<p>I am wondering if the summer before junior year is an acceptable time to visit colleges. Also, is it OK for parents to accompany their children to visit campuses? Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm a parent. I visited several colleges with my daughter and son during the summers before their junior years. Nobody kicked me out. In fact, most of the students I saw had parents with them -- and some had slightly younger brothers and sisters with them, too. (I wouldn't recommend bringing a really little kid, though.)</p>
<p>Summer is a popular time for visits. Some families combine a few college visits with a few vacation-type activities in the same area. (William and Mary, for example, is right down the road from a big theme park.) However, if you can visit campuses during the school year, when the students are there, that's even better.</p>
<p>When we did our visits I think everyone had at least one parent with them. I tried to step back and let my D lead the way though. I am sure there are students that go w/o a parent for one reason or another, but you certainly won't look weird if your parents come with you if that's what you mean. Have fun and try to talk to any current students that you see around campus- they will give you a lot of insight outside of the "press release" info.</p>
<p>It's rare to see students visiting alone at this point. Second semester of their senior year, many return alone for overnights or to visit classes.</p>
<p>Summer before junior year is a good time to visit for putting together a tentative list of places that might be suitable. It's normal for parents to be there too. Ideally, you should visit top realistic choices and safeties again when students are on campus and classes are in session--possibly in connection with admissions interviews. I would also strongly urge not ever accepting admission to a college where you have never set foot on campus!</p>
<p>Stormy:</p>
<p>It's very helpful for parents to visit with kids. At the info sessions, parents may ask questions their kids might not think of asking (e.g. regarding financial aid) or understand how to process (EFC? FAFSA?).</p>
<p>Parents can provide another pair of eyes and ears. They are also great at the end of the day for the student to share impressions with. When S1 was touring colleges, I had my ankle in a cast, so I mostly stayed in the car or plopped myself down in the reception room of the admissions office. S and H explored housing, went on the tour; S attended a class or two and talked to students. We all explored cafeteria food.
S2 also visited colleges mostly with H (who was needed to drive).</p>
<p>I would only start visiting colleges the summer before junior year if the student is open to the idea. While it certainly doesn't hurt to start looking that early, it also isn't going to be much help unless the student is ready to start looking at colleges. Personally, I was still much more concerned with high school than with college at that point, and I found researching schools online to be an efficient way to start thinking about colleges without driving for hours. I didn't start visiting colleges until the summer before senior year (in fact I wasn't very interested at all in the whole college search thing until I found Olin, but that's another story).</p>
<p>I missed the bit about before junior year. It is fine to visit, in a low-key way, to get a sense of the type of schools and locations that should be explored further. Making it part of a family vacation is a great way to do so. Then during the fall and especially the spring of junior year, the student, with or without parent (driving still needed!) can focus on colleges that have made it past the initial culling.</p>
<p>We recently squeezed in a couple of college visits since we started planning, and at one school I sw parents with kids. The other was a self-guided tour and we saw only students who were going to class. The parents were asking many questions. The schools realize most of these students are not yet 18, their parents are supporting them, and they know they have to appeal to the parents as well as the students.</p>
<p>Before junior year is the best time to visit, in my opinion. It's definitely not too early. It's great to give them as much time as possible to think about this decision; we watched several of my daughters' friends struggle when they only had summer before senior year to look at schools.</p>
<p>We visited campuses on trips we took when my daughter was quite young, so she would continued to be motivated during (boring) K-12.</p>
<p>Parents should definitely go along, for all the reasons mentioned. Just don't be judgmental about a school before you get there, or before your student has formed an opinion. </p>
<p>Personal example: When we visited NYU during her junior year, I thought my daughter would not like it at all. But I kept my mouth shut and allowed her to experience the school for herself. Guess where she's going to be a freshman this fall? :-)</p>
<p>The summer before your junior year is certainly a good time to start, but keep in mind that you may change a lot between then and when you eventually apply to college. If you think you still like that college a year later, I would visit again.</p>
<p>The summer before junior year starts is OK for getting some BROAD ideas for the college search, but I'd recommend not focusing on SPECIFIC colleges but rather, on visiting TYPES of colleges (i.e., a liberal arts college, a public university, a private university) this early on. </p>
<p>I'd particularly avoid visiting the most selective schools at this point until you have a clear picture from the junior PSATs of how competitive your child might be --- it's hard to pick safe bet and match schools if your child is already in love with the idea of Harvard, Yale and Stanford. :)</p>
<p>One downside of starting early: even if your child likes a school, memory can be hazy after two years. A school we visited just before junior year because we were "going to be in the area anyhow" and we wanted to start getting ideas, did end up on my daughter's final list. She applied there, and was accepted with merit money. However, it never stood a chance next to the schools she'd visited closer to senior year --- they were the ones that stood out most in her mind as her "top choices."</p>
<p>Another downside: some schools won't do interviews with juniors, and, even at schools that do, your child may not be ready to do a good interview, and discuss his or her reasons for wanting to go to a particular college. Which means it is inevitable that you'll either have to re-visit some schools in the fall of senior year, or at least try to arrange phone interviews or interviews with traveling admissions reps.</p>
<p>Finally, there is a certain amount of burn out that occurs from too many college visits over too long a period of time. My daughter has told me that it seems like all we did for two years was talk about and visit colleges, and by the time she received her EA and rolling admissions decisions in December, she was ready to get things over with. I am taking a page from her, and will probably not have my rising junior son start doing formal college visits until next winter, although we might do a few "drive bys" over the fall, just not the formal tours.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the plus side of visiting throughout junior year was she was ready to send out early applications in the fall of her senior year, and she was pretty much done with the process by December. However, I think she probably could have been at the same point if we'd waited until the winter or spring of junior year as there were a lot of colleges thrown into the mix that we probably didn't need to visit. :)</p>
<p>I agree about not stretching the process out too long. After a while they don't want to talk about college anymore, as it seems like all we are doing is talking about them leaving home when they should be enjoying their last years of high school.</p>
<p>We visited colleges with both kiddos before junior year and that was a good thing. We found out about some requirements for admission that we might not have known about had we only read the websites. Both of my kiddos wanted to go college visiting. We did this visit in conjunction with a family vacation, and tried to keep it low key. But we did look at a variety of schools so that the kiddos would have a sense of what they might like...large schools, small schools, private schools, public schools, urban, suburban, small town.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great advice! My daughter is actually the one who is asking to start looking at colleges this summer before her junior year. She won't be looking at ivy type colleges. In 9th grade she had a 28 ACT and 10th grade PSAT was 196. She will eventually take both of those again. She has a 3.9+ unweighted GPA. She would like to be a pharmacist. Any recommendations of schools that might be good to start with? We will make any visits low key this summer. Thanks!</p>
<p>For pharmacy, look at U of Rhode Island. They have a relationship with the CEO or founder of one of the major chains (I think it's Rite Aid) and their program is very good and has a 100% job placement rate. Duquesne also has a good pharmacy school...I think. Where in the country do you want to be? That makes a difference?</p>
<p>I think it make sense to start visit as early as possible. It's a drag to realize the summer before your senior year you are not going to make the cut because you didn't take a challenging enough schedule, don't have the right mix of classes, or insuffucient GPA. A visit or two (I agree not to over-do) early in the high school career is a lot more meaningful than droning parents or distracted counselors in terms of motivation. More mature kids might be able to figure this all out from a college website, but others really benefit from the reality check of a real world visit.</p>
<p>We had an awful time fitting in college visits with a sports schedule that included HS soccer and lacrosse and travel soccer all year round, including many summer weekends. We wish we had started earlier; our first visits were spring break junior year.</p>
<p>Visiting in the summer is a good idea. We were like jrzzmom with all the sports and other activities. Most will say that you should go when classes are in session and in a perfect world that would be great but sometimes you just have to squeeze those visits in whenever you can. Don't make every single school break a college visit opportunity. We live in NVA and have a day off every four years for the inauguration. I thought it would be great to drive down south for two college visits except I didn't count on an ice storm. We had to turn around and come back less than halfway there. Before we left home D said "I don't want to go to college, I just want to play in the snow." After that I tried to schedule the visits so she was still getting some time off from school to relax.</p>
<p>Stormy, </p>
<p>I think you are wise to follow your D's lead and level of interest. S2 was actively opposed to visiting colleges at the halfway point through HS. He was having a grand time, and wanted no reminders that the party would ever end. </p>
<p>Fortunately, he attended a prep school where his curriculum pretty much took care of itself. By the end of his junior year, he had met with the GC, and was ready to start the search for himself. </p>
<p>Call me a ****-eyed-optimist, but I believe most kids will end up at the college where they belong. I hope those students like your daughter who are engaged in the process will be rewarded at admissions time; they deserve it. I know S is happy with his destination for fall 2006, even though he got a later start. </p>
<p>Wish I could offer some pharmacy school suggestions, but I know nothing about any programs anywhere. Good luck!</p>
<p>LOL. Didn't even realize I was typing something that could be interpreted as an obscenity. Whoops.</p>