Daughter's visit strategy as decisions come in?

My daughter’s decision come in at various time between now and May:

Visited Decision Date School
YES 12/21/22 Case Western Reserve University
12/31/2022 Santa Clara University
YES 1/15/2023 Binghamton University—​SUNY
1/31/2023 Georgia Institute of Technology
YES 1/31/2023 University of Miami
2/1/23 Northeastern University
3/31/2023 University of California—​Los Angeles
3/31/2023 Boston University
4/1/23 Carnegie Mellon University
4/1/23 California State Polytechnic University—​San Luis Obispo
4/1/23 San Diego State University
YES rolling University of Pittsburgh
rolling University of Alabama
YES rolling SUNY New Paltz
rolling University of Arizona

She has only visited a handful- which was intentional. She doesn’t want to waste precious time visiting a place she has a low probability of getting into (NEU, CMU and GTech for example) before she knows.

Given that she won’t have availability starting mid-March due to sports, does anyone have a recommended strategy here? I am guessing that visiting during the Christmas break would be a waste of time given that schools will be shut down (maybe I am wrong??). Winter recess week of 2/20 is best block of time she will have - but still won’t know about so many at that point.

I am under no illusion she will be able to get to them all. Sacrifices will have to be made. Her list is long- not looking for a critique there. Many of these were to preserve the option of considering IF she got in, AND merit was sufficient. Unfortunately, applying is the only way to really get a solid answer on $.

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Does she have any sense of her interest level of the schools she’s been accepted to? So for example- if Pitt was at the top of the heap of her list with no visit, and New Paltz was her rock hard safety… I think she could plan a visit to Pitt (even over winter break- if she’s never been to Pittsburgh it’s worth kicking the tires on the campus) and dump New Paltz.

Etc. Ditto for Case and Cleveland.

And I’d ask her to rethink her sports commitment— missing a game and two practices in order to suss out where she’s going to be happy for four years- seems like an appropriate trade-off, no???

And congrats to her for great results so far!!!

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I suspect she could rank order them in terms of preference- but it could be moot if she isn’t admitted or cost after aid is a no go.

I have been unsuccessful in having her prioritize this process over the commitment to her team.

If your daughter is committed to not missing sport during her college admission season, she may end up having to make some decisions about college without visiting. That was the norm for a long time, and she seems to have been very thoughtful regarding her list so I am sure she will be able to make an informed decision without visiting all the schools.

I think visits over Christmas break and February break can be a good idea if the weather/location will have a big impact on her decision. If she needs to visit a school to make a decision and her sport prevents it until late in the process - that will be a good opportunity for her to make a grown up decision on her own about whether the sport commitment or seeing the school is more important. Good info to be gained from that decision making.

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If I’m reading this right, you’ve already visited Pitt. It’s too bad you didn’t see CMU at the same time since the campuses are adjacent. At least you have a feel for the area the school is in.

It seems you have lots of CA schools. I assume you are in NY due to the SUNYs. At this point I wouldn’t hop on an airplane to visit. If it were me I would plan to take a couple days to go to Boston to hit Northeastern and BU. That shouldn’t be too hard to do. Is she gets into some of the rolling schools with good merit maybe you could do a weekend to see one or both. Unfortunately with so many late decisions and an inability to travel in the spring you have a dilemma and may have to pick a school you haven’t seen.

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That is an excellent point!

And you are absolutely correct- attending without visiting used to be the norm.

Yes- NY. So we do think squeezing in a Boston trip won’t be an issue.

I think there are some schools on the list which a kid from NY needs to see before committing- I’d put Alabama on the list to start. If your D has been to California before-- even just for a three day vacation- I think seeing San Diego State could be one of the schools to skip (if she gets in, if the money is right). I just don’t know any kid who dislikes San Diego, even if the architecture, the layout of the library, location of the dorms, etc. isn’t 100% to your D’s preferences.

Which colleges has she seen so far??

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I indicated where she had already visited in that first column.

Agreed on CA.

I’m confused why “cost after aid” would be likely to make CA public schools a last minute no-go. The cost is what it is (expensive OOS). So some of these comparisons, especially for the safeties/rolling admits, must be easy: for example Arizona is presumably much cheaper than SDSU. And unless your aid expectations elsewhere are pretty minimal aren’t you only really going to be considering UCLA in the unlikely event that she gets in there but none of the other (more likely) reaches work out?

I would think about a winter visit to Arizona if it’s a plausible alternate safety, since you should know very soon about admission and the merit is basically fixed. That would at least bring into focus the question of whether she’s prepared to go 2000 miles away.

Agreed. Santa Clara should be the only CA school where merit aid could be much different than expected. Also that 12/31 date for Santa Clara is likely to be earlier. My D also applied EA and past history is that they usually send out decisions closer to 12/15 (may not know about merit aid that early though).

The comparison of admission vs merit applies to more than just CA schools- but really only SCU as you point out. The public CA schools are a known $ already.

I see family vacation Christmas week in California and February-break in Boston ( if she gets into NE). The rest you can manage if she gets in… or you go to California February break. There are a lot of California schools on her list - if she made the effort to apply - I recommend you take time to visit. It will be fun family memories too.

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I struggle to believe CPSLO will work coming from NY, for the same reason remote upstate NY colleges would be hard in the other direction from CA. It’s a long way from anywhere without much in the way of decent flights and one train a day to Burbank or San Jose.

Maybe once you know about Santa Clara you could do a combined Bay Area and Tucson trip in Jan/Feb if they are under serious consideration. But I don’t see much point in visiting SLO/LA/San Diego.

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You don’t need to use up Feb break for Boston- you can leave home after school on Friday, see both BU and Northeastern on Sat, be home by dinner Sat. night. Or do Sunday/Monday (miss one day of school-- or plan around MLK day?). I think the hyper urban schools (and Northeastern and BU definitely qualify) are less about seeing students in their natural habitat (most campuses are quiet on a Saturday morning no matter what time of year) but for your D to determine if she’s OK with a campus that has a busy thoroughfare running through it, where she’ll be taking public transportation frequently, and where the green spaces will be pocket parks (or a city public park- Boston Public Garden for example) and not a traditional college green with Georgian buildings surrounding it.

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I think you are probably right about CPSLO- it is a tough spot to travel to from the East coast

Do schools do tours during the Christmas break?

Comparing SDSU to UoA specifically- UoA is significantly less expensive for sure. It is however a tougher trip home. And SD might have certain other advantages over Tucson that could (and might not) justify the cost difference.

Most schools I’m familiar with do not do tours during the xmas break.

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School dependent…but most don’t. Remember, the tour guides are students…and they go home for the Christmas holiday.

My kid was a tour guide at Santa Clara. No tours during finals week in December, and none the first week of classes either. So…there is a break unless things have changed.

Here is what I would do. I would do anything you can drive locally to at your convenience. Then I would wait. Have your kid do all of the virtual tours and any other things the colleges offer virtually. Then once all the acceptances are close to being in…choose where you want to visit.

Re: CA. We did seven colleges in 9 days while staying with relatives in Sand Diego. The only outlier was Santa Clara. Kid and husband took a shuttle for a day trip to the San Jose Airport from SD. Easy peasy. We did our CA college tours in February.

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