<p>Do most people wait to do a campus visit after their child has been admitted (if they are not auditioning on campus?) We can afford to make multiple trips and this looks like our only option...</p>
<p>Applying without seeing the campus may happen due to certain circumstances (doing unifieds, applying to umpteen million schools) but it is not ideal at all. How can you tell if the school is a fit without seeing it - seeing productions in the theatre department - hearing faculty members speak - etc?</p>
<p>Try to bring your daughter to as many schools as possible, but if you need to save a few to see at the time of auditions only, they should be way down on her list.</p>
<p>Can we not do those things after she is admitted? (assuming she is admitted somewhere) :)</p>
<p>You can definitely visit campuses after being admitted, but be aware that some are very late to decide (like if you’re in the third or fourth wave at Syracuse), and you may not have much time before the May 1 decision date. For instance, we drove to Chicago to see CCPA and Columbia in late April, and made our deposit for CCPA during the trip. I wouldn’t have wanted to pay airfare, though, for something that last minute.</p>
<p>Ok dumb question…Does each school have a different date that you must accept by? When is that usually? May 1st? We have visited all the West Coast Schools (since we live here) and may need to figure out a way to get to the East coast before Unifieds. Thanks for the advice</p>
<p>Most times you do not find out until very late March thru early April were you got in. There may not be enough time to get to all of the campuses, depending on how busy your April is. Also your acceptances might be spread out all over and it might not be possible to combine any. Ii found too that with spring break/Easter it was hard to get flight reservations when I needed them.</p>
<p>My D started tech week for a show the beginning of April and had performances the last couple weeks of April so we had very limited days. Even with Easter break in there we only could swing 2 visits in that week. You have to be mindful of April commitments at school, also tests and school work that will need to be made up right before graduation.</p>
<p>Biouu-some will try to get you to commit earlier but most honor the May 1st date. They may have you commit earlier for scholarship reasons, I did find they by calling and explaining that I was coming out to visit and could not make a decision before they extended the deadline to May 1st.</p>
<p>Do most college stay open during Thanksgiving week?</p>
<p>No bisouu - all the ones I have seen take a 4 to 5 day break. Classes end Tuesday or Wednesday</p>
<p>Re: visiting in the spring, I talked to a number of families last spring who STILL didn’t want to visit because they hadn’t received financial aid offers yet…At some point, you either commit to a school you’ve never visited, or you suck it up and make the trip. A rushed marathon of tours ad admissions events at the last minute is not conducive to helping teenagers make important decisions. It’s not always easy to see schools in person, but it’s worth it whenever you can swing it.</p>
<p>My son did not want to fall in love with a school and then not get in, so he refused to go on visits. But he was not particular about anything but the training. Most do visits. You will probably have some on-campus auditions in any case.</p>
<p>What schools are you thinking you need to visit? We can give you our opinions if we have visited and that may help you decide if you need to visit or not. There are some schools that are fairly straightforward and others that you may need to experience to know if you like/dislike.</p>
<p>Dramamom you are awesome! Thanks!
Hartt
Emerson
Fordham
Suny Purchase
NYU (she will go if she gets in without seeing it 
BU
Montclair
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>I found doing the auditions on site for my daughter was the best thing for her. She got a better feel for the faculty and students and then when the acceptances came she spent a couple of days at the schools that she knew were her top choices. Some schools have callbacks at the school for a whole weekend. With those schools you could wait to see if called back. NYU doesn’t let you know until April 1st and then not until a week or two later as to what studio you are in. May 1 is the US deadline. If applying in London callbacks aren’t until the end of May beginning of June. I would wait until an offer or acceptance to visit if overseas is an option. They don’t have a deadline to accept until July 1.</p>
<p>bisouu, this won’t help you now, but might help some parents of current Juniors. We were encouraged to start visits during Winter & Spring Break of junior year. She visited “local” options last winter, several schools out West last March, and we visited several Midwest schools this summer. I’m glad we got a head start, because she still has one or two East Coast trips to try to get in before the end of spring break this year, plus a trip to Chicago Unifieds. It will be a real challenge to fit it all in with her busy senior-year schedule. I expect there will still be several schools that she won’t be able to visit prior to admissions decisions.</p>
<p>Given that list, I think I’d wait, bisouu (you’re on the West Coast, right?). They’re all great schools and your D would probably happily overlook the flaws for the sake of the training. And they’re close enough that you should be able to visit several in April.</p>
<p>Bisouu I sent you a PM</p>
<p>We did not visit any program unless my son did an on site audition. It was just not logistically possible. Then we ran into the issue that when the acceptances came, he was in a show and could not visit. However, like Prodesse’s son, he was all about the program, not the campus.</p>
<p>But the campus can make or break it for some kids - not sure about bisouu’s kid. And not just the campus, but the type of student that goes there, the community surrounding the campus, etc. etc.</p>
<p>If you have the chance, visit. If you can’t make that commitment due to scheduling or finances (that would have been difficult for us), then I guess the original question is mute.</p>
<p>We visited some in advance and did a fair number of the auditions on site. We live on the East Coast so that made easier than it might be for others. However, we didn’t visit all the schools in advance. In fact, one of the schools we did not visit in advance or audition at on campus – UNCSA – is the school my daughter is going to. She did go and sit in on classes after receiving an acceptance to make sure it was a fit for her. </p>
<p>I am aware of one extremely talented male student who got into so many programs he had not visited in advance that it got to be completely overwhelming to figure out how to visit and decide among all his choices. However, that is a very unusual situation. Having just a few choices is a very successful audition result and visits can normally be fit in post acceptance if necessary.</p>