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<p>I strongly disagree. To me the most important criterion in a school is “fit”—it it right for the particular student? For most students there will be schools that are good “fits” at the reach, match, and safety levels.</p>
<p>Yes, visiting can be costly, but it can also be highly informative. Not everyone can afford to do it, and even those who can may not be able to visit all the schools they plan to apply to. But there are opportunity costs to applying, too. Realistically, there are only so many applications you can do well. So what’s the point of burning one of those precious applications on a school that looks good on paper, but once you visit later you find you just aren’t interested in? Visiting a few schools before you apply can help narrow your list to a couple or three reaches, a couple or three matches, and one or two safeties that are good “fits”—schools you’re quite confident you’ll be happy to enroll in if accepted, rather than wasting your time on shot-in-the-dark applications to places you only know on paper and may not really like at all.</p>