<p>I have a list of colleges that I still want to go see. The problem is with my EC's I have very limited time to do this. Also, I would prefer to not miss any school to just go look at a college. Missing class would be a last resort for me.</p>
<p>So, here in lies the question. How late is too late to look at colleges? Would November 11th & 12th be too late to look at colleges if I were to apply to start Fall 2011? Why I list November 11th & 12th is because those are days that I am off from school, and therefore it would be more convenient to go then.</p>
<p>Honestly outside of state schools I have made a concerted effort NOT to visit schools before I apply. Why? Because I don’t want to apply to a school BECAUSE of a campus. Find 8-10 schools you like because of academics, reputation, student body, whatever, and apply. See where you get in, and visit from there. This may be a controversial approach, but I don’t want to be sucked into attending a school just because I like the campus. And also, once you get into college missing a bit of school for visits isn’t the end of the world, so there’s that.</p>
<p>^I threw away some cash applying to schools I never visited that I hated upon visit. If you want to do that, go ahead. But I will say that a school’s website and all the college guidebooks you can buy will never be as accurate as a visit to the school itself. That’s not to say one should visit all the colleges they’re considering but they should at least get an idea of what they want in a college and that is helped by visiting at least one school.</p>
<p>i didnt visit most of my schools until after i got in. i applied to schools because of things besides how i liked the campus/area or if it felt right. i applied to schools that fit the bill of what i was looking for and then went to the one that felt right when i visited and seemed like the best option. the schools i did visit where in chicago, so we just went there for spring break.</p>
<p>Hotpotato, a campus visit doesn’t erase the information you already have about a college, it adds to it. My daughter’s list got completely jumbled after she saw the campuses and talked to professors. All the statistics were still there, but she had a much more complete sense of what the schools were like from having visited.</p>