<p>Just start with a college that is not reach. Oldest fell in love with first school she visited and never looked back. Is there now and has had good experience, but if that school had been totally out of reach and she hadn’t gotten in it would have been hard.</p>
<p>I only began to see the value of visits by the time I had to plan for PhD applications… so I am planning on visiting Dartmouth and UPenn (the former is a non-reach, the latter is a reach).</p>
<p>"
“Spring of senior year after acceptance is too late to visit, and it puts a ton of stress on to “wait and see where you get accepted, then we will visit”. You get just over a month to decide, and unless they are close by, it is really hard to get to them then and make up your mind.” </p>
<p>I have to disagree with this statement, especially for students who need $$ or who are applying to the hyper competitive colleges that are “reaches for everyone”.
For most parents and students, the real stress is in wondering where students WILL be accepted and how much it will cost to send them there.</p>
<p>If fat envelopes arrive April 1, then 1 month should be plenty of time to visit, and decide which college a student will be attending. That is the best time to visit, when colleges roll out the red carpet AND students can actually see what life on campus will be like and meet future classmates.
Unless a college is closeby, an early visit with a reluctant teenager or a “prestige” hungry parent is a waste of time , especially if the chances of acceptance are very low, or if the family ultimately needs to compare financial aid packages in order to make a realistic decision. </p>
<p>Airplane tickets are pricey on such short notice and time is sparse (kids can only miss so many days of school, and it is also time for state tournaments and activities kids have been working toward for years in their ECs). If they are close to home, then not so tough. But if you have to travel AND aren’t even sure which ones you really like best (because you have never seen them), it becomes impossible to see them all. We did 3 accepted student visits in April last year, all far from home and in different parts of the country (East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest). It was exhausting. We knew which colleges were tops on her list, though, because all had been seen once before. I can’t imagine trying to do more visits than that in the spring. We see a lot of kids out here jettisoning colleges they were accepted to that they have never visited because they can’t get there – they are very stressed (often panicked) because they only have the info on paper and the website to go on. If you truly can’t afford to visit ahead of time, then of course you do what you have to do and make the best choice you can. But I hate seeing those kids in the spring who are lost when it comes to choosing, and have to toss colleges overboard unseen because it is too late to visit all the places where they were accepted.</p>
<p>Well, we had to do this in a week. Accepted students day at CMU, then on to CA for 2 colleges. One eliminated in a morning, and 1 1 1/2 days at the second. It took me hours to find flights. We could not go west, then to midwest–that was twice the price. When u r applying to reaches, and the safety set, it often comes down to choice between 2 colleges. My son still says he would have been fine at either college. </p>
<p>Son was more objective when applying to grad schools. He considered the areas, the location of labs, cost of living, the depth of his field, etc. The eyes of a 22 y.o. are far more objective than those of a 17 y.o.</p>
<p>Students who apply to a LOT of colleges are well advised to do a LOT of research and create a spread sheet listing all the positives and negatives of each college ahead of time. That way, after admissions letters have been received, most of the colleges can be eliminated without visiting. I agree, 3 trips in one month is too much, but I think that situation could have been avoided with more preplaning. And regarding this argument:</p>
<p>“it is also time for state tournaments and activities kids have been working toward for years in their ECs”</p>
<p>Weren’t those activities done in order to increase the students chances of acceptance by colleges? So once the acceptances are in, why consider those activities MORE important in April than allowing a student the time to figure out where they wanted to spend the NEXT 4 years?? </p>
<p>My DS applied to 15 colleges and was accepted at 12, WL’s at 2 and rejected at 1. He did not spend April flying around the country- instead he narrowed down his choices after April 1 to the top 2 colleges on his list that had the most to offer. Visiting those colleges then was more important than any EC’s that had helped him get into those colleges.
YMMV</p>
<p>I actually enjoyed just seeing colleges. I didn’t have to feel they were right for my kids, but I’m still glad we went. I wouldn’t spend tons of money going out of my way, but we looked at many when we were on our way to other places, or if we were invited to one, we’d do several in our area.</p>
<p>I like seeing what they look like. I might know other kids who end up there and then I can visualize them at school, or it might be a rival school for my daughter and I’ll know what the athletic facilities look like. At Florida Southern, there are 7 Frank Lloyd Wright structures, and those were interesting to look at and learn about.</p>
<p>Wow, menloparkmom. Did you kids only do ECs for college reasons? My kids did them because they loved them, honestly. Missing the state tournament their senior year would have been missing the culmination of years of work, and in one case my kid’s chance to place in the top 3 in the state in her favorite EC. Would she have skipped for an accepted student visit? Yes… but fortunately we had done our legwork ahead of time and narrowed the field of colleges so she didn’t have a long list still in play in April. She was accepted everyplace she applied, but due to earlier visits we knew exactly which ones would be revisited. No stress in trying to jettison colleges without much info.</p>
<p>And I stand by the statement that you cannot know for sure if a college is right or not from what is on a spreadsheet. My kids had numerous colleges that looked good on paper, but stunk (for them) when they visited. And some that looked okay on paper, but really shone in person. Can you accomplish a search without visiting? Of course. Do you increase the odds of either missing out on a college that would be a great fit, or ending up with a mismatch and later transfer if you don’t visit? Yes, you do. I guess is depends on your risk tolerance. Ours was low, we felt that visiting was important and lowered the risk of making one of those mistakes. All the “preplanning” in the world does not offset those risks.</p>
<p>I’ll agree with @intparent that you cannot know for sure if a college is right or not from what is on a spreadsheet. My D researched intensively, and had a clear favorite before visiting 3 schools she was accepted to and had not yet seen. Her favorite going in turned out to be a clear “NO” after she visited. She had not realized how remote it would feel, stuck in the suburbs with no services within a reasonable walking distance. The kid grew up in the suburbs, but only a couple blocks from the center of town with restaurants, stores, and a supermarket. She didn’t realize how important this access would be to her until she saw a university without it. She returned from the trip very happy that she had gone, and very happy that she had not chosen her previous favorite. She ended up choosing an urban school.</p>
<p>Wow, people really do ECs just for show, and then tell their coach/team/music teacher/mentored kids that they are quitting because it no longer matters for college admission? Has it really come to this? 
</p>
<p>Regarding visits, the importance or lack thereof of a visit does depend on what the student considers important in selecting a college. Also, when a visit is desired, the student needs to do enough pre-visit research to know what s/he will look for and ask about during the visit. Otherwise, the student may just get impressions based on the architecture and what the standard prospective student tour shows that may not really be that relevant to his/her choice.</p>
<p>I always find it strange that people talk about visiting a suburban, urban, and rural school to determine what kind of place they want to attend. Just looking at “urban” schools, for example, there is a huge difference between the U of C and NYU or Columbia or BU.</p>
<p>For my daughter, there isn’t a difference between NYU or Columbia at all. Both are in the same big concrete jungle. Would she throw BU and Chicago in there? That would depend on visits. I suspect she would. Penn confirmed she did not want an urban environment.</p>
<p>Now would she reject schools in smaller cities (under 250,000)? We’re finding that less urban environments are acceptable.</p>
<p>in other words, for some people, it’s not so strange.</p>
<p>On our first big college tour we visited schools from all three categories, but with an emphasis on likely schools. We knew she’d love some of her reaches and would have no problem finding good matches, but we knew finding schools that she both had a high chance of acceptance at and that she could see herself at would be harder. On that one week trip I think we ended up looking at 2 reaches, 4 matches and 4 likelies. Luckily she loved one of the early likelies (it ended up #3 out of 10 on her list) so we were able to blow off a later likely that had the wrong vibe for her from the moment we drove on campus. She also really liked a low match school we didn’t expect to be such a hit.</p>
<p>The advantage of finding one or two likely schools early is that you can spend all subsequent trips concentrating on match and reach schools with perhaps a highly attractive likely school or two thrown in. Having a good school in pocket takes the stress of worrying about not getting in anywhere the student wants to go off the table. Starting from the top down can make the likely schools pale by comparison and feel like they’re sad-sack backups.</p>
<p>Edit: I should add that we live in the Northeast, so all of these schools were visited on a one-week car trip. Obviously YMMV. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to reach any of 100 or so schools within an 8 hour drive.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the other responses, but our older kids knew where they wanted to attend, visited, applied, accepted, done. Simple.</p>
<p>Our new grad, he wasn’t so simple. He had a unique high school experience with high levels of achievement and grad school is his goal. We spent the spring of his jr yr and fall of his sr yr making several trips to various schools and meeting with deans and undergrad advisors. He sat in several upper level classes, toured research facilities, etc. These trips were vital. He eliminated schools he thought were top contenders and the school that he applied to simply as a back up plan, moved to the top bc he and the dean hit it off and the dean had a lot of similar experiences as ds and really had some great insights to offer. </p>
<p>Since we’re in Philadelphia, we started with some of the local schools, all of which are safeties (should get in, should get lots of merit money). This gave her a good sense of what she liked. Then we visited some safeties that are a few hours from home. She’s been OK with every school except Scranton, but she’s certainly not smitten with any of her safeties. During that time, we also visited a school that I’d say is a match (below the tippy top colleges), but a definite financial reach in that it only gives a very few merit scholarships (15 total). That school is far and away her number one. I think after seeing what she likes/dislikes in the nearby school, we’d have guessed that this school would be her first love even without visiting. Not only is it the absolute tops for her somewhat specialized EC, the vibe was also exactly what she’s looking for in a college. </p>
<p>Then she visited some schools without me that are matches - i.e. more competitive than the local schools, but she still can’t go unless she gets some generous merit aid (but more merit is given than at her #1). Then I took her to our state flagship honors college - I’d call it a match, but with less than 20% acceptance, I don’t really think it can be anybody’s safety. She liked that school just fine and at this point I would put it as the school she’ll most likely attend. I’m very glad we visited - I wouldn’t have guessed she’d like it so much, but it’s her solid number two behind that top match/financial reach. She’s reluctant to visit more schools that are reaches - she found it heartbreaking to love a school that she knows she likely won’t be able to attend. We have one more match school to visit and then we’re done. </p>
<p>So far, she’s applying to 8 schools. Her list looks like:</p>
<p>1) match school/big financial reach
2) match
3) safety (also fields a decent team in her EC)
4) match/financial reach
5) safety, safety, safety, safety </p>
<p>Since we have family in New England, she’s seen a couple of Ivies as well as MIT over the years, but she hasn’t really liked any of them. She actually told me that she’d rather attend the honors college at the very nearby St. Joe’s (which falls in at #5 above) than Brown or Harvard. I suspect she would like Princeton and perhaps Dartmouth just fine, but since we can’t really afford them, and she doubts either school would reach the level of her #1, she doesn’t want to even bother looking at them. </p>
<p>Of course kIds (and their families) do choose which schools to apply to. One of the constraints we’ve put on applications is “don’t apply to any school you wouldn’t attend.” Visits have crossed a number of potential schools off “the list.” Anyone who says there’s no difference in “vibe” among top-20 schools has obviously never visited top-20 schools. </p>
<p>And not all visits are to super-selective schools. Visits have been one way to explore schools that are off the beaten path. </p>
<p>We visited safety, match and reach schools. Kid applied to safety, match and reach schools. Kid chose 9 schools to apply and was accepted at all 9. He knew in his mind which school was is top choice. We did not have to visit any schools after April 1st as he had already visited prior to applying. Made for a very relaxing last month of Senior year.</p>
<p>"I should add that we live in the Northeast, so all of these schools were visited on a one-week car trip. Obviously YMMV. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to reach any of 100 or so schools within an 8 hour drive. "</p>
<p>Ditto. Visited most during spring break Junior year. A few in the fall prior as his sport competed near several schools he was interested in and visited one school in fall of Senior year on an open house day. </p>
<p>It is pretty easy for those of us in the NE to visit a lot of schools in a short amount of time. </p>
<p>For those of us who don’t live in areas with a high concentration of colleges, it does take more planning–but we have always enjoyed these trips beyond the purpose of visiting schools. Having hours and hours in the car or on a plane with a child you don’t see much of at home is a real gift at this age.</p>
<p>For those of you who have the luxury of extensive college visits, just please remember to post about them. </p>
<p>They are very helpful for those of us who can’t afford to do so. </p>