<p>How essential are college visits to the college selection process? My dad and I are in an argument about this: I say that campus tours will be important in my decisions on where to apply; my dad says that they won't be a huge factor and that I don't need to visit colleges outside of our region. What do you think?</p>
<p>By the way, cost is not the issue here.</p>
<p>I am unclear on your question. You can attend outside of the MidWest or you can apply and visit when accepted? Necessary versus desirable? hmmm. So if you have an offer from Harvard will you attend regardless of whether you visited the campus? Just a question.
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**I don't need to visit colleges outside of our region
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<p>Well, mainly I was just wondering from other people's experiences, how essential were campus tours to them in their decisions on where to apply (like, say, X College was your dream school until you visited and then realized you hated it)? My dad says I can apply wherever I want, but only wants to visit colleges in the Midwest. I'm interested in a lot of colleges in the East and want to experience the campuses before I apply to them.</p>
<p>Sorry if I was unclear.</p>
<p>Really also depends on the schools. Many of the LAC's put weight into demonstrated interest and you can even schedule an interview on campus while you are there. I think it is very important to see schools, granted you may not be able to see all of them and those you can always see afteer acceptance.</p>
<p>I think many folks think the visit is necesssary. On the other hand many kids make an application and schedule their visits after acceptance is offered. How much have you traveled in general? I mean have you been outside of the Midwest in general? You can take this to discussions of overnight in dorms, attending classes and such. There is much to consider. The reason I used Harvard as an example is that many folks from foreign lands apply, show up and have never been to USA prior to setting soles of shoes at the gate. It is done all the time.
*** I would wonder if apply anywhere means matriculate anywhere***</p>
<p>"How much have you traveled in general? I mean have you been outside of the Midwest in general?"
^My family has done some traveling. I've been to a slight majority of states in the US, to Canada, and to Europe. I'm not sure why my dad seems opposed to the idea of going East... Maybe it will be too boring for him?</p>
<p>Maybe I should just visit my top choices then?</p>
<p>My parents were the same way when it came to visiting colleges. I live outside of DC and only ended up visiting a few schools. I had to beg for my dad to take me to visit my top choice school, which is only 3 hours away. I had a huge interest in schools in the mid west, but had 0 opportunities to visit, so I guess I had the exact opposite problem you do.</p>
<p>Will your parents let you visit colleges after you are accepted? My parents made me that deal. Lets say you have a college list of 15 schools. It is very expensive to visit all of them. It is cheaper to apply to all 15 and see where you get in rather than visiting all 15 and narrowing down your applications to 10. If you apply to 15 and get into 8, you'll still have an idea of where you are more likely to go and only really need to visit your top 3 or 4 schools.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to try and visit different types of local schools. Go to a big state school, go to a small LAC, go to a rural school, a suburban school, and an urban school. From that you can see what general environment you are looking for. From my own visits of local schools I was able to see that I really wanted to be in an urban school and hated the feel of a small LAC. That helped shape my college list. </p>
<p>Keep an open mind when you visit colleges. When I first saw the college I now attend I didn't really like it. However, it grew on me as I visited a few more places. I realized that while it wasn't perfect, it was the best place for me.</p>
<p>Apply first and then spend the money on visits. You can get a pretty good idea of a college's campus life online from posters here and other sites like collegeboard.com and campuscompare.com without spending the money on gas / flights. And if you get into any of those schools, visit before you make your decision.</p>
<p>My d found a couple of schools that looked perfect on paper, but that she didn't like in person. So I'm of the opinion that visits are important. That being said, visits can be made after acceptance. My d is now happily attending a school that she visited only after acceptance.</p>
<p>I'd only visit school's outside your are after admission. I hadn't visited Stanford before being admitted, ironically, it was the only school on my list I didn't visit prior to applying because all my other schools were on the east coast.</p>
<p>I would never consider dropping a 5- or 6-figure sum on anything before I saw it in person.</p>
<p>ETA: Nor would I consider taking on a 5- 6-figure debt for something I never saw in person.</p>
<p>If a school is close by visit before applying. If a school is far away, visit after being admitted. For my son time was in shorter supply than money for visits. Keep in mind that many colleges are in full operation on holidays that high schools get off, like Labor Day, MKL Day, Wash. Bday, etc. Make use of those days to visit.</p>
<p>There have been entire threads regarding schools that people's opinions have changed about after visiting. Thought they would love it, hated it after visiting, and visa versa.</p>
<p>i think the visits are absolutely worth it, but wait until you get accepted and whatnot -- visits can cost a lot of money, but in the end, dont make a decision without visiting the places youre weighing</p>
<p>I think you need to get a descriptive idea of what you're looking for by visits in the region. And only visit schools that you are in love with on paper before acceptances. Then see if there are admitted students visits because many will pick up your tab for traveling before Decision Day.</p>
<p>OP posted that cost/cash not a prohibitive. Neither was time a factor identified.</p>
<p>In my daughter's case, we only visited one of the six schools that she applied to before she received her admission letters. That school was the school that she applied to EA and she really wanted to be sure that it was her first choice and she also wanted to have an on campus interview to help boost her chances of admission. If you can afford it, I advise this strategy. In her case I really think that it helped her confirm that this was the school that she definitely wanted to go to and the interview on campus did help her gain admission.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses! </p>
<p>As Hazmat just said, money is not the problem, and neither is a specific time frame (I'm a rising junior and have all of next year to visit). The central argument of my dad's, I think, is that I should decide to apply to certain schools solely from the cirriculum and programs offered. Another reason I think he does not want to tour is he generally hates big cities and also dislikes moving from hotel to hotel and city to city each day (which, if we are going to tour Eastern colleges sometime this year, will be the case).</p>
<p>I am dreaming of reach schools like Columbia and Georgetown, but as a small-town girl I feel I really need to experience their campuses and surrounding areas to see if I will feel sufficiently impressed to spend four years of my life there. I guess I should apply and just wait until I am accepted (if I am accepted, of course, always a big if) to visit the campus, but then how will I decide my priority schools? This is confusing.</p>
<p>Thanks, newenglandparent, that's a useful response. So your daughter decided based on cirriculum, program offerings, etc. where she thought she would like to go and then visited? That might be a good idea...</p>
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but as a small-town girl I feel I really need to experience their campuses and surrounding areas to see if I will feel sufficiently impressed to spend four years of my life there.
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<p>This is an excellent mentality!
Some people might not judge the campus environment, surroundings, architecture, and facilities to be all that important, but you're absolutely right: you should feel completely comfortable about where you are going to pursue your higher education for the next four or more years.</p>
<p>You could visit AFTER you've been admitted, but it's better to visit beforehand so you'll know whether or not a campus turns you off so much that you've changed your mind completely about applying. But, be sure to visit as many colleges as you can before you make your final decision on May 1.</p>