<p>It is such a dilemna. You are making the investment in time and money and you want to get the most bang for your buck. Reminds me of going to Disney World. Some days the kids would be just as happy to stay at the hotel and swim in the pool. But, no. We spent good money on these tickets and we're going to Disney World! That being said, if you don't do a thorough visitation at each school then you will most likely be going back. I would suggest trying to do more resesrch online and get a sense of what the schools have to offer and what might be a plus or minus for your son. No doubt, you will have to do that and share it with your son. This might help in deciding what schools should be allowed more time.</p>
<p>We did an equally ambitious northeast "tour" last spring break; eight schools in 5 days, a 1200 mile loop trip. While it was both physically and mentally exhausting, it gave my son enough of a preliminary feel to narrow down his list. I took copius notes and that really helped. My advice on your visit to St. John's (my son has applied after a very informative tour and will be doing the overnight visit this spring) is to rethink doing the weekend visit this early in his search. The campus is small (although actually larger than we expected given the small student population), but pretty and as you seem to know, the curriculum is not for everyone. The tour lasted about three hours and a large part of it was just an informal question and answer sit down with our student guide in one of the classrooms. It really gave us a great feel for what it's like there, more so than any other school. Why not see if he's still interested after a quicker visit, apply (no fee), and then let him spend a weekend during his senior year. Southwest Airlines flies into BWI and is pretty cheap. I just think he will get a much better sense of whether it really is right for him after more visits to the other schools and another year of growth. That would leave you a little less rushed for the other schools, or give you the opportunity to add a few. Ditto thinking about Univ of Richmond, what about Washington & Lee and Davidson too? I graduated from W&M and it is so different from UVa that visiting both will give him a great sense of whether he wants a larger university or a smaller LAC type school.
Hope this helps; we start round two this spring with our next child.</p>
<p>Sewbusy- I like your idea of doing a shorter visit to St. John's now, or perhaps even cutting it out altogether on this trip. I think my son's interest is fading a little bit already, although he's still very curious about the school. I do hate to devote 2 precious days of our limited time to this one school that he has a fairly good chance of disliking. Your suggestion makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p>We are planning on seeing Davidson but W & L didn't appeal to S for some reason. U of Richmond is a possibility since we'll be traveling right through the city, but we don't want to drop any of the other schools and it would mean doubling up 2 in one day, which we're still trying to avoid.</p>
<p>I can see where we are going to have to make some compromises and probably leave the really serious overnights and prof meetings/dept. tours for senior year.</p>
<p>During spring break of my D junior year we did a trip visiting 5 schools in 3 days. At the end of the trip everyone was pretty exausted and could not work up much enthusiasm for seeing " one more college". I also was happy that our first college, Knox was only one we were visiting that day because when we arrived at 9 am they gave us schedule and packed our day so tight we could not leave until 4 pm.
My DH and I were taking bets how much our D going to like this college and we arrived to conclusion that it was about 0 % since all she has been talking is going to big state U previously. Location, size, style of architecture- everything was
opposite to what our D wanted. Imagine our surprise when after visiting classes there and talking to admission councelor she said that Knox is the school where she wanted to go. Big state U was last one we visited and while she stated she could adjust she did not like it.
My experience tell me that there are two types of visiting- testing the waters- checking out general part of liking big, small, LAC, state university, etc and there are other type- visiting school of the type you know and like best. Such place should be visited in more depth and given day for each college.
I am also big supporter of overnight visits early on. My D did overnight visit at couple of schools she placed high her list and they went down to the point of not wanting to go there even that she has been accepted and received significant $$ there.</p>
<p>One point: at many schools, the admissions office is happy to set up class visits and appointments with faculty in specific departments for you, but you usually have to ask. </p>
<p>My daughter would also have balked at emailing unknown professors directly when she was a junior, but after one school's admissions office offered to do this for her before she even asked, she had no qualms with asking other admissions offices to do the same. The benefit of taking this route is that admissions usually was able to schedule things within the time slot we planned to be on campus. </p>
<p>By the way, she always tried to sit in on an English/literature class, even though that is not her intended major. Her thinking was that English is something she's familiar with, and it's also usually a discussion based class rather than a lecture based class, so she felt she could get a better sense of what the students were like, how they thought, and whether they were passionate enough about learning to participate by sitting in on English classes. (She did usually sit in on other classes related to her major interests as well)</p>
<p>I must say that classroom visits and meetings with faculty absolutely played a huge role in her final decision.</p>
<p>Lindalana, Knox really does an amazing job with their admissions visits. Knox wasn't a fit for my daughter for many reasons, but she still talks about how friendly and helpful the admissions people were, and the "amazing" history professor whose class she sat in on. Afterwards, she felt truly sorry that she wouldn't be applying there every time they sent her another mailing. </p>
<p>In general, both my daughter and I felt that the midwestern schools did the BEST job with college visits --- they were never "hard sell" and they all gave the impression that they truly were happy to see my daughter. The midwestern schools just tried harder to make her feel comfortable.</p>
<p>There is a huge advantage to making the arrangements yourself. Apparantly this is rare. Let me explain by telling the story of our first visit to a college. This was a match/reach school with pretty selective admissions stats. My W called ahead and made appointments with admissions and with the faculty in two departments. On tour day just before the 9am tour, we introduced ourselves to the admissions director and confirmed the appointment. We did the preliminary presentation, the tour and the Q&A session. As the other families were leaving to the next college visit, we met with the AD. During this meeting, the AD was still in the sales mode, but we did gain some useful information and my D had a private interview. When he learned that we we had additional appointments, he scheduled another meeting for the end of the day - just to see how things went. We had similar experiences with the faculty members. We had a family session, a tour of the department and my D had private interviews. We also had time for lunch and met a couple of students. We had a long discussion with a work-study senior working at the desk in the Gym. When we returned to admissions, we had a brief wait while the afternoon tour group finished and then we met with the AD. He had already checked with the faculty members and we got very positive feedback about the admissions process and several "tips" that were likely to lead to acceptance and qualification for merit scholarships. About 50% of our college visits followed the same pattern. We learned a lot and left with a huge advantage in the admissions process. Usually the AD concluded with the suggestion that we let him/her know if my D decided to apply so that he/she could personally give some attention to the app.</p>
<p>I would echo the suggestion of setting up a visit with a faculty member or sitting in on a class while on campus. Also, I'd put in a plug to visit the town in which the school is located since that'll serve as an extension to the undergraduate experience. If you tour a school around 11, some schools supply lunch tickets to the dining hall. Attending a special or athletic event in the evening could also prove beneficial in providing just another facet of student life.</p>
<p>Good luck and have fun!</p>
<p>During the same period (give or take a day), we're planning a similar trip - I'm not sure if we'll start with DC and travel up to Philadelphia or start with Philly and drive down to DC. The schools we're looking at are:</p>
<p>Swarthmore/Haverford - I'm putting them kind of together because of their consortium (and I think Bryn Mawr might be in this too since it has the programs she wants but she doesn't want an all-girl school)
Muhlenberg
Goucher
St. Mary's College
Washington College
Georgetown
GW
American</p>
<p>Some of these can be dropped (I'm not sure about Washington College or American). </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>On the two lists above, there are some real contrasts - St. John's on a list with UMW and AU is interesting, and Goucher with AU and GW as well. You folks are in the early stages of the winnowing-out process?</p>
<p>Yes, we're in the winnowing stage. She hasn't decided if a small LAC is worth giving up the urban environment - hence the Washington DC universities.</p>
<p>yulsie-</p>
<p>St. John's has always fascinated my son ever since he read about it. However, he has been talking to friends and college sophomore brother and is beginning to think he would prefer a more conventional college experience. We were planning to do the St. John's visit to really help him see what he would be getting into. But jmmom's post convinced us to drop the long visit from this trip and reschedule it for next fall if he's still interested. </p>
<p>You're right, we're still in the winnowing-out phase. AU is on the list because S loves DC, we can't afford GW or Georgetown, and AU gives merit aid. He sometimes thinks he'd like political science, but then the wind blows from another direction and he thinks he may not. It's very frustrating for me but I understand that he's still finding out who he is and what he likes and I have to roll with that. He's also possible interested in business, and AU has that.</p>
<p>On the other hand, he's pretty sure that he will prefer a LAC. He likes smaller rather than bigger, so we are visiting some of those, too. UMW is my alma mater and would be a safety if he likes it. And it, too, has a business major. Elon is similar and it was on the way, so....</p>
<p>I know there are differences in the places we're visiting, and that was intentional. I hope those differences will be very apparent to him and that he'll be able to decide where his preferences lie.</p>
<p>One good thing - since we eliminated St. John's from this trip, it frees up more days to spend more time at the others. He will definitely attend some classes and meet with professors where he can.</p>
<p>If you hope to visit classes as well as do tours/info sessions, be sure to check the Easter weekend schedules of the schools; some of them may have four-day weekends then--classes perhaps on Good Friday but maybe not on Monday or Tuesday.</p>