still sometimes wear some of the T-shirts from other schools that she collected on the visits. However, it seems to be only the schools that accepted her. I never see her wear the shirts from the two schools that rejected her.</p>
<p>Well, for my son the t-shirt test was the way I knew which school he decided to ATTEND... no pre-admission t-shirts in our house. (But one extra college t-shirt because Pitzer sent a free one along with the admissions package). </p>
<p>Cangel - you have made some comments about the psychology of the process that I think are very important - that the <em>feel</em> often isn't logical, that the pre-application visits are not evaluative in the same way as admitted student visits, etc. My son did not do any formal college visits until spring of his senior year - and then only wanted to visit his top choices. He came back with very favorable attitudes which I think came in part from the fact that he had already made up his mind that he liked these schools -- there would have to had been very different from expectations in order for him to change his mind. On one trip, I sent him to 2 back-to-back overnights, one to a top choice, one to a safety - because both were in the same city. He visited the top choice first and was madly in love with it - couldn't stop singing the praises of that college (they later admitted him, but gave no financial aid, so he didn't attend). As soon as he got to the safety college the next day he regretted even being there, and called me saying he wished he could come home, he hated it there, etc. Fortunately it WAS an overnight - and after getting over his initial "I don't want to be here" reaction he met some students he liked and discovered a few redeeming qualities. Guess where son wants to transfer to now? </p>
<p>I think for families that have the ability to visit early, that the visit is worthwhile -- and it will help students make decisions about where they want to apply. But I don't think that necessarily leads to particularly valid or correct decisions. It probably doesn't matter -- that is, in the long run some parent's kid is deciding she doesn't like Wellesley because of what she saw on campus, while my kid is home deciding she can't stand Mt. Holyoke based on what she sees in the viewbook .... and each college has been rejected for equally frivolous, gut level reasons. Both kids will feel better about the schools that they do apply to, having the internal sense that they have given thought to the process -- they will both probably apply to some schools that are virtually indistinguishable from the ones the rejected in terms of anything objective criteria -- and in the spring they will choose from among the schools that admitted them. If my daughter applies to colleges sight unseen, as did her brother, in the end she will see a choice among the set of colleges which accept her (however big or small a set that is) - and I think she will end up liking the college she thinks she likes. Sometimes I never read about seniors in the spring hating the college on admitted student weekend -- certainly none of them refuse to get out of the car -- they or their parents all come here posting about what a tough time they are having making the choice. </p>
<p>So I stick with my opinion that pre-application college visits are very nice, but not essential, except maybe to get a better sense of what type of college the student would like. I do think that Carolyn's observation about the need to let her daughter wander on her own, while keeping the motherly comments to a minimum - are important because I think the real issue is the sense of "buy-in" or control the kid has. The kid exploring on her own has a sense of ownership of the process -- "this is MY college visit, it could by MY college" -- just as the senior visiting in the spring -- and that may be a big part of the key to ensuring a more positive view of the school.</p>
<p>Wow! Thanks for all the insightful comments and suggestions :)</p>
<p>I just spent Wed and Thurs at our fields for district playoffs (8am-10pm both days :eek: ) and am just now catching up. We've only done one official visit previous to this upcoming trip, so we really are newbies.
It's good to hear how productive the visiting can be as far as moving schools up or down on the kid's list.</p>
<p>S had a first choice school all along. Visited it, loved it, didn't want to apply anywhere else. However, this school can be extremely competitive to get into especially for kids in our area even though it's a flagship state university.</p>
<p>I made him apply to 5 other schools, only one of which he had not visited (#6 school). Turned out he was accepted to all. I thought School #1 was the one. He surprised me and agreed to visit #6 anyway.</p>
<h1>6 is where is he very excited to be headed late August.</h1>
<p>I would have NEVER predicted this outcome. I'm convinced that:
--kids do significant changing of perspective in senior year
--initial visits are important--gets them engaged to preview campuses
--BUT, visits LATER in the process, ie after acceptance, seem to carry more weight (also true w/D)</p>
<p>Over the past 2-3 years, we visited over 25 colleges. In both cases,
D and S ended up choosing something different than initial preferences would have indicated. All in all, a very enlightening, challenging, sometimes frustrating, and mostly terrific period in our collective memories.</p>
<p>25 colleges! Have you posted to the college description thread yet? I'd love to read your thoughts.</p>
<p>How many colleges did you visit in how many days? I know it depends on the location, but it would still be really helpful. Thanks!</p>
<p>My daughter, traveling on her own, visited 5 colleges over 6 days last month - she did one per day, except for an overnight where of course she spent 2 days. This included adding in a previously unscheduled visit for an info session. I would have thought that would be an exhausting week - but she has similar plans for the coming week. I'd note that these were all urban schools accessible by public transit or taxi - the longest distance between schools that she had to travel was from Baltimore to New York via train - I think that's about a 3 hour train ride. </p>
<p>She probably could have managed to visit more than one college in a day if she had only attended info sessions, but she interviewed at 4 of the 5 colleges and attended classes at 2 of them. You need to arrange interviews at least 2 weeks in advance - so that requires some planning and organization. However, if you just want to do a tour and info session, that can often be done on a drop in basis -- most colleges post their schedules for such things on their web sites - so I think it would be reasonable to catch a morning session at one college, an afternoon session at another - IF the colleges are located within a short distance of one another.</p>
<p>We ended up visiting 9 schools in about 12 days. Mind you, they were VERY spread out....NYC, Boston, NH, PA, etc.<br>
2 of the schools were not really visits where you go on tours as they were just schools where we walked around campus. Those were on a Sunday and were schools S really didn't want to apply to anyway. They were more for us to just see. We had planned another school visit on the last day of our trip, but S knew he wasn't going to apply so we skipped it and just relaxed a bit before going to the airport.
A LOT of driving!!
The school that was first on his list before visiting remains first on his list and he is applying ED. I don't think I would've felt as comfortable about ED without the visit, although that's just me. Some people can probably do that without a worry.
One of the most helpful things about these visits was the schools that he decided NOT to apply to. I feel like it was worth it because of the time he will save himself by not applying to those schools. And the money we'll save in application fees!</p>
<p>For schools that consider interviewing as "evaluative", when do you interview? - We will be visiting about 6 or 7 schools in March (he is a junior). S has Spring vacation during a non traditional week and all the schools have tours during the week but they do not have information sessions. The option is interviewing but I don't know if schools really want to meet a student before his mind is made up. We will be traveling cross country for this.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Well, schools definitely are happy to meet a student before his mind is made up -- but I am not sure that spring of Junior year is the time when a student can make the best impression. It's just a matter of poise and maturity - 6 months can make a lot of difference in the life of a 16 or 17 year old. On the other hand, I think there is some value in the experience of interviewing, and I think the best place to gain that experience is at a school the student doesn't have a particularly strong desire to attend: if the student is going to stammer and stumble, or commit some terrible faux pas, let it be at a "practice" interview at a practice school. My d. had a wonderful interview at a reach school that is now her top choice -- the best interview ever as far as she was concerned -- and I don't think it hurt her that it was the 4th interview in 5 days. </p>
<p>I agree with DrDrewsmom that there is a value in finding out what schools the student does not want to apply to -- though financially, the cost of an application fee is usually far less than the out-of-pocket cost entailed in any visit that involves travel. (Even with a drive - out here, the cost of gas is over $3/gallon) This was true even for my daughter traveling alone, when she had free accommodations arranged throughout, staying with friends. So I think the value is more in clarifying what the student wants -- if its about the cost, then the cheaper way to go is to apply to colleges sight unseen, and visit the top 2 or 3 choices in the spring of senior year after the acceptances and financial aid awards are all in.</p>