Over the past 18 months we visited 8 schools, most of them within a 4 hour drive. The two that were the farthest for us (Penn State & Georgia) we visited while we were in the area for other reasons so we didn’t make a special trip just to see those schools. We ended up applying to 5 schools, she got into 4 of them but her number 1 stayed the same through the whole processes. I think her 3rd and 4th options changed through the process but her 1 and 2 always seemed to stay the same. We visited her top 2 schools twice.
My younger D who will be a HS sophomore went on all those trips as well so she has an idea of where she wants to go but it is the most expensive of the options and over the next three years she might change her mind. However, we have a family connection to this school so my D has a strong connection to the University because of that. Older D looked at the school and has talked to them but its too close to home and she wanted bigger so she didn’t apply.