<p>How do you handle them? My D13 is at Armand Hammer United World College in rural New Mexico and I am in the midwest. Do you just say meeting the admissions rep is enough or do you arrange for your student to fly out to visit schools?</p>
<p>We have a Jr in BS in Europe. We just spent one week in Calf. touring and interviewing colleges during her spring break. There are a lot of college visit threads in the college section of CC. They have been helpful.</p>
<p>The only breaks UWC students get are winter - beginning ~Dec. 10 and summer - beginning ~ May 25 but D has plans for summer break that will probably not allow college visits. I’m impressed that you brought your D home from Europe to visit schools in California. My D is on full scholarship. It will be a financial stretch to get her from New Mexico to visit colleges.</p>
<p>There is a thread about college visits on a budget. It was very helpful for us 
Most colleges have tours on Saturdays and throughout the summer. I also read about many families who waited until DC was accepted to a college before they made their visits and some who completely depended on virtual tours and student reviews. Does your child’s school plan any group college visits?</p>
<p>We are on West coast with a D on East Coast. She has done one visit on a long weekend with an East Coast friend, and will visit some schools over a week right after school gets out in end of may. After that, she too has a committed summer and no other breaks. Many kids we know put off seeing schools until after they accepted. It makes picking the schools to apply a little less certain, but it’s not imperative to see schools before applying.</p>
<p>^^ A word of caution - while most schools will accept a qualified student sight unseen, and a lot of colleges don’t even track whether you visited or not - there are a surprisingly large number of colleges that require or “strongly recommend” a visit/an info session/on campus interview. You need to read every college material carefully to understand which ones, so as to not be in a waitlist situation due to a college’s yield fear.
Check out a site called Student Universe - once the student registers, they can get very nice discounts on travel within the US.</p>
<p>mhmm, true, that there are some schools where visits/interview/interest factor in, from our list, many of those will send a representative to visit the BS in the fall so that a student can express interest in person on campus I found that the number of schools where interest matters AND there will not be an opportunity at the BS itself were relatively few.</p>
<p>I assume your kid is in a BS that a lot of colleges are interested in. Not everyone is lucky enough. There are many BS’s that don’t necessarily receive visits by many colleges, or the particular college your kid is interested in, and then if your kid didn’t show enough “love” you are stuck. What all this means is that as a parent you need to read the college material very carefully to see where the college falls in the “interest spectrum”, and not rely on anyone else (your kid or the school guidance office), and then make decisions accordingly.</p>
<p>@mhmm – I agree. The interview can be particularly important with many elite LACs and even larger institutions that attempt to assess applicants holistically. I was over in the College Admissions thread looking at a school of interest and reading a conversation between applicants who speculated as to whether the interview was a “deal-breaker” for admissions outcomes, when all other stats appeared equal. If the language states an interview is “recommended” and the school is high up on the student’s favorites list, it may be a good idea to try and get some face time.</p>
<p>You would be surprised by the number of schools that are willing to arrange to have an alum in your child’s area not only interview him, but just meet with him and speak about the college. That can take care of the interview part.
With visits, see if the school arranges any visits. Then, aside from those, you may just need to plan to use specific breaks to vacation AND do college visits.
T</p>