<p>As a parent of a HS senior, we are now nearly a year removed from all of our college visits. As others have done, I just thought I would share some suggestions to any other fellow college visit novices such as I was just a year ago.</p>
<p>1) If at all possible take your trips over Easter break since most colleges are still in session. If that is not possible try the very beginning of summer break, as we learned that a lot of the colleges my D was considering stayed in session for a couple of weeks after her HS year ended. We found that this proved to provide a much better perspective compared to previous summer visits when attendance was much lower.</p>
<p>2) If you are tight on time, choose the student led tour over the information session. But at a minimum, definitely take the tour.</p>
<p>3) Plan to have lunch at a campus dining hall.</p>
<p>4) Take the time to not only research the colleges in advance, but also the surrounding areas as well. Find out where the students tend to hang out and eat when they are off campus. If applicable, walk around the downtown area at night and have dinner at one of the popular off-campus restaurants.</p>
<p>Anyhow I wish all of you good luck on your upcoming college visits.</p>
<p>In our experience so far, I agree with all of that! Especially having lunch at a campus dining hall. Not only do you get to taste the food you’ll be stuck eating for four years, but you get a sense of how the students interact with each other, a sense of the campus culture.</p>
<p>I took my son to visit a well-regarded private college that came highly recommended. The visit was just fine, and the campus was pretty, and everyone was accommodating, but lunch in the dining hall resulted in a big black mark. The food was decent but not what you’d want to eat every day for a week, let alone four years, and the black kids all sat by themselves in one area, the Asians in another, and the whites everywhere else. My son noticed this immediately, and it was off the list. (I’m sure some people would prefer it that way, and a visit to the dining hall would therefore have been useful to them, too.)</p>
<p>I would actually suggest not trying to do too many visits over spring break if possible. It tends to be very crowded - resulting in exceptionally large tour groups, lack of seating for the info sessions and difficulty parking - and that was just at Duke! Seriously, worst spring break visit we did. Might not be as bad at smaller schools. For S1, we did 6 schools in 5 days over spring break and it was a little overwhelming. For S2 - different strategy - more day trips - visiting one school at a time - where geographically possible.</p>
<p>Also recommend setting up other appts where possible. If an alum from your hs attends a college you are visiting - see if you can reach them and spend a little time speaking with someone who is not employed by the admissions department. Same idea with a club that interests your student - can you reach a club rep. and met with them for a few minutes - we have done that with Hillel wherever we go and find it very helpful. Above all - take notes and have fun.</p>
<p>If you have a reluctant college visitor, and I think most of us have at one point or another, give them an out. Let them know that if they choose not to participate in any of the scheduled activities that that’s OK. It’s amazing how just knowing they can choose NOT to participate increases they odds that they will.</p>
<p>Also giving them a voice in the planning of the non-college related aspects of the trip ie picking restaurants, in-room movies, etc increases willingness to go next time if your kid, like one of mine, would initially have rather avoided the whole thing all together. </p>
<p>Happy to say that she did come around and college visits for by my DDs and for me shine as highlights of their last two years living at home.</p>
<p>I agree that 6 colleges in 5 days would be too much. You also bring up a good point that the tours can be more crowded during spring break. In our situation, I would say that all of our tours were very manageable, but it is also worth noting that the colleges we were visiting were not quite on the level of Duke.</p>
<p>It was actually interesting for us, having been on a couple of summer visits with very small tour groups and thus low energy levels, how much more interested my D seemed to get with a little larger tour. </p>
<p>In our case not too many collages were an easy drive for us and we really needed to plan a vacation around these and do them when are kids were not in school.</p>
<p>We did the now infamous (to us) 10 day/3 state/5 college tour during spring break junior year. It was actually quite useful and informative. One of the schools was Duke, and I don’t recall that the many visitors posed a problem; there were just lots of tour groups. Maybe we got lucky.</p>
<p>The most valuable source of information at any college visit - the students - engage in conversation with as many as possible. I am not talking about the trained tour guides, but rather the random students you may run into on campus. They will provide you with the most honest information regarding housing, food, social life, everyday costs, class schedules (how difficult is it to get into needed classes), professors, etc.</p>
<p>Take pictures at every school you visit. It’s easier for the parents to take the photos – kids are reluctant to do so. The first photo at the college should be something showing the school’s name…so you and your child will remember later. On the way home from each school, have your kid write down some thoughts or memories about that school. Print the photos and keep the post-visit thoughts in a folder/binder.</p>
<p>Cherish this time with your junior! They’ll be gone before you know it. </p>
<p>I have 2 kids, and we took each one individually to tour colleges (they’re 3 years apart). It was a great chance to have time alone with each kid. It was interesting to hear their feedback on the colleges, and it was one of the first times I really felt I was speaking with a young adult rather than a teenager, as we discussed what each child wanted their future to be. </p>
<p>So even though it may feel like a long hard slog - treasure this special time with your child.</p>
<p>My daughter narrowed it down to 10 schools - in 9 states! And then she disliked every one but the university she has her heart set on. So while the visits have been fun, she won’t even open her mind to another school until Dream School turns her down. I can’t wait for May 1st when it will all be over, one way or another.</p>
<p>Make use of holidays during school the school year to visit schools within a 2 hour drive of where you live. Many colleges run a regular class schedule on Labor Day, MLK day, President’s day, etc. Use the longer breaks to visit schools further away.</p>
<p>I like to lag to the rear on college tours so it’s easier for the students to see and hear.</p>
<p>Visiting two schools on the same day gives your student a chance to make instant comparisons. School #2’s info session and tour was surprisingly head and shoulders above School #1’s.</p>
<p>We took our two oldest on their first college visits the summer before junior year. It was more or less to give them an idea of what college was about with no pressure about knowing what to ask or needing to know what they were looking for in a specific school. Mostly it just narrowed down type (as we kept it very broad) AND served as a nice motivator for big effort junior year in knowing what COULD be possible… </p>
<p>I am also a big fan of the school newspaper… and in fact, that and any online blogs are very good resources to look behind the curtain of admission materials.</p>
<p>Kudos to all of you on the 6 day/12 school (or similar) tour schedule.</p>
<p>You must all be much younger than me!</p>
<p>First child had no interest in tours, but a very specific idea of the schools of interest. Applied to 6 schools, admitted to 4. Only visited first choice school, after admission. Wonderful 4 years at first choice school.</p>
<p>I was very disappointed that there was no interest in college visits.</p>
<p>Second child willing, and interested, in college visits. Did 2 in 2 days. Schools about 2 hours apart. Parents absolutely exhausted after the 2 days!!! Fortunately, 1st school looked at will probably be a safety, and child really liked the school. Told kid no more visits! Can apply to more schools…but will only visit if accepted.</p>
<p>Additional points for the student who’s visiting:</p>
<p>(1) Before the visit, think about the school in the context of your concerns regarding college life, and come up with at least 2 questions that you’ll ask the tour guide.</p>
<p>(2) Tour guides, instructors, etc. have bad days. The weather may influence the students. You may run into some mean students. It’s only a visit. Think of what kind of impression your high school would make on someone who drops by for 2-3 hours on a random day. So use you visit as one possible small factor in your eventual decision.</p>
<p>(3) In the admissions office look through the detailed syllabus for that term. Think about which courses you might take the next year and 2-3 beond. If you are excited by the possibilities it’s a very good sign. If you can’t find courses that are the right level, then take that into account.</p>
<p>(4) In the admissions office ask to see the cross section of students by the state and high school they’ve attended. Who from your high school or neighboring high schools attends. Use that information, and ask if you can contact those students.</p>
<p>(5) Ask your “2” questions! You’ll enliven the tour, and perhaps get other tour participants to participate. Unfortunately too many tours are totally driven by the tour guide.</p>
<p>(6) Take advantage of the likely encouragement that you’ll receive from the tour guides to contact them (by email) after the visit.</p>
<ol>
<li>During senior year fall semester and week days and weekend</li>
<li>1st day, arrived afternoon, had interview, meeting with coach, watched team practice, overnight stay</li>
<li>2nd day, attended classes, information session, camp tour, meeting with professors, watched team practice </li>
<li>3rd day/Weekend, watched team season game then got a flight home </li>
</ol>
<p>These were we visited one school during the fall. Visiting class, meet with professor/coach, over night stay and eating campus food are very important in my opinion. Spend more time in one school you like the most.</p>