How did you decide which schools to visit and apply to?

<p>I have a list about 20 schools long (I know it's a lot). I plan on visiting schools this summer to finalize a list of where I want to apply this fall. I know that some of the schools on my list are better fits than others, but every time I try to eliminate one I end up finding some reason to talk myself out of it (they have a major I want or really nice dorms or a good marching band, for example). What were deciding factors or methods you used to narrow down your list?</p>

<p>You’ll know it when you see it. Many schools look good on paper, but when you hit the actual campus, you go from marketing materials to the real thing - and the real thing can’t be photoshopped. Sure, you’re still going to get a marketing pitch, but even that’s different from just reading about the schools.</p>

<p>My daughter had one school high on her list, but started backing off the minute we hit campus - it was rather ugly. Halfway through the orientation session, she leaned over to her mother and whispered “We don’t have to go on the tour. I am NEVER coming here.” Just to see if it was the admissions person that caused that reaction, we heard another presentation when the roadshow came to our town - same reaction.</p>

<p>And a word of advice - never do more than two schools in a day. The third school never looks good and it’s just exhausting. Everybody gets crabby and it makes for a really bad time.</p>

<p>The most obvious cuts you can make to your list:</p>

<ul>
<li>Schools which are too expensive in the net price calculator and do not have sufficiently large merit scholarships that you may get.</li>
<li>Schools which do not have sufficient offerings in the academic areas you are interested in (see catalogs and schedules).</li>
</ul>

<p>We planned our visits to encompass fun and engaging road-trips. My older son wanted theater schools in major cities, and that whittled the list down automatically. My younger one decided that he wanted to look outside the northeast, where he’d spent his entire life. We took one southern road-trip, and then did a California junket. We simply did not have the time or budget for a Pacific Northwest trip, although he applied to three colleges in that region. He flew out to see Willamette by himself for an accepted students’ day. I remain perplexed by some of the colleges my son liked and disliked. Even if you can’t see everything, you might get an idea of whether you like a region or a certain “flavor.” There are potential problems with applying to too many colleges. FAFSA only allows ten reports at a time. There are ways to juggle them. If you apply to some schools with rolling or early notifications, that accept you with a scholarship, or you have some state schools that you know will cost less than your family’s EFC, then you can leave them off the FAFSA list. If your family are game for these visits, I encourage you to make as many as possible. Sometimes, you can combine them with diversions for the rest. Urban campuses obviously have plenty for other family members to do, but other colleges might be near national parks, historic sites, recreation areas, or scenic roadways. Research various regional summer festivals (ie. music, art, etc.) that you might coincide with your college visits. We were in Santa Barbara for their Summer Solstice festival (very lucky to have found a motel). These trips will not only give you a sense of the colleges themselves, but of their broader communities and what they have to offer. My son applied to fifteen colleges, ultimately, but we visited eighteen, and he included four he did not visit. We drove around another college that had been on a suggested list, also, and he had a few additional safe schools under consideration.</p>

<p>Thank you all for the help! Are there any other tips you have for college visits?</p>

<p>If money is an issue, I would consider not taking a trip to a college where you would have fly to with no other colleges around it until after you are accepted.</p>

<p>You can eliminate a lot of schools just by taking local trips to nearby LACs, large state unis, and mid-size privates. Deciding whether you’ll do best at one or none of these can be done without driving too far. Most schools allow students a number of days for college visits, and you can do some of this in the summer. ucb’s advice about affordability is absolutely dead-on and should be a first criterion because you’re not going to go to a school that your family cannot pay for.</p>

<p>Visits schools that you absolutely love and that you have mixed opinions about. If you can afford it (time and money wise), do as many as you can. Also, if you can’t do more than the standard info session/ tour, talk to your student tour guide after the tour. </p>

<p>Listen to your parents. You’d be surprised at how well (or not well) they know you. I’m not as close to my dad as I am to my mom, but I wouldn’t have even looked at MIT and Brown if it wasn’t for him (MIT became my top choice right away and Brown rose quickly on the list after the visit). </p>

<p>I visited a school that my GC had recommended (Boston College) and I thought it would be a good fit. But I got to campus and wound up hating it. The visit helped me cross the school off my list. </p>

<p>Our process was (may vary if FA or merit aid is needed).

  • Professional program vs Liberal Arts - pick one or decide that you need a college that offers both.
  • Visit a large school, medium school, small school - decide if size matters to you
  • If you might want a specialized program (linguistics, or film, for example), eliminate schools that don’t have it. </p>

<ul>
<li>Make long list (20 is a good number). </li>
<li><p>Read Fiske College Guide carefully, rank your preferences - force yourself to - it’s not final</p></li>
<li><p>Assess your chances. If your school has Naviance, that is often the best predictor. Round your chances to the nearest 10%. </p></li>
<li><p>Now you have a basic list. Figure out which ones in the top echelon that you need to visit to solidify your confidence in your preferences. </p></li>
<li><p>Once you are done with summer visits it’s time to prune the list. Here’s how you do it. </p></li>
<li><p>Prune any school with a 0% chance of admission unless it’s one of your top 2 choices. </p></li>
<li><p>Of the remaining schools, you want to calculate the probability that you will attend. If you have Naviance, you’ve based your chances on the GPA and SAT of people from your school. At this point, you can treat acceptances as independent events and treat the probability of attending equal to the product of the probability of getting in times the probability of not getting in to all schools that you’ve ranked more preferable. </p></li>
<li><p>Use his method to eliminate any school where the probability of attending is less than 5% unless it’s one of your top two choices, or unless it’s one of your two safeties. </p></li>
</ul>

<p>This method will leave you with

  • Top choices
  • Reach or match schools where you have more than a 5% chance of attending
  • Two safeties - you want two safeties so that you actually have a decision to make in April. Nobody likes being forced to go to their safety. If you have two, you at least have a choice to make. </p>

<p>Under most circumstances this will leave you with between 5 and 10 schools. </p>