I agree that summer is not the best time to visit. We did a few summer visits, and not only did the campuses look like ghost towns, but many of the buildings and facilities were closed for the summer.
A lot of people wait until they’ve been accepted to visit far-away reach schools, which does make sense. However, if you’re applying to more than two or three schools Regular Decision (with late March or early April decision dates), that can backfire on you. If you’re lucky and get into several, you may not have time to visit them all before the May 1 enrollment deadline. Keep in mind that April is a very busy month for seniors, with prom, culminating events for many ECs, awards ceremonies, and other pre-graduation events that you’d hate to miss. It’s also expensive to make multiple cross-country trips within a few weeks. My D was accepted RD to several schools that we just didn’t have the time or the money to visit, and I still feel terrible about that! Wish we would have seen them beforehand.
My son is a Junior. Since November we’ve seen 3 schools, with another scheduled for next week. (I had high hopes for February break, but this winter was simply too brutal to imagine schlepping around a campus.) We have another 4 or 5 5 to see over the coming months.
The more we see, the clearer idea we have of what he wants. As of right now, he love 2/3 of the schools we’ve seen, and could see himself at the larger 3rd school if necessary. All are within our ballpark price range when we throw in the average institutional grants that 97-99% of those school’s populations receive, and all are somewhere within reach of his PSAT scores.
Schedule visits on a day when the weather is not the best. When it is sunny, warm and the flowers are in bloom, every campus looks awesome. But, when it is chilly or rainy … does the campus still look inviting? We visited one of the Southern universities on a day when it was 22 degrees with a stiff wind. Classes also were not in session. But, we liked the campus. So did our oldest son, and that is the place he chose to attend for his undergrad degree. The younger son and his dad toured three schools with temps in the 20s. He loved all three schools, but when given the chance to run track/cross country at one school, that was enough to seal the deal.
I also tell my students never tour on one of those special days just for juniors or seniors. Everything is perfect that day, including the food. Go on a day when nothing can be staged. That way, you get to chat with students, eat the food and see what campus life is really like.
Just received somewhat of a thank you from my son on Sunday on this issue. He is a junior and he has been hearing lots of stressed out classmates discussing this process at school. We started with very informal visits to campuses we were close to for other reasons during the summer after freshman year. He went to camp at one, another was a good place for a stretch break while driving to our vacation destination, etc. We went on his first official campus tour on Good Friday of Sophomore year. I just kept a list of colleges close to where we would be and the dates that schools had posted as “open houses” and offered them as possible visits. Visiting casually, over a period of time helped him understand the importance of the test scores,grades, etc and just how different each campus could be. He has seen 7 campuses and 2 more are scheduled. Now instead of being stressed, he is confident that there are schools he can both get in to AND would be comfortable attending. We often would discuss the NPC, scholarships, and other specific pros/cons of each school on the way to/from the school. Great bonding time. Also a great time to teach your kid how to approach ANY big decision in their life.
It also does not hurt to just attend some events on campuses (sports, concerts, speakers, etc) just to get a feel for what goes on. My DS has been on campuses for all these reasons and has gained an appreciation for the type of college community he probably wants even though some of those schools did not even offer his major.
Great suggestions here from many different viewpoints. I was new to CC about 6 years ago when my oldest was mid-way through HS and I have to say that my CC education has been invaluable. Honestly - more useful than any college counselor. If time allows, read the “Latest Posts” every day and that will cover just about any topic imaginable.
Other thoughts:
Summer visits are ok. Many juniors don’t have time to visit campuses during that busy year of high school. Summer will give you and your student a general overall feel for things and you can always revisit fall of senior year or as interest dictates. Especially for schools that track interest, better to go in the summer than not visit at all.
Don’t judge a school by what is shown on the tour. For example - most colleges will not show dorm rooms due to safety and liability concerns, they are not necessarily trying to hide something. Also, if you’re doing any kind of advanced planning, you won’t be able to anticipate weather. There are good and bad tour guides everywhere. Encourage your student to look beyond that (I know it’s tough!)
After having 3 go through the process and probably 30 plus campus visits - have never been given a t shirt, cup, poster or anything else. Don’t expect this. I have, however, appreciated a cold bottle of water available at some Admission offices in the heat of the summer!
Absolutely familiarize yourself with the Common App now. If possible, create an account and start filling it out - if only to have your student understand what it required. They wipe out all accounts in July and re-post the following year’s Common App on August 1. Many students follow them on twitter to get updates on these dates. I didn’t read all the posts carefully, but if you’re from a state where in state schools have their own app - get to know that, too.
If your student is aiming for schools that have a large presence here on CC, now is the time of year where they can check the discussion boards for the kind of stats that the accepted students have. That will give you a rough ballpark for what is needed to get in.
You will find the posters here are very helpful and have virtually endless knowledge of the nuances of the the college application process. Ask for help!
We saw a couple of schools during sophomore year, if we happened to be in the area. Mentally my D just wasn’t there yet, but can now look back and reevaluate what she saw. We visited a few more schools during the summer right before junior year, and even though it still felt strange to be looking at schools, D found that trip to be great motivation for junior year and allowed her to have a great frame of reference when her counselor and fellow students talked about colleges. We did a multi state, 5 school trip over spring break and saw a dense campus big city school, a big city contained campus school, a small city school, a suburbs school, and a rural school. Although it was tiring, it was very interesting and my D now has a much better idea of what she likes and what she doesn’t like. It was nice to have a strong SAT score under her belt during the spring break tour, knowing that she would be a competitive applicant at any of the schools.
The rest of junior year is just too busy to fit in any more visits, but it is nice to have seen a good range of schools. Hopefully we can do one more trip in the fall and possibly one more this summer (not ideal, but better than nothing).
I implore you, parents, to make sure you start with safety/match colleges for your student. Find one they love. Then think about reaches, etc. If you look on CC you see many “I’m waitlisted everywhere! except that safety I don’t really want to go to” posts. Make sure it is affordable too.
And i cannot stress this enough…have your junior work on their common app essay over the summer. Senior year is so busy with hard classes and ECs and applying. And what I personally learned is never say “that is the last scholarship application”…they kept popping up.
In my experience dorm rooms all look pretty much the same. If they have a dorm room available it will usually be in the nicest newest building and not typical of the rest of campus. Many colleges have video tours, photos and/or floor plans of their dorms on their websites which will give you a much better idea of what is actually available and who gets it. (Often there will only be one suite dorm for a few lucky seniors for example.)