Title says a lot. A lot of people from my area believe that visiting ED schools is unnecessary (although sometimes they can’t help it because of time constraints) and a lot of them apply to the school just because they love it (name-hunting sometimes). Some visit their ED schools right before their app is due.
Just wondering, how important do you guys think visiting an ED school is? If a person doesn’t visit an ED school, are they signing themselves up for trouble when they receive that acceptance letter, or do people just have a gut instinct that they know they are going to be just fine?
In general, I would strongly suggest visiting an ED school before applying. Both of my kids have been surprised during the college visits in that they liked some schools they didn’t expect to and disliked some schools they expected to love. You don’t want an unpleasant surprise once you have committed to a school.
They are signing up for trouble. It is a stupid plan. Spending up to a quarter of a million dollars on something you don’t “have time” to see is just dumb. That said, it really isn’t your business if they and their parents want to do that. But don’t do it yourself.
@intparent I wasn’t really questioning someone else’s choices, but yes, I have already visited my ED school. This was just more of a question to scope out what people think, because I know that people have a lot of different opinions regarding this matter.
I’d be surprised if you find many posters out here with experience in college admissions who think it is a good idea. People hold plenty of opinions that are dumb, and this is one of them.
I agree that it’s a bad idea to apply ED to a school without visiting. Unfortunately, it seems that too many students feel pressured to “play the ED card” even when their own individual circumstances don’t warrant it. Too bad the schools don’t disclose how many of the students accepted ED are unhooked. I can see that with some schools, you look at the ED acceptance rate and the percentage of the class that is filled ED, and you immediately feel that ED is your only chance.
I’m kind of shocked that someone would considering potentially deciding where to spend the next four years of their lives without even seeing it first. I would recommend visiting an ED school twice, or at least doing an overnight, unless it requires a plane ticket to visit.
^ Many years ago few people visited schools to see them. They just applied. I went across the country to a school because my family couldn’t afford much else. You have to grow where you are planted.
@“Erin’s Dad” There’s a difference between going where you have to go because that’s what you can afford and applying ED to a reach you’ve never seen because you want the admissions bump. And we aren’t talking about the way college admissions was years ago- we’re talking about the crazy process it is today. Many kids didn’t use to apply more than four hours away from their home. This may not help everyone many top schools nowadays have diversity fly ins or will cover travel costs of a visit if you’re low income. Besides, ED isn’t a fantastic idea if you can’t be full-pay anyway, yeah? Sorry, but I still think committing to a school you’ve never been to can pretty easily result in disaster,
By applying ED you are making a binding commitment. I would want to see what I am getting into. Four years is a long time.
A personal visit also makes the essays easier since you will have personal observations to relate.
Finally, if you’ve ever had a child walk on campus and say “nope!” you will realize that there are intangibles that can only be experienced first hand. For us it was Univ of Chicago. For whatever reason that place just turned my daughter off completely. She did not even apply. If we had only been looking at the catalogs, brainteasers and the seemingly thrice daily letters and packages they sent she might have applied then been stuck.