<p>Top schools you could visit after acceptance, next tier down relative to your stat are the ones to visit before you send in your applications.</p>
<p>Son has visited 4 of 8. One he was rejected ED and one moved up to #1 or 2. Two he visited he ended up not applying to at all. Our problem now is that once he is accepted (IF he is) his schedule is really tight due to lacrosse season. So, we might be forced to pay a couple non-refundable deposits in order for him to see a school or two before decisions need to be out there. On the other hand, if he gets into his #1, he'll send in the check and we'll have saved a ton on airfare.</p>
<p>It sounds like you've visited enough schools for your son to have a general idea of what he's looking for. If time and money are limited, he can just apply to the schools in the North East, and see where he is accepted before visiting. If he has one that is his favorite, and gets in there, he will only need to visit that one...</p>
<p>I took my oldest to see three colleges junior year (Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley) after he pronounced them all "fine". I decided that for him *visits weren't important. In the end he didn't apply to Berkeley and he didn't get into the other two. So we did spend April attending all the accepted students events at the four places where he *was accepted. Even though there's no doubt each school was looking as good as they could manage for their admitted student events - I think even their events reflected a lot about the schools. Carnegie-Mellon had by far the best and most academically targeted presentations. His experience and the way they handled the overnight I thought reflected his later experiences. (They found room for all the kids who came, even though they'd officially run out of spaces to put them up.) It worked out fine for us that he hadn't seen any of the schools where he was accepted before. (Well actually he'd seen Harvard during a reunion and had had a mostly negative impression then!)</p>
<p>For S2 who's academic interests are much less clear and who cares more about location and ambiance I got an earlier start. I took him to two schools over February break and confirmed that places like Bard are too small and too rural, while Vassar was big enough and he liked the location and campus vibe much better. We'll try to squeeze a couple more in during the April break. (My schedule is making that a bit difficult.) But I don't think it will be the end of the world if he doesn't see all the schools where he applies ahead of time.</p>
<p>D visited 9 of 10 and will revisit top 4 after acceptances are in.<br>
We spent $$$ on S's visits all around the country. He spent Sr. year in Asia and while there found a school he loved but never visited. First time he visited was a few weeks before school started. Worked out fine...</p>
<p>We visited them all, near and far. Best alternative IMHO. D's cousin visited NONE before applying. Following acceptance, visited what she thought was her #1: "No, no way I'm coming here." I thought her reaction might have been to a bad fish sandwich from the local McD's, but no ... there were no local McD's (or much of anything else for that matter). She ended up at her #7 school, which was on the list simply because some friends were applying.</p>
<p>Two. We visited both his saftey schools which he really like in theory and liked even better in person. Those are the only ones I felt we needed to be sure he liked before he applies this coming fall. After acceptances (fingers crossed!), he can visit two before deciding. </p>
<p>We live in Texas but he has chosen New England to go to school. He knows the area well and the difference between rural, town and city. If he was thinking of going to school someplace he'd never been, like the mid-west outside of Chicago, we'd probably do a few visits this summer prior to applications.</p>
<p>I originally planned for us to visit schools to which d was accepted, but she applied to some top-tier LACs which want to see 'interest' on the part of the student. So we visited 4: 2 at a time geographically. 2 in Ohio, 2 in mid/eastern PA. Of the remaining 3 schools, 2 are very local and we will visit one on a Saturday in March and the other on another Saturday. The last is a top tier LAC pretty far away which we will visit only if dd is accepted there. In addition, if she is accepted to either or both of the 2 Ohio schools, we will revisit them. </p>
<p>This waiting is getting hard on me. DD has been accepted to all three of her safeties--thank God. It's the other 4 which we really really want to hear from.</p>
<p>We visited before applications with S1 and am following the same course for S2. For S1 it resulted in a much more refined list of a reach, a couple matches and a safety all which he felt comfortable with He revisted his favorite one after the acceptance and did an overnight and the process went very easily. I'm hoping this works for S2. We have a few more visits to do before fall but he's already eliminated some schools and I can see him refining everything in his mind when people ask him where he's thinking about going. I don't think there is a right way or wrong way. I do agree that if my kids had some real reachy crapshoot schools we might postpone the visit until after an acceptance.</p>
<p>My Ds GC said to absolutely visit, or schedule visit, or have regional interview as soon as allowed, with Private schools. If you can only afford limited visits, at least schedule one. After acceptances come in you can choose who to visit, but the GC, whom I love, said never let any school think they arent your first choice.</p>
<p>Living in Alaska, your only choice is to fly out to visit colleges, so it requires a planned trip out. I highly recommend a trip out before applying. Our last son ruled out a couple of colleges based on the trip.</p>
<p>This "demonstrated interest" thing seems like a wallet check. We live in Texas, we cannot afford to go up to New England schools simply to log face time. If that makes my son unattractive to a school, then fine.</p>
<p>I agree pug. The new england schools make a huge deal about coming to visit my son's school garnering interest. Plus, we have a an Alumni college fair over Thanksgiving with Alumni young and not so young who go to or have attended schools all over the country. You get some really honest feedback. It's a great idea actually. You can have four kids at one college and they were ALL different in HS. They can each tell you what they liked or didn't like from their various perspectives. The younger alums do a great job with their photo's and making slideshows and stuff. The admission offices of the schools obviously give them viewbooks and other promo stuff to hand out as well.</p>
<p>On a trip out east junior year we did a tour of five schools; rural, suburban, urban and two that were kind of mixed. It really solidified what S was looking for in a community and location. Not seeing all of them before applying was not to say he didn't know a lot about the community itself and what kind of happiness and challenges are found there.</p>
<p>There is no need to visit in order to demonstrate interest. You can email the admissions office to ask for a viewbook, and a catalog, ask for an alumni interview, visit a college rep at a college fair. The only case where I've seen (lack) of demonstrated interest held against someone is if you live nearby and don't visit.</p>
<p>My son did not want to fall in unrequited love and asked not to visit schools prior to acceptance. He offered instead to apply to a few more schools and do a really good job on the applications. He did both.</p>
<p>We visited only two schools prior to applying. He's been to my alma mater for reunions. He also took a summer course at Harvard, where I used to teach, and which he's walked through many times as Harvard Square is where he goes with friends but has never done the official tour of either. He has friends at many schools as he's on a gap year and is talking with them. The small NE schools like Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Middlebury and probably many other LACs seem to want you to demonstrate interest, but as dadx3 says, it may or may not hurt depending upon what else you did. At one school, my son did not get around to applying soon enough for an interview, so that may hurt. But he did alumni interviews at all of the other schools.</p>
<p>hey srry guys iono how to post things soo yea aneways im applying to bowdoin and i was wondering if there’s a difference between bowdoin alumni interview and going to bowdoin to interview. i live in cali so its kinda far but if it means giving me a better chance of getting in im willing to so yea can u guys help me out? its greatly appreciated ;]</p>
<p>We did not even encourage our daughter to think about specific colleges until after junior year grades and SAT’s were in, and we had a good idea of potential “hooks” such as outstanding performance in EC’s or academic awards, as for many top schools small differences such as between a 2200 and 2300 SAT, an unweighted 3.6 and 4.0, and such could add up in a way to greatly influence admissions odds. We did not want her deciding that only a few schools that accepted a small number of applicants in her demographic (white female, no athletic hook) would do.</p>
<p>What we did instead was encourage her to engage fully in her own academic interests, to take interests that had perhaps been sparked in coursework and find out ways to develop them at the next level. This could be done through hobbies, through developing a summer reading list, and through getting out to local museums and events, including events held at local colleges, to talk with peers and adults with similar interests. Also by talking with adults (relatives, neighbors, parents of friends) about their jobs and hobbies. These activities gave her a better idea of what she wanted from a college education, and prepared her to write her college essays.</p>
<p>My daughter did not visit before sending applications, but by fall of senior year she had been on several college campuses for competitions with her high school EC’s, and for summer classes, and thus had already seen her two safeties and several other schools. She visited one school nearby for a scholarship interview in early spring, but that was it until acceptances came in. </p>
<p>She made her decision after visiting four schools of the schools that accepted her during accepted students days. We did insist that she think carefully about what she wanted in a school and not apply randomly to schools based on “prestige” factors. She developed an extensive list of questions to ask at alumni interviews and college fairs in order to compare schools and carefully read departmental web pages, and ended up knowing lots more than many of her friends who did college tours.</p>
<p>We were fine with the way we did things, as she did not obsess nearly so much over schools as her friends who went on expensive college tours, and was sure at the outset that she would have been perfectly happy at either of her safeties.</p>
<p>My daughter had visited seven of the eight she applied to before the application. She is attending the one she had not visited. We did visit as a family after she was accepted. However, our main goal in visiting campuses was so she could decide where to apply.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior and we have visited a few schools. I read an article suggesting visiting representative schools. If your short list includes a rural, LAC, urban, tech, etc, visit a school like that close to home or when you pass near one. We visited Bucknell when we were at a soccer tournament and she hated the location and the frats. We visited Johns Hopkins, even though she isn’t in range, and she loved the urban location.
We drove this summer to visit RPI, U. Rochester and Geneseo. I really expected that she would like Rochester the best and think Geneseo is in the country and RPI too nerdy.
She loved RPI. Now Case Western is on our list but she wont visit it unless she attends for accepted student day. She is a junior and interested in playing DIII soccer, so she needs to contact coaches between November and June of her Junior year.</p>
<p>I think making use of a college’s website …</p>
<p>browsing the academic programs and libraries
watching the virtual tour,
checking out the residence halls
viewing the food venues
looking at rec center site</p>
<p>… is a good preview for coming up with “the list,” if a campus visit isn’t either do-able, or isn’t do-able before apps.</p>
<p>Usually, just going online and looking at the above list can cause a school to either move up, move down, or be “crossed-off” on the list.</p>
<p>However, if a campus visit can be done, do so, but make sure that you don’t limit the visit to what the college has decided to show you. Be sure to visit the inside of the…</p>
<p>libraries
dorms
rec center
eating venues
if possible, arrange ahead of time to “sit in” some classes :)</p>
<p>And drive around the campus neighborhood…is it safe? where are the off-campus hangouts? Is it necessary to have a car on campus?</p>