<p>It seems to me that the best way to get a true picture of a college is to visit while it is in session, and on a school day other than Friday.</p>
<p>Has anyone had their kid miss school so that you could visit colleges?</p>
<p>Was it worthwhile, or do you recommend against it?</p>
<p>Yes, agreed that it's most useful to visit a college in-session if you can, although if that's not possible you'll still get some idea of the place whenever you visit.</p>
<p>We were lucky in that our high school's Feb. and Apr. break weeks generally did not overlap winter or spring break weeks for colleges, so we scheduled our main visit trips during those two breaks during their junior years. We were able to visit colleges in-session, and also get a look at them during some of their traditionally worst weather. (Helps inform the actual decision-making. :) )</p>
<p>For re-visits, we did allow them to take a day off school here or there; their HS explicitly allows a small number of missed days for college visitations, assuming they'll make up any work they missed, of course, and requiring them to bring a note from the admissions office of the college documenting their visit. (Many colleges offered this without our even asking for it.) Our biggest problem was that most of the colleges were on the opposite coast, so any visit had to include 2 travel days, too. We tried to bunch them whenever possible.</p>
<p>Is your student one who'll be comfortable picking up the work they missed? What is your HS's policy on days missed for college visits? If you're not sure, you might check, there might be a policy allowing a certain number without penalty. (There was a thread about this last fall, I think, with some schools encouraging it and others forbidding it.)</p>
<p>I'd kind of like to take a short trip in the fall.</p>
<p>The places we want to visit will be much more expensive to visit in February and April, since they are in the warmer climes.</p>
<p>Also, if she loves them, it should give her incentive to work hard for the full year.</p>
<p>And if she hates them, we'll be back at square one with plenty of time to look at something completely different in February and April.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure excused absences won't be an issue with her high school, although I'll confirm that.</p>
<p>Our D missed one day of school to visit one college. She refused to miss anymore time so our visits were on days she had off, during her jr spring break when the colleges were in session, and over the summer.</p>
<p>Yes, my S's HS allows 3 days of absences for college visits. I think that's a good policy, because seeing a school in action is really the best way to judge it. He used all of his 3 days up visiting Tulane, GWU and SUNY Geneseo, and those 3 schools ended up being his top picks.</p>
<p>No, I never did it, and I don't think my daughter would ever have considered it. She was concerned enough about missing school for certain musical events and does not take absences lightly.</p>
<p>My son is about to miss three. He's doing fine in all his courses and has plenty of time for AP prep. When we did CA schools last spring break all the schools we visited were in session - we probably could have done the same this year, but it seemed worth it to wait for the official accepted student events.</p>
<p>DD missed three days of school; 1 day Junior year and 2 days this year. Her school also has the "3 days" policy. We visited most schools in the summer or on days off from school and Saturdays. If there were any programs scheduled on a school day that she thought she absolutely had to attend, I let her go.</p>
<p>D's high school allows seniors 1 day for college visiting, which I think it ridiculous. I think 3 is a fair number.</p>
<p>Junior year my daughter toured around during spring break and missed no classes. </p>
<p>During the fall of senior year she explored a number of college campuses in a more in-depth way and attended a class or two at each one. A number of local high schools seem to allot a few excused absence days for college visits but my daughter's only allowed one so we had to lie and say that she had a cold on two occasions for her to visit schools. We felt that it was important to be there on a weekday and attend classes at each school where she was possibly going to apply early.</p>
<p>It was well worth it - her final two or three schools were all good choices but quite different academically and stylistically. She needed to spend as much time on campus as possible. Fortunately they were all in the Northeast (and on Amtrak). It WAS difficult to work it out around her school work load and activities.</p>
<p>My d's high school allows seniors 3 days to visit colleges; it does not allow any for juniors. She didn't miss any classes junior year for visits; we visited President's Day and Feb. break, and then April break; the breaks occurred while colleges were in session. Now that she's visiting the schools she's been accepted to, she's missed 2 days for one, and the others she's seeing during April break next week. Again, the schools are in session (and these overnights are in conjunction with Admitted Students days).</p>
<p>We used Spring breaks, missed no days of school. Of course, spreading 'em out over 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades helped.</p>
<p>Our school has cracked down a lot and 3 days for seniors is the rule. We just took d2 over spring break - 6 schools in 6 days in 3 states. I was exhausted!</p>
<p>no-worked out fine</p>
<p>We used Feb and Apr breaks junior year and did the rest in the summer. The summer visits are not ideal, but they gave S enough info to finalize a list. Fall he's always too busy with his musical. We're taking him out all of next week (but there are 2 half days so it really= 3 days off) for re-visits and the week after that is sch vac so we'll finish up the re-visits then. It may sound excessive, but since we were able to do it without hardship, we decided to give him his best look at each, especially through the eyes of an accepted student.</p>
<p>Yes, my D missed several days of school for college visits. Her school allows 2 days for seniors, but we didn't worry. They don't have any rules about how many total days can be missed in a semester, and she kept up with her work. We did try to fit in visits during vacations, but it's not always possible. Because college is the logical "reason" for all she has done in high school, we felt that missing school when necessary was okay.</p>
<p>DD1 missed a couple but hated being taken out of school (she'd rather not have to make up work). It was worth it in the long run. She is now at Denison on an accepted student visit to see how she likes it. I think she realizes being there while school is in session and talking to the students is invaluable.</p>
<p>Took my s out for three days to visit the Va schools in the middle of the week.</p>
<p>No, my daughter is did not take any days off from school - she did not want to. She has not missed any days in high school, so she does not want to start now.</p>
<p>D's hs had an ironclad rule against taking time off to visit colleges. Since it was a RULE of course we wouldn't consider having her out of school for that purpose {wink, wink, nod, nod}. For D it was the only way to get those cross country visits in. And yes, it made a big difference having kids in session on visit days.</p>