<p>Our HS counselors are pretty adament that the kids should have campus visits prior to applying...I can see their point if the campuses are driving distance away, but we've now extended our search to the North East (we live in Louiville,ky)...we've driven to Chicago, South Bend, Ohio schools, vandy in the past year. Now comes BC, Fordham, ?Dartmouth....Our time and resources are limited. </p>
<p>Of the schools you applied, how many did/didn't you visit prior to your application?</p>
<p>In an ideal world, visiting all that you wish to apply to would be the thing to do. However with limited time and resources, I would visit just a few nearby. It really brings home the whole concept to the student and can help them decide issues such as large or small uni, remote or central etc. We visited 3 per child; ultimately, though they did apply, they didn't go to any of the ones we had visited beforehand.</p>
<p>Your time and resources are limited both before applying, but especially after there are acceptances in hand!</p>
<p>My son is looking at only East Coast schools -- from Boston to Washington. It's a big deal trying to see a bunch of schools in that area and we live in the middle of it. I can't imagine him applying to a school he hadn't done at least a drive-by on.</p>
<p>Of the 8 or 9 schools my S applied to, we had visited 5. He visited 2 more after getting acceptances, before making his decision.</p>
<p>Of the 11 schools my son applied to, we visited six -- although he did one by himself. He decided to wait until the decisions to come out to see if we will visit anymore. We just did not have the time or resources to do all visits before applying.</p>
<p>There is something else to consider too....now that acceptances are forthcoming, in some cases, the schools we visited were over a year ago, consisted of a large tour of campus and and info session. Not really enough to make a four year decision. So, with acceptances (we pray!) in hand, we have 4 to 5 weeks to decide where to REVISIT so she can attend classes and hopefully stay overnight. Add that to the fact that it is a full packed senior year and she doesn't want to miss any weekends, and scheduling becomes almost impossible! In hindsight, I wish we had used fall and winter breaks more wisely to do some overnights and a day in classes. She did do that at one school and it quickly became her first choice. I just wish she had the opportunity to do so at all the schools she is sincerely interested in (4 in total). If finances permit, find the time, and make the visit worthwhile. Going to classes makes a huge difference. Meeting and being on campus with the kids is really important for "fit". Good luck.</p>
<p>We visited schools which were far away if they had potential for being an early application either binding or single choice early app school. This did help my D's decision process.</p>
<p>Some schools you need to show love - lower tier schools or schools that many top students have used as backup schools. Schools like Dartmouth wouldn't care if you have visited.</p>
<p>In July, after her junior year, we flew to Florida for a week and visited 8 schools, 4 of which she applied to. In October, we were able to get a really good airfare and flew to North Carolina and visited 2 schools, 1 of which she applied to. </p>
<p>She applied to another 6 schools within 8 hours of driving distance from home, that we did not visit. We figured if she was accepted to those schools, we would visit. We felt that visiting schools further away gave us more bang for the buck, because we were able to watch airfares and when prices went down, we booked. Gotta love Spirit Airlines' special $19 fares to Florida, on select dates of course! :)</p>
<p>I can't imagine now getting acceptances from the schools in Florida or North Carolina and then visiting on such short notice. </p>
<p>I'm glad we visited before applying. Of all the schools we did visit in Florida and North Carolina, 6 of them she didn't apply to, thus saving more money (application fees, score reports, etc.)</p>
<p>As soon as D stepped on the campus of UCF, she knew it was the perfect fit (it did have her exact major, which made it all the more exciting). So when she was accepted in December, we were able to immediately send in a housing deposit to secure her space. That was my biggest concern, that if we wait until March or April to make a decision, housing might be full, unless your school guarantees Freshman housing, not all do.</p>
<p>Of the seven schools to which my daughter applied, she visited three (one just a walk around when we happened to be in town due to being bumped from a flight).</p>
<p>The plan was to see the others once she knew where she'd been accepted. Since she was intent on attending one of the few we'd visited and this was also her first acceptance, we did not visit the others (which was a good thing, because they were quite far flung).</p>
<p>We only went out of our way to visit schools where she was likely to be accepted.</p>
<p>S applied to 15 colleges. 7 he'd seen before applying (including his #1 choice, which wasn't really on his list before he saw it). We did not have the time and resources to tour the country before applications (plus, he had a very busy summer 2008). The final choices will be visited next month. Acceptances and finaid have to converge, so I don't expect it to be that long of a list to visit next month.</p>
<p>I think you should visit the safeties and matches before applying, so your child can know if he or she can see themselves at these schools. Visit the reaches once accepted -- unless they're nearby and can be visited easily. I wouldn't spend $$ on a trip to visit a reach before applying. With my son, he actually chose not to apply to any reaches. We visited all but one of his schools before he applied. The other we visited after he was accepted, due to time constraints.</p>
<p>older d applied to 5 schools. She had seen two with her junior class, as one was her first choice we visited that as well ( but after applying and acceptance)
another two that were instate, she applied without visiting, but after acceptance she visited one of them ( but it was after knowing she was going to go somewhere else, she was keeping a friend company)
The 5th school she visited in fall on an overnight, then again after acceptance</p>
<p>I think lots of students, especially those who are applying to schools a ways away, don't visit till after acceptance. My nieces in upstate New York, didn't set foot on campus until they were moving in!</p>
<p>D applied to 8 colleges, having visited 5. She didn't get into 2 of the ones we visited. After acceptance, she visited or re-visited the ones she was likely to go to. She's at a school she saw only after acceptance and very happy there. Her second choice was also a school she visited only after acceptance.</p>
<p>With the ones that she re-visited, she found that she looked at them with a very different eye as an accepted student than as a potential applicant. Before, the attitude and view was, "Is this a place I might want to go to if they accept me?" After, the attitude and view was, "Is this the right place for me to learn and grow for the next 4 years?" Schools that seemed big enough in April of junior year were suddenly too small in April of senior year, when she thought about 4 years with the same kids.</p>
<p>If you can only visit once, I believe that the post-acceptance visits are much more important than the pre-application visits.</p>
<p>While it is certainly important to visit after you have been accepted, It could be very difficult to pull off timewise. Now that all my S's acceptances are in I am glad that we visited 4 of the 8 beforehand. Out of the four left, three are having accepted student's day the same weekend. If you apply EA to some, you can visit some when those decisions come back, to help break it up.</p>
<p>I am dubious of visiting on accepted students days, because the college is trying very hard to make the place look great. Much better, if possible, to visit on an average day. This is especially true if you can't visit all the final list schools on accepted students day. The risk is being swayed by special events, better food, etc. that are not representative of life on campus the other 8 months of the year.</p>
<p>As you can see, there is no wrong way to do this. We visited some before applying, some after applying and some (including the one son chose) after acceptance AND the financial aid package. </p>
<p>Something that impacted my son a lot was his own change in direction after we had started looking at schools in his Junior year. When we first looked at Colleges, son was considering an IT or Computer Science major. The more he got into a programming class at HS and after visiting very techy schools, he did a 360 turn and decided that he wanted a Liberal Arts education. Today he is a College junior majoring in English with a communications minor and has not taken one computer class in College. </p>
<p>If we had gone with his inclination and just applied to the techy schools that looked interesting, I don't think he would be a happy camper today. I know a few boys that only visited one campus, decided all colleges were the same, went to the one-visit college, and then were unhappy their sophomore year.</p>
<p>We visited after acceptances, and really, it was a bad idea to wait. I would go to as many as possible beforehand, but it sounds like you've already done quite a few, and I wouldn't worry about it. I agree that visiting any high-on-the-list schools after acceptance is important.</p>
<p>I agree with Heron -- visit before applications if possible. My D applied to 6 schools, all but one of which (super reach that doesn't care a bit if you have visited or not) we had visited prior to apps. But we had also visited a number of schools that seemed like a very good fit on paper, but once on campus she knew they weren't right for her.</p>
<p>After acceptances her choice came down to two schools. She re-visited one in April and made her decision while she was there.</p>
<p>I would at least visit the top schools on the list. Fortunately, my son applied for music, so we were forced to visit for auditions. At least that visit was before the April decision month. It more helped to prioritize the list vs. whether to apply or not.</p>
<p>One big decision is: Visit during Summer (when child is not in school, but all you really get to see is the campus and facilities), or visit when school is in session (miss school, see the total environment, and possibly meet with a few faculty).</p>
<p>We did tour for a week during the summer, and it took 2 schools off the list. My son did a student weekend at one school, and then took that school off the list. We visited that school during the summer when it was out of session. During the visit weekend, he realized the school was too liberal (I would call Son middle of the road). Given that he would have had to audition at each school, taking a school off the list is a big deal. However, my next daughter will be applying for academic programs, so having a few extra schools on the list only means paying for a few more applications.</p>
<p>No reason to visit the safety schools. If you have to go to a safety school, you have to go. If you have a few saftey schools, you can visit them during April if you have to.</p>
<p>BTW: The Admitted Student Visit day was the first time my older daughter saw a school, and that is when she got excited about going there.</p>