I will be graduating in 2016 and am concerned that I haven’t decided what college I would like to attend. I have an idea and am wondering if I should just submit my applications to my top 5 and then visit to see if it’s a good fit. Does that make sense? Has anyone done that?
Personally, I would recommend visiting before you apply as a general rule. But that’s not always possible. My kids applied to a couple colleges that they left for visiting only if they were accepted and if that college was still “in the running”. But most of the colleges they applied to they had visited.
Depends, I would visit if you can first. We did wait to visit a few privates until after daughter had gotten in, didn’t want her to fall in love if the money wasn’t there.
Generally better to visit at least some of the campuses you think you are interested in. You might be the kind of person that can pretty much adapt to any environment and are not “picky” about the fit of the college - otherwise I think you risk limiting your choices unnecessarily. For example, my son always thought of himself as a big school kid. But we made sure he went to visit a smaller school and a large state university when he first started looking. He is glad we did that because he immediately understood the pros/cons and is now going into his search with a much more open mind about what he wants and needs. My daughter is heading to a college that originally she wasn’t going to even put on her list - and she completely changed her mind when she visited and it ended up being her early decision choice. I suspect the visits will help you refine your list.
Some small colleges factor in “demonstrated interest” in accepting applications. So, I’d try and visit any small private colleges before applying. Otherwise, my research has indicated that bigger public schools don’t really care or keep track of a student’s interest.
I second what Poohbah29 said though - even a visit in summer will give you a better idea of where you will be for the next four years.
Most students don’t visit colleges until after they apply. While visits can be helpful, they are obviously not possible for many students, particularly those applying to colleges more than 2 hours away.
Interest can be demonstrated through a variety of channels. Here are some suggestions:
-Apply early
-Write a non generic essay describing why school x is a good fit. For example, let’s say you wanted to be a psych major at Occidental. Rather than simply talking about how you would benefit from the small classes and LA location, a student could discuss how he plans on taking advantage of the programs in urban development to produce a thesis on how neighborhoods in LA affect mental health. This can be easily found online and shows that the student has done research.
-Request mailings from the school
-Find the school online. This could mean watching Youtube videos, reading Facebook posts, Instagram, simply going on the website, etc.
-Go to a college fair where the institution is present
-Actually log into the online portals if any have been set up
Here’s what I see as the problem with the OP’sapproach:
Right now you have almost 2 months off.
Once applications go in, you’re in the midst of the school year: extra curricular, tests, exams, schoolwork; it’s incredibly hectic compared to the ease of these summer days.
And it you choose to wait until acceptances come out, you’re giving yourself a pretty tight window of time to visit those 5 schools. What if you come down with the flu? Or the car dies? Or your ___ teacher turns out to be totally unreasonable and you find yourself swamped with schoolwork during that window of time? Or the weather-- either in your home region or where you’re looking-- gets so nasty that travel is difficult? (Think Buffalo before Christmas of last year, and Boston on and off all winter.)
It just seems so much simpler to see schools now.
We saw 4 during the past school year. As soon as my son’s work schedule for next week comes out, we’re making plans to see one next week, then hopefully 2 the following week, with 2 more for later in the summer.
Yes, that is how we did it with my first college kid. We visited the large state university, a very small private college, a and a strong medium sized university that were nearby to get an idea of what these types of schools were like in general, and then built a list of schools based upon those experiences. My son did arrange for interviews with all the schools he was planning on applying to. Those were mainly completed in local coffee shops in our area and were with alumni or admissions reps from the schools. I think these interviews served effectively as good ways to show interest and going through multiple interviews was a good experience overall.
Once the admissions results were in, and some of the decisions arrived ahead of when we had expected, so it did not end up that they were all bunched up at the end of the cycle, he visited the schools he was most keen on attending. So that strategy did work just fine in our situation.
While its good to see schools before you apply its not always possible. We did a tour in April and hit several on her list (also crossed a couple off as a result of the visits).
As for the summer, yes most kids have the summer off, but most parents are working. We will see two schools during our summer vacation - one that she is very interested in, another because it is close to the first school and she would qualify for merit so we, the parents, are insisting on the visit. Another school is about three hours away from where we live, but I can’t take more time off this summer and I am not about to send my 17 yo D who is still a relatively new driver (can’t drive yet with friends in the car) off to visit a school three hours away by herself. So we are visiting that one in Sept. She will have to take day off school.
She also just added a very distant one to her list. That one will only get visited if it is a strong contender when decision time comes around. Finally, there is the one I am kicking myself about. We were in the city where the school is located in April, but she had taken the school off her list at that point, and we were both tired, and I had blisters on my feet, so we decided to skip it. Now its back on the list. I would like do-over on that day. Oh well.
So we have a mix of visit or not. I expect we will be doing visits again after acceptances come in.
I think most people probably have a mix of schools they’ve visited with those they haven’t. And that makes perfect sense, for the reasons you’ve given.
But I would still attempt to see at least a school or two during summer, to pull the pressure off those days between acceptance and May 1.