<p>Well… I’d probably tell my kid if they expected me to pay for college, they damned well better get out of the car and look at this one. Now, we never went on a visit that we hadn’t at least discussed ahead of time. But a “I don’t like the look of it from the car window” reaction just wouldn’t have been acceptable. I do remember one visit we left partway through the tour (but D1 had already sat in on a class before the tour). It was really clear the fit was not there, so we ditched and left campus. I might have used my mom’s line in that situation, too – “You can’t tell how it looks on the hanger, you have to try it on!” My kids have heard that before, and know what it means…</p>
<p>I agree with @intparent about the get out of the car issue. My D1 did tour a school in which we got through 3 hours of the tour before she said “I will never go to this school. Can we leave now?” rigjht before the free lunch(!). We left. And it was one of D2’s top schools for her apps. </p>
<p>@Erin’s Dad, that is exactly why it is important to visit! Good thing she found out before deciding on it (or EDing!).</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad, I would definitely NOT miss the free lunch, the kid has to wait. :D.</p>
<p>intparent, I did not want to pull any nuclear option, if it was not important to her, it’s not important to me. Kids internalize these things and then formulate their opinion. But somehow they were unable to express it.</p>
<p>It is important to me if I drove/flew/took time off from work to take her to visit. Sorry, it sounds downright bratty to me. True illness would have been the only reason I would let my kid pull that kind of stunt.</p>
<p>We were on vacation, I didn’t want to ruin it. So I let it go.</p>