<p>Just showed up for the first time on move in day?</p>
<p>I want to get in to the best school that accepts me, and my family can't afford to travel to the ~7 of the schools I'm looking at all along the east coast. Would you recommend just taking the most prestigious offering and showing up?</p>
<p>I’d wait to see where you’re admitted and make the decisions then. It may be affordable to visit your one or two top schools. Some schools also have money available for admitted students to travel to their revisit days.</p>
<p>In any case I wouldn’t make the decision purely on the basis of prestige. There’s a ton of information about schools on line. Spend some time digging and you’ll start to see the differences between schools.</p>
<p>I’m sure out of the millions of people that attend college, that it’s been done. It probably has a higher dissatisfaction rate than being able to visit, but people who visit wind up hating their choice as well.</p>
<p>Waiting to see where you get in is always the best option if limited in terms of finances. Try to visit your top few acceptances, and if you’re getting FA offers from any of them, see if they can help pay for your visit. </p>
<p>Where have you been admitted so far?
One key factor is going to be cost (unless your parents have about 200k in a college fund somewhere).
You’ll join the Class of 2018 facebook page, you’ll read forums such as this one (in particular, college-specific forums), you’ll take the virtual tour, you’ll read over what Fiske + Insider’s Guide + Princeton review all have to say about your possible choices, you’ll email admissions to ask to be in touch with current students… You’ll have a better idea than was possible just 15 years ago.</p>
<p>My daughter did show up at her school on the opposite coast without a visit. We were only able to visit one top choice college, except for instate one, and that’s where she was pretty sure she would go if accepted, but she changed her mind (not based on the visit, the visit was great.) She was happy there and felt it was the best choice in the end, after she graduated. But she is a pretty flexible person.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend just picking the most prestigious one, (however you decide that.) When you find out where you get in, try to look more deeply at what it is really like to be a student there. That may be looking at graduation requirements, resources, culture to see what suits your personality and the type of place that you might be most successful at as a student. Are you sure you can’t visit the top 2 or 3 after you get in?</p>
<p>Me, my wife, our kids never visited our colleges beforehand. Everything turned out fine.</p>
<p>My friend took the top one he got into (Cornell) and never visited beforehand. But his priority was prestige of the school, so it all depends on your priorities! In my opinion, I think it’s important to visit to determine the fit. You’re going to be there for the next four years after all</p>
<p>Lots and lots of international students never see their college/university until they set foot on campus. A fair number of US applicants don’t have a chance to visit before they start classes either. This really is not that unusual. </p>
<p>Apply. Find out where you are admitted. Find out if any of those options are affordable. If you have time then, pay a visit. If you can’t visit, but you like what you see on the web and/or what you hear from other people, it truly is OK to just go.</p>
<p>There are probably many students who never set foot on the grounds of their local community college before they arrive for registration or first day of class there.</p>
<p>Yep. Years ago, parents told me where I was going and I showed up on first day with nothing more than a picture from a brochure. Parents were paying and it all worked out fine. I am as concerned, involved or obsessed with this as many on this forum now, but I allow for the fact that we might possibly be making a bit too much out of all the nuances!</p>