Hi all - I’m new here and I know there has been discussion about visiting potential schools (lots!) but it seems that many of those conversations are from at least a couple of years ago. I have a junior son in performing arts and we’ll be starting the trek round schools this year. Any advice as to when to go/when NOT to go (mostly visiting EC schools - we’re in Chicago so no stranger to snow but I’d hate for him to think all EC schools are tundra-like; what about the overnight visits which some schools still offer? I’m trying to work all this out around his own performance/rehearsal/academic schedule this year and any help is super-welcome. Thank you!!
ETA - very interested in Sarah Lawrence, which is how this question ended up here in this discussion!
There is such a huge selection of colleges that include performing arts on the east coast. So, the idea of starting your visits during his Jr year is not a bad idea. First of all you get an idea of likes and dislikes pretty quickly. Location, types of students small campus or large. It gives you a chance to pace yourself! If you don’t see everything right away you still have time to schedule additional visits, and hopefully your next visit is a smaller list. SLC was top on my daughter’s list. They were very responsive during our visits. You are actually able to communicate with everyone from students up to admin and financial aid offices. You really need to be comfortable with the style of the school! It is not for everyone. It is truly designed more as an independent study program with very small classes. I would recommend having your son sit in on a class! My daugher loves it! It is taking a bit to get into the social scene but she loves the overall school - there is a Lot of work. It is a huge writing school. Regardless of your son’s selections the idea of spending the time looking is very important - so, visiting now would not be a waste of time. Hope this helps!
What’s an EC school – early childhood?
Early college?
East coast??
–The main thing for us was to visit schools when they were in session – we felt it gave us a much better sense of what the college was like. You can check the academic calendar of each college you want to visit online and plan your visits accordingly (as best you can).
–We never attempted to see more than two schools in a day.
–We didn’t worry about weather – we saw an upstate NY college in the snow – but figured that would be part of the landscape if S went there.
–Both kids did a couple of re-visits which included an overnight stay and/or shadowing a student for a day when it came time to make a decision – but those visits ate up a lot of time so we only did those at a couple of colleges that were top choices at the end of the process. On the first visit we mainly did tour/information sessions or an Open House). BUT if you have to fly to visit a college you may do things differently including seeing if you can arrange an interview (at schools where they are offered) while you are there.
Will he be auditioning for BFAs? Or just looking for BA programs without audition? Auditioning throws a big curveball and changes the whole thing.
I think EC is east coast?
One piece of advice would be to visit colleges when they are in session. The good news for D20 is when she has her spring break (2019) most of her target colleges are in session. For us it will be a trip to the SF bay area colleges. The local colleges (SoCal) we will visit during one day trips as they are all within 1 - 2 hours drive. Not sure when we will visit any OOS colleges? Maybe during summer or a long weekend?
Another piece of advice is to make absolutely sure to visit colleges where “demonstrated interest” is important or very important to gaining admission.
You can make each visit quick the first time and then go back to the ones that you’re interested in later. Like, there’s no need to do the tour each time. You can just sign in at the admin office and walk around a little bit before moving on. That’s one approach. Worked for us one weekend – we visited seven colleges, basically drove in, signed in, walked for 10 minutes on the campus. Believe it or not, it was a great way for the student to realize what different colleges felt like. One child saw frats for the first time – boys in identical shirts tumbling through the window of a house on a sunny Saturday afternoon. That child said: I don’t want to go to any school like this!
Thank goodness we didn’t waste 2 hours on a tour.
As @happy1 said, you can save your in-depth visits for your top choices.
It’s great to start your visits early, because applying for performing arts is pretty time intensive and often has to be done EA. Which means fall of senior year is very tough time-wise, and summer visits have their own flavor.
Like 4gsmom said, auditioning will affect this plan. We saved our far away visits for when we would be in the area for auditioning anyway, and many schools have visit programs during their audition days (some though, do not, so check this out).
I personally think overnight visits are best for when you are trying to make a final choice and need more info; that’s pretty time intensive especially for junior year with someone who sounds like he has a full schedule.
We liked going during Junior year spring break but only to schools that were in session.
When my daughters were in the college search (one graduated from high school in 2009, the other in 2011), none of the colleges pushed or even permitted overnight visits, that is, residence hall stays, for high school juniors.
We’re working visits around the intersection of school calendars (kid not in school, visited school holding classes). Our kid sees classroom visits as the most important aspect of a visit; they give you a feel both for the student body and for the academics. Tours and info sessions are kind of all the same to her.
Because we live in an area with a low density of colleges (and an even lower density of somewhat selective colleges), and because our kid had a well-defined list of requests, we started from a heavily parent-curated list. These are the schools that are affordable, are in a reasonable academic range, and meet the criteria you’ve provided. So far so good in avoiding the “kid refuses to get out of the car,” problem, or the “crossed off the list in ten minutes” problem.
In-depth visits are pretty exhausting. We’re currently visiting an area with multiple colleges, spending three days and three nights.
Day 0: fly out after school dismisses, arrive at hotel well after midnight
Day 1, College 1: leave hotel, drive to campus, drop kid at admissions. Kid does general tour, parents do own thing. Meet back up for info session. Kid departs for lunch with student. Parents do specialized tour and lunch on their own. Kid attends class. Kid has interview with current student. Dinner together, drive to hotel.
Day 2, College 2: Sleep late. Kid does tour and info session at school 2, then hangs out / wanders campus. Parents do own thing.
Day 3, College 2: Wake up early. Kid sits in on four (!) classes while parents tour campus, meeting for lunch in the middle. Drive to airport immediately after last class, fly back, arrive home well after midnight.
I anticipate that our kid will do overnights as a senior as a second look - or a first look if she grows into an entirely different kid in the next year - but it’s also been our experience that overnights generally aren’t available to juniors.