<p>I was about to make a couple of calls to schedule college visits next month, and had a sudden attack of doubt--would it be noted as a negative that the parent rather than the kid is calling to arrange the visits? (I would have laughed at this question a couple of months ago, but my time here has convinced me that there is no limit to the things one should worry about when it comes to admissions.)</p>
<p>Please tell me I'm making something out of nothing here.</p>
<p>In my view, lining up the information sessions and tours are secretarial in nature and are OK for a parent to do (one of the few aspects of the college process that I think a parent can do). In terms of campus visits, however, the student should be the one making contact with professors, current students, extracurricular activity groups, coaches and the like to set up meetings or observations and so forth.</p>
<p>Agree 100% with soozievt.</p>
<p>I agree with soozievt and woody. </p>
<p>Plus, I would like to add that I’d probably brain my kid if he booked a college visit without consulting me or my calendar. With all the money at stake, I insist on attending the visits. So, when considering weekday work schedules and weekend family obligations, it’s just easier if I handle it myself.</p>
<p>I had that same thought about whether my kids should be setting up or if it was “OK” for me to set up. Finally decided years ago with the first, that because there are travel, hotels, taking time off from work and all that it was perfectly acceptable for a parent to “schedule” the visit and work out the timing details. By calling myself I was able to talk to the admissions office and also find out about hotel discounts in the area, etc. I did not find it “wierd” and I don’t think any of the admissions folks did either. Both my kids have done in-state visits they were “day trips” where they drove themselves, etc, and those visits they scheduled and I never really got involved and didn’t even go on the visits.</p>
<p>I also agree with soozievt etc.–nothing wrong with making the calls. You’ll learn to sense when you are overstepping your bounds during the app process, but neutrally/efficiently helping with college-visit arrangements is well within the parental role.</p>
<p>During the fall, my senior had virtually no free time during normal office hours. She couldnt have made any calls. I just started off with D is at practice, They understood. Some schools she arranged visits on line.</p>
<p>I tended to call, and said that my kid was at school until late (true) and has asked me to make the call. I did consider it secretarial.</p>
<p>That said, when my first was in the visiting stage, he started to treat the visits as something I was nagging him to do. I told him that he was welcome to work after high school (he knows that is what I did), but that if he had colleges he wanted to visit, he should let me know and I would check MY schedule.</p>
<p>I went out, and when I got back to our house, he had done some research and had a list of visits he wanted to do. I think that I made some calls to those schools and hotels, to facilitate the trip (he was in a play after school and not around much).</p>
<p>I gather that the original question is more about the colleges’ perceptions, but the other side of it is that I would not make a call to a school that my son or daughter had not expressed a desire to visit, and any calls I made were sort of favors while they were occupied during the day at school.</p>
<p>And all other contacts were between the applicant and school.</p>
<p>I erred on the side of caution and had ds make alll the arrangements. It’s a bit of a hassle adding another person to the communication mix (because I’d be doing the hotel arragements, etc), but I feel like it gave him a sense of ownership. After all, ,he’s the one going to college, not me.</p>
<p>FYI, several places have online visit forms, so they’d have no way to know who made the arrangements. :)</p>
<p>
Right, we’ve already done all of those. :-)</p>
<p>The reasons why I’d be doing the scheduling calls is similar to kayf’s–my son’s summer job starts at 8:45, and he has musical theater rehearsals in the evening, so he just doesn’t have any time (it’s kind of quaint, really, that they call it summer vacation…). My workday doesn’t start till 10, so I have a convenient little window in the morning to make the calls.</p>
<p>When D1 visited schools, she used to take a ballet class and tried to meet a professor or two. I made the travel arrangements and she scheduled tours and other appointments. We didn’t do it because it was right or wrong, it was just more convenient for us. </p>
<p>Until I came on CC, I never thought that much about what’s the right protocol for college visits, applications, or school contact. It’s not another set of test to determine if your kid is qualified to go to school. I say do what makes sense for you.</p>
<p>Since when do you have to make phone calls to schedule college visits?</p>
<p>Neither of my kids ever visited a college where you couldn’t make the reservation for the information session and tour online – if in fact you needed a reservation at all.</p>
<p>Of the 15 schools on our visit list, 3 require no reservations, 8 allow online reservations, and the remaining 4 require a phone call.</p>
<p>Simple rule with us…</p>
<p>Since I’m doing the driving and am responsible for on-time arrival at a campus I select the campus tours so they are logistically workable. After they are set, I let goaliegirl know what time slots are available for coach and other meetings. She arranges those. </p>
<p>My experience is that even with the online appointments, they often don’t tell you how much of the time is admissions spiel and how much is for actual tour and how long the whole affair lasts. So I’ve found that I’ve called on more tours than not to get information if not to actually make the reservation. Plus when you call, you can often get into a tour time that is already booked solid.</p>