<p>Hi, I am trying to decide between a few schools. I never been to one of them and I do not have the money to fly out and visit. Is it true that some schools pay for students to visit their campus?
If so, who should I talk to and how can I approach the situation?
Thank so much!</p>
<p>The only time that schools pay for applicants to visit is when the applicants are highly recruited such as some top URMs and National Merit scholars that some schools will pay to fly in for visits. Some schools will fly in highly desired students after the students have been admitted. The schools that do either of these things tend to be very competitive private schools. I’m not aware of any college that flies in applicants just because applicants request to be flown in. </p>
<p>There are very few schools that provide excellent need-based aid to very poor students. Those schools are the most difficult ones to gain entrance to in the country – places like Harvard, Princeton, Amherst. If you are fortunate enough to gain entrance to one of those schools and their marvelous financial aid, it’s hard to imagine you’d choose to turn them down for any reason – whether or not you’ve ever visited them.</p>
<p>Except for the few schools that give lavish need-based aid, if money is a concern, it usually is a good idea to apply to schools that you can travel to easily, not ones that would cost big bucks to get to. Most students in this country attend college within 250 miles of home, colleges they easily can get to by driving. It’s only on CC where it looks like most students are flying coast to coast to attend college and to do college visits. </p>
<p>If money is a big consideration for college, the #1 thing you should be considering is what the school’s financial aid is like and whether you’re likely to be able to not only get admission, but also the financial aid you need to attend. Incidentally, money is a consideration when it comes to most students’ college selection whether or not the students mention that. That’s why so many students go to in state public colleges: That’s what their parents can afford.</p>
<p>I do not think that well qualified students should limit themselves by applying to schools that are close to home just because they do not have the financial resources to visit them.</p>
<p>@OP: I concur with Northstarmom, I have not heard of colleges flying prospective students, however, big private colleges will try to recruit those students that have gotten in and may provide airfare and accommodation for a visit. It depends on the college and the size of the endowment. Personally I would do a bunch of research on the schools and apply to both, if you get in then maybe you could take a visit to both if you are still on the fence about both.</p>
<p>My friend, who is URM got flown out all the way to Minnesota as a perspective student.</p>
<p>Just apply, and if the school is big on visits, write a nice side note on why you were unable to. Then, once you get your acceptances and financial aid packages back, go visit the schools that interest you at that point before deciding. In the meantime, save your pennies and stop eating fast food.</p>
<p>My D only visited schools once she had been accepted and had seen her financial aid awards. This eliminated costly trips and also falling in love with a school and being crushed when she didn’t get in.</p>
<p>Don’t just apply helter skelter. Spend your time, effort, and money applying to schools that you’re likely to be able to afford. Check the schools’ financial aid information on their web pages before applying.</p>
<p>Every single year many students step foot on the campuses where they will spend the next four years of their lives for the first time on the first day of classes. If this ends up being your case, you will not be alone. Do not worry about this.</p>
<p>College visits like mothers day and fathers day are peer pressure activities.
You can convince yourself that participation is really important or you can
focus on the underlying principle and quietly follow through in your own way
and time.</p>
<p>Through my senior year in HS, I remember doing my best to disimiss the
daily dose of peer pressure when yet another friend would come back to proudly
display the spoils of their latest college visit. Then I discovered TheU (theU.com)
and Google Earth. [for</a> example](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZJLrOpKXcQ&feature=fvst]for”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZJLrOpKXcQ&feature=fvst) :)</p>
<p>I was accepted to all the schools that I applied to. Similar to SVM’s D
I then wrote letters contacting the schools to see if they would be able to
cover my visit. They were all gracious enough to acede to my request after
I disclosed my financial status. In 2 of the schools I had either received their
top merit scholarship or was a contender and was covered for a visit already.
In hindsight, I need not have done the physical visits even then
- though I was curious to check them all out.</p>
<p>* In case you are wondering how I knew where to apply *
I did not visit any schools physically prior to applying. What I did
do was spend close to 40 hours systematically creating a spreadsheet,
populating it with the criteria and weights important to me and
puting in the USNR Top 30 National and Top 20 LAC ranked schools with
their “grades” (as I saw it).</p>
<p>The 50 odd schools were split into my top 10 choices and ‘the rest’. If you
qualify based on ‘need’ you can be assured that aid will be available from
USNR top 10 schools to cover your family situation- learn how to use
affordability as a factor appropriately. I found it was costlier to attend a
State school than to go to a top 5 Private school. To come up with my
grades for the schools the web sites as well as CC were very useful. I did
have faulty data in some cases.</p>
<p>I was invited to the University of Pitsburgh as a prospective student. Free hotel + travel expenses paid (up to $250). I got a pre-invitation to Washington University in St. Louis’s Discovery Weekend, to which they do fly some minority students. The trick is to get on mailing lists really early and to send your SAT scores to your potential schools ahead of time, I think. If you can’t visit, it isn’t going to be a big deal. I was able to visit two colleges close to home (about two hours away) because I was able to save some money from my job, but if you can’t visit, don’t worry.</p>
<p>" The trick is to get on mailing lists really early and to send your SAT scores to your potential schools ahead of time, I think."</p>
<p>The trick is having sky high scores and/or being a high stat URM. Most colleges do not fly in students. Because of the horrendous economy, even the colleges like U Pittsburgh and Wash U that have been flying in stellar prospective applicants and top accepted students probably will be drastically cutting back or eliminating such trips , and also will be reducing or eliminating the excellent merit aid provided to such students.</p>
<p>It’s true that many students attend colleges that they never visited. When I went to grad school, I had never been closer than 2,000 miles from the state the grad school was in. This was before the Internet, so all I had to go on was information I could gather from brochures and from talking to people from that state and those who had visited the campus.</p>
<p>The campus ended up being what I had expected. I was happy there. </p>
<p>The same can be true for you. Especially when money is an issue, visiting isn’t that important. Finding a college that you can afford is very important.</p>
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<p>Sorry. I qualify for the latter (and possibly the former). Pitt is pretty generous though, they have a LOT of different free programs for URMs.</p>