<p>My daughter had not visited many of the schools she applied to before applying, and now that the acceptances are starting to roll in (yea!), she's facing the prospect of visiting all these schools in rapid succession. It's making me exhausted just thinking about it. And, she doesn't want to start "early" -- before all decisions are in -- because she feels like she will have a hard time bonding with a place while she's still holding out hope for her top choice.</p>
<p>And, speaking of her top choice, she's visited the campus several times, has done a summer program there, and knows it well. I'm sure if she gets in she will be content to put down her deposit and reject the others, many sight unseen. Is there any value in encouraging a kid like this to actually consider all her offers by attending as many admitted student days that can be stuffed into a couple-week period? I'm assuming the answer is no.</p>
<p>If she gets rejected from her top choice-- and there's a decent chance she will be-- that's where things will get interesting. She has no clear second choice. Luckily, she only applied to schools in our state but it is a BIG state.</p>
<p>I'd love to hear the stories about your own crazy Aprils and how your kids dealt with this stuff.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to 7 schools - all of which she had visited before - she went to 3 admitted students days (but one was in February since she had gotten in EA) - of course the remaining two meant being in DC on Friday and then Boston the following Monday! She did not go to the days for other schools she was accepted to because she had narrowed her list down to these three once all her acceptances were in. I think admitted student days are very important towards making a decision - my daughter’s dream school - which we had visited two times before applying - she ended up crossing off her list after the admitted student day. See if you can narrow the list from her acceptances to 3-4 and do those days (even though the traveling will most likely we crazy and you will have to book it last minute.) Take everything into account - including finances when you narrow your list.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to 8 schools and got into all 8. We visited 6- the other 2 she decided against right away. Then she narrowed her list down to 4- all in state, and we visited them all again. Then she went to 3 out of 4 accepted students days.</p>
<p>My son applied to 10 and was accepted by all. We had visited all of them before he applied. He narrowed his list down to 6 and we revisited the geographically closest (10 hour drive) before the April break. We added on an extra week to April break and revisited 3 midwest schools, one in OR and one in CA. He was only able to time his visits for one accepted student event. At the other colleges, he attended classes, hung out with students and did overnights. I think the revisits were important, but I don’t think it mattered if the visits were on official accepted student days. Looking back, I think he always favored the school he eventually chose, but he did a very thorough job of looking.</p>
<p>My D was able to narrow her top choices to three, and visited those again on admitted student days. Fortunately, the schedules worked out well, so she was able to visit them all consecutively. She wound up choosing the one she thought was her first choice anyway, but it felt good to confirm her thoughts. It took us about four days on the other side of the country, so it was fortunate that her high school made allowances for seniors to make these trips. I remember going with her, nearly ten years ago now. It was an exciting time, for sure.</p>
<p>Son applied ED. Not as much excitement there, but we did enjoy going to admitted student days as it gave us a good feel for what his next four years would be like.</p>
<p>DD applied to five schools. She went to three visits post acceptance. Two were accepted student events, and the other was a scholarship weekend. Actually that school arranged a scholarship weekend for DD as she was unable to attend their official scholarship weekend.</p>
<p>DS applied to seven schools but as a
music major, he had been to them all for auditions. He went to one school
post acceptance (he was pretty sure this was the school he was going to choose) for a day arranged for him by the music admissions folks. He did not go to the university admitted student days.</p>
<p>My April will be crazy! We have visited some of the schools she applied to but not all. I do not see the point of visiting a school until I know I can afford it. Its like showing her a BMW and cant pay for it. I did this with both my kids. Instead of traveling all around we made a larger list put together by her program, guidance and people who we know we attended. She had some reach, targets and safeties both academically and financially. We have already removed 2 from the list so I am glad I never went to those. They were out of my budget. This has just been my method and worked for us. We will attend the admitted students day to the colleges where she can actually attend by meeting my budget and her academic program.</p>
<p>Both my kids got into four colleges and went to four events. </p>
<p>For the oldest two were full weekends and two were one day things. We probably shouldn’t have bothered with the two one day things, but he hadn’t visited any of the colleges he’d gotten into. </p>
<p>For the youngest one weekend event was in March, then there two weekends in April and a day thing at a college that’s about 1.5 hours from us. It was busy but doable. Personally, I thought it was useful to go to all of them, even the safeties, because it gave me insight into what colleges should be doing, the sorts of questions to ask at other places stuff like that. (That’s when I was invited to participate in any way.) </p>
<p>One school handed parents maps of Boston and told them to scram - they got a two hour event Sunday evening. Others included parents in everything. Others had some kid only events.</p>
<p>My S applied ED and was not interested in attending the admitted students’ day. He had visited the school in his soph year, decided it was the one, and did not visit any others.</p>
<p>My D went to 4 days - coordinated 2 in DC consecutive days, and 2 in Boston over a weekend Fri-Sun. She had previously visited 3 of these in the summer, and one she had not seen before.</p>
<p>My D2 will not make it to any accepted days, but we have tried to see all the schools when students were around to get the best feel. (At least for her top choices; there were a few we visited in the summer because it was that or nothing.) She plays a spring sport and can’t miss too much, is already missing some for a HS sponsored trip to France.</p>
<p>My S went to one accepted students day. He had been wait listed at one school and decided to go with what was his close second choice. The other schools would not have worked as well financially, though we would have seen what we could do if he really loved one if them. He made a decision and that was it.</p>
<p>One daughter went to two, back-to-back, 3,000 miles away, within relatively close distance of each other. It turned out to be very helpful. The other went to none - she’d been there before.</p>
<p>None. They visited all the schools to which they applied (except 2). They took 2nd visits to some schools before applications or during the application process and attended various competitive scholarship days in Jan/Feb. D has already committed to a school, S knows which schools he has in order depending on how the money works out.</p>
<p>S attended two accepted students weekends. He had visited one of the schools beforehand, but at the other had only had a very quick drive-through with me several years earlier, plus an off-campus info session with a traveling adcom. He was turned off by the first school, a place that all of us pretty much thought he was born to go, and chose the second, much to the surprise of many. We tried to convince him to fly out to CA to visit Pomona–a great school that gave him great FA–but he refused to consider it. The most we could do was drag him to an accepted students event in MA.</p>
<p>One of my daughters went to two accepted student events. They were the two schools she was most interested in and luckily , they were in the same city and a day apart.</p>
<p>My D went to two admitted student overnights, and they turned out to be crucial to her decision. The number one school fell out of contention after the overnight, and the other school turned out to be the one she is now attending. The overnights were very helpful in helping her clarify where she really wanted to be.</p>
<p>Are finances a concern? That might help determine if your D goes and visits.</p>
<p>My son applied to 10 schools and was accepted by all of them. He’d visited two with me in the spring of junior year that were across the country and he was flown in by another school in the fall of senior year for a special program, again across the country.</p>
<p>He was flown to another school for their scholarship day and was flown to one of the East Coast schools for their acceptance days.</p>
<p>He went with a friend to two more local acceptance weekends (within a three hour drive).</p>
<p>So all in all, he visited 6/10 schools to which he applied.</p>
<p>Ironically, he did not attend admitted students’ weekend at the school he is now attending. However, this was the school that flew him out for their program and spending three days there apparently gave him the info he needed to make a decision.</p>
<p>If there are several top contenders for your D, it would be good to try and visit the schools. For my son, the visits were important.</p>
<p>D applied to 7 schools, all which she had visited/did overnights to before applying. Was accepted to all 7. Went to the admitted student days at top 3 contenders (once we had packages in hand) then made choice.</p>
<p>Has anyone mentioned how different it feels to be visiting as an accepted student, knowing you are wanted? H and I felt it as parents too. It was a hectic time, but also fun. All of the schools were great, so a lot of the pressure was off.</p>
<p>Agree with bethievt - the tone of an accepted student day is different- they are now courting you. As one of my friends once told me - before the student is accepted the school has all the power -once they are accepted - the power shifts and is in the student’s hands - interesting way of looking at it.</p>