<p>Before I start scheduling tours and inquiring about lessons at a multitude of schools across the country, is it safe to say that on average, most schools would not be conveniently "open" on the average holiday? And that teachers DO take time off during these "convenient" times? </p>
<p>I'm trying to plan out our next 6 months or so and wondered if it's even worth my time to try to schedule these visits over "holidays" like Columbus Day, day after Thanksgiving, MLK Day in January, etc. I'm trying to keep days off from school and from our jobs at a minimum.</p>
<p>Advice from those who've done this is appreciated. ~ Thanks.</p>
<p>All of the ones in the US should be off for Thanksgiving. Beyond that, you should really check individual web sites. Most are very good about having an academic calendar somewhere on the site. Many schools observe a founders day that varies from school to school, some (like Oberlin) have a winter term in the month of January where everyone is doing individual or group projects and many are not at school.</p>
<p>Our high school had a lot of holidays that the colleges did not (mainly Jewish holidays plus days off for the teacher's convention. We used those to good advantage.</p>
<p>Some schools schedule auditions early and others only a month or so ahead of time, so a 6-month plan is likely to need a lot of modifications.</p>
<p>I recommend doing a search on college websites for "academic calendar" or some variation of that. Most colleges have their schedules determined well in advance (my daughter's college posts a schedule through spring of 2009).</p>
<p>Of course check the websites, but we did do visits over Columbus Day and the Jewish Holidays during the fall term, all of these were subject to individual teacher's schedules.</p>
<p>Many schools are just coming back to school to begin classes on the day after MLK Day so that one is usually bad. Day after Thanksgiving is "right out" as every school I can think of is off.</p>
<p>Veterans Day is another holiday that you may have off, but the schools are more than likely to be in session.</p>
<p>If you get off for election day, that's a good visit day, too. (Here the schools are used for voting, so the kids are out. But the colleges are open.) Over winter break and Thanksgiving, you will have a hard time finding anybody around. D did visit several schools earlier in the week of Thanksgiving, with mixed results - tours were crowded as other people had the same idea. Some campuses were sparsely populated, as kids headed home ASAP. Denison had off the whole week, so tours were still given but campus was empty. The violin teacher, though, made a special trip in just for us. </p>
<p>In hindsight, I wish she could have visited with the campus in action. She really liked the violin teacher, but didn't have a real good feel for what the campus was like, and ultimately turned them down because she was afraid she didn't fit with the people there.</p>
<p>"Inquiring about lessons" can result in some additional concerns. Regardless of the school holidays, individual faculty members may not be available. Especially for music, many faculty members may belong to orchestras or other performance groups. You will need to make inquiries and travel plans well in advance. Trying to make visits during the high school holidays will rarely work.</p>
<p>This is proving to be difficult. When I mentioned we were trying to plan out 6 months or so, the disclaimer I should've added was, "tentatively" planning 3 - 6 months out. </p>
<p>I can see now that we will be at their mercy.</p>
<p>Rudysmom - we started all our conversations with, "We are going to be in the area on such and such a date - We would like to arrange a lesson; will the teacher be available?" If one school wasn't available then, we'd try another. Then we'd start over with the next possible date. We definitely made some compromises along the way. With each kid, there were some schools that we never visited, or didn't meet the teacher, or visited on a less than optimal day, etc.</p>
<p>It does vary. I know that Indiana U does not even take Labor Day off. They do take Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course, but son says the only other holiday they have is MLK Day.</p>
<p>The academic calendar will tell you when the school has classes, when dorms open and close, etc. It is likely that private lessons will only be available on days when school is in session. Re: tours and such...you need to check the website area that discusses "visits". There are many schools where there are no classes during spring break, but the college does have tours and info sessions (I know this because DD is a student ambassador who can work the week of spring break giving tours). Re: holidays...when we were visiting, we found that if the school was in session (for things like Veterans Day, Columbus Day), they were having tours, classes, and info sessions. If not, they weren't. No one had tours during the Thanksgiving weekend or during the winter break (dates varied). Also, as I recall, some schools did NOT have tours in the spring. Peabody, for example, only has organized tours in the fall. But they had a great self guided tour. And the private teacher was most willing to see DS. Also, keep in mind that in most cases, the spring break that your HS has will NOT be the same as the spring break that most colleges have (and college spring breaks vary quite a bit too).</p>
<p>We tried to plan visits 3-6 months in advance and found it difficult too, since most teachers wanted to be pinned down for an actual time closer to the date. It made making plane reservations, etc. rather dicey.</p>
<p>I think all the plans were firmed up a month in advance (although we had had an indication that the professors would at least be on campus), and I was actually shocked that every person S was supposed to see showed up, expecting him. I guess I expected somewhat more flakiness, so was pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>We still have one more trip to do, in October, and my son has already been in contact with the teacher about the date, but...per usual, no time has yet been selected!</p>
<p>Takes a bit of patience, but I do think it all works out, and the visits are definitely worth it!</p>
<p>We made the mistake of booking flights before we had nailed down teachers. He was not able to see the people he wanted. However, when we got in touch with teachers first, we were usually able to find a date that worked for both of us. There was one teacher that he was having a very had time hooking up with. However, the teacher was performing in a nearby city and agreed to meet with son there. We met in the hotel room, not an ideal situation but son got to meet the teacher, play for him, and get a feel for him.</p>