<p>Hi--trying to work out college visits and we will probably have to go to both coasts. It would be great to go somewhere in the summer, but would that be worth it at all, since the environment in the summer has nothing to do with the rest of the year? Has anyone made college visits in the summer, and if so, were they at all worthwhile?</p>
<p>We had to do several college visits this summer, because we were looking at east coast schools and we had to fly in from Texas. Just not enough time during the school year!</p>
<p>We found them very helpful - my D was able to eliminate several schools after seeing them. Several more made the cut, and she applied. Now that admission decisions are coming in, she’s picking 2 to return to for admitted student days.</p>
<p>A lot of people will say that it’s not worth seeing a school in the summer when most of the students aren’t there. But we were able to get a good feel for the schools - size of campus, see the facilities, that made it much easier to formulate a list. good luck!!</p>
<p>We only did one. The campus seemed like a ghost town. My son would not consider that school after our visit. Does not provide a fair comparison with other campuses when they are in session.</p>
<p>We saw a school on a sunday and it was a ghost town.</p>
<p>We did summer visits. Additionally, my older child attended a couple of camps on college campuses, which is a great way to investigate what things there are to do in town. We used early college visits to determine where my daughter should apply. After the acceptances were in, we did a couple more visits.</p>
<p>We made some college visits in the summer because that’s just the way the schedule worked out. And although there weren’t as many students on campus, you could still take a tour, go to an info. session, have an interview, and check out the campus and the surrounding area. In fact, my son’s top choice is a school we visited over the summer. I think it’s worth doing, especially when the alternative is not visiting at all.</p>
<p>^Friday and Saturday mornings aren’t that much better. Or the afternoon before Passover starts at Brandeis… If your kid cares about location and the feel of the town and the size or compactness of the campus it can still be helpful. My son wouldn’t have liked Bard or GW no matter when he’d visited. He hated their campuses.</p>
<p>Do much reading on these boards and you will read of drive-bys…Those are easy in the summer.</p>
<p>I agree that summer visits are worthwhile. We visited 6 midwest schools in the summer. All had student interns around in admissions and gave good tours. My daughter got very good looks at the schools. One, Northwestern, has a busy summer session so the campus was quite crowded in the summer. Might not be ideal (no classes to sit in on), but otherwise excellent experience.</p>
<p>Summer visits aren’t ideal, but it’s worth scheduling them if that’s the only time you can go. It’s best to go when the college has summer classes in session. Otherwise they will feel very quiet. It does give you a chance to see the campus and surrounding area, but it’s harder to get a feel for the student vibe. On the other hand, your S or D will be more relaxed in the summer when they aren’t worrying about missing school or ECs to go on the tours.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much! Very helpful, and I feel better about summer visits.</p>
<p>Just try to stick to weekdays. Many buildings will not be open weekends but are open M-F. Most larger schools are still fairly busy.</p>
<p>Yes, they’re not ideal, but we had little choice also. My D was too busy with dance team in the spring. You can get an idea, especially at the big schools, and you have to be open-minded and try to imagine the campus with a little more hustle and bustle. It’s most helpful imo wrt looking at facilities, especially dining halls, sports centers, libraries and dorms. Also the feel of the town/city around the campus. And, yes, try not to go on a weekend.</p>
<p>Not ideal. We are planning some visits that coincide with planned vacations. It at least gives you a feel for the town/city which is part of the decision.</p>
<p>We did summer visits as well and our son ruled out one school completely, and they had a full summer program running so it was much like the “regular” school year. He also fell in love with another although their campus was very quiet - in fact, I think the slower pace allowed him to take in the school with less pressure. I also know that doing summer visits allowed us to spread out the entire process which, for us, kept everything calmer. Good luck!</p>
<p>We did a mix of visits, summer and otherwise. In the beginning, it’s often not critical that the school be an ideal fit. Tours near home can start to give the student a feel of big vs small, urban vs rural, LAC vs University, etc.</p>
<p>We didn’t have a choice and we had to visit colleges in the summer too. You’ll find that a lot of other families do the same thing. We found it very helpful. We visited 15 colleges in three east coast cities and we did the tours and information sessions at each college. As others posted, it was helpful to get a feel of the area where the college is located. My D also got a good feel for the colleges themselves and eliminated a few based on those visits.</p>
<p>We did several summer visits and found them positive other than for the fairly quiet campuses. The information sessions were useful along with the tours. Some were actually quite crowded but a great way to pick up good informaiton from the tour guides. We were fortunate and had reasonably good to excellent guides at all of the schools we visited. With the distances involved to some of the schools and the limited time during the school year, summer visits are almost a requirement if you want to see more than a few local schools.</p>
<p>We did several college visits during the summer months, because it was the only time we had to see the campuses together as a family. I looked at those visits as overviews – if my son wanted to go back and see a school a second or third time, we could do it following admission. This summer, I plan to take my HS sophomore on a swing through the Carolinas to see some schools. Do I expect him to make a decision on where he will apply? No, but this is an informational trip. He has different interests than his older brother does, so therefore, we go to different schools.</p>
<p>“Summer visits aren’t ideal, but it’s worth scheduling them if that’s the only time you can go.”</p>
<p>No students, no professors, no classes, no sports, no student cafeteria (or worse yet, the caff kept open with a skeleton crew of temps), sunshine when the school-year norm is snow, blazing temps when the school-year norm is really pleasant, etc. Obviously I’m not a believer in summer visits … unless they’re the sole option. But they’re still better than visiting Yale over Christmas Break!</p>
<p>PS, The other thing to keep in mind about summer visits is that the sights that are available will carry disproportionate weights during the decision-making process.</p>