<p>Summer college visit are notably easier to arrange than those during the academic year, and many families build them into vacation travel.</p>
<p>However convenient they may be, I think summer visits are darn near worthless. To me, visiting a college when it is not in session is like looking at an empty sports stadium, or looking at a band's instruments on stage and trying to imagine what a game or a performance might be like. College is about the people and the social & intellectual environment they create. Without those people--and the "buzz"--can you possibly understand what the college experience is like? I increasingly think that a summer visit may be just as likely to give an inaccurate perspective on campus life than give an accurate one.</p>
<p>With that as a fairly provocative/devil's advocate prompt, I would be interested in people's ideas about how to get the most out of summer (e.g., classes not in session) college visits.</p>