<p>I think it’s fine to look at colleges in the freshman year. I’m not sure it’s necessary to do the formal tour. It’s nice to expose them to small, large, state flagships, national privates etc. They really won’t know the scores of their standardized test until their junior year so we’ve not pushed the idea of liking or disliking a specific university until we had a better idea of what their qualifications will be. Our oldest D knew what she wanted to study since 8th grade. So when we looked we always made sure that any school had that program. Visiting schools she determined that she wanted to stay within a certain number of driving hours from home but she didn’t want to be too close so she created her “donut”. D2 (rising junior this summer) is less clear about what she wishes to study. We will do our informal tours this summer and formal tours over her junior year. </p>