S1 visited 4, got in at 4, and didn’t decide among top 2 until the end of April or maybe it was May 1st. (He chose to “follow the money”).
Second visited 4, got in at 4, and knew where he wanted to go the entire time, assuming he got in as direct admit to his major. He is there now.
I’d visit types of colleges in your home state. We did the big university, small university and a couple of small liberal arts colleges that were driving distance from home…late sophomore early junior year. Without too much effort D figured out small liberal arts type school was the best type of fit for her. Made it easy to narrow future trips.
1 visited 3 schools as part of his official "search," but in all cases AFTER he had applied. He knew a couple of others b/c he'd been there several times, e.g., summer debate camp; but he didn't do tours there for admission purposes. He also had visited my alma mater a couple of years earlier, but not officially for a tour. He applied to 7 colleges; was admitted to 6. The one he ended up attending he only first saw on "admitted students day." After doing an overnight, he declared the next morning, "This will do."
2, traveling together with a classmate, visited 11 schools on one long 1,500-mile car tour-trip. Oberlin, CMU, NYU, Pratt, Cooper Union, NYU, RISD, Boston University, Colby, Bennington, Ithaca College. She was accepted by 5 colleges of the 6 she applied to, including two that she hadn't visited but learned about at National Portfolio Day events.
First kid visited 2 schools, never applied. Applied to one she didn’t visit, was accepted with financial aid. Turned it down. Took a year off. Tried CC dropped out after a month. Tried a trade school dropped out after 2 weeks. Just registered to CC for summer. Now wants to go to the first school she visited in fall 2018.
Second child. Knows he wants to be an equine vet. Started visiting colleges in summer before his Junior year because he worked two months each summer as a counselor and his school only allows 2 days a year for college visits. We visited 6 schools, all but one OOS. He applied to 5 and was accepted by all. He changed his mind about which he liked best several times. It came to March of this year when we visited one for the second time and he was accepted into the program he wanted that he finally decided.
Son visited ~8 colleges/universities (1 of which he wasn’t really considering, but was tagging along with his girlfriend’s family), applied ED to 1, was deferred, applied to 4 more, accepted at 3 (including his ED choice), attended admitted student programs (re-visit days) at 2 (including his ED choice), ended up going to 1 (his ED choice).
Generally through the process, whichever one he had visited most recently was his favorite. Not sure if that was because it was freshest in mind, or if that was just how it happened to work out. (The exceptions were the one he visited with his girlfriend’s family, and the one we visited after he had already submitted his ED application, as an additional possible back-up choice, which he did end up applying to.)
All of the visits were individual trips, with one in fall of Junior year, most spread out over spring of Junior year and summer between Junior and Senior year, with one in the fall of Senior year.
My D visited literally dozens of schools. She and I took 3 or 4 multiple day trips, her Dad took her to see 3 schools that were bunched together (upstate NY) and an aunt took her to see another 3 schools bunched together (ME) in a different local. Only one trip required a flight and that was PA…we flew into Scranton, rented a car, drove down to BWI and flew home from there. We made it a vacation and spent two days in Amish Country and some time exploring Gettysburg 
We both enjoyed our trips and tours very much but yes, it can be costly and time-consuming to try and visit all the schools they are interested in. The only school she applied to (ED) but didn’t visit was 18 hours away, pretty much a crapshoot so we didn’t spend the $$ (rejected as expected lol).
All of mine started with a list of around 15 narrowed down to around 10 we visited and then narrowed down again by eliminating some before sending apps. They each picked one in January and deposited. Number 3 had a few RD colleges and a EA deferral he waited for but it didn’t change his mind about where he deposited in January. Pretty painless actually. We did not restrict any region and 2 went far away. 3 stuck closer to home even with far away options.
Bet they both change their minds on schools and possibly majors between now and then.
And if school #1 that is all that right now is highly competitive, you never know with admissions…
Depends on you, kid, budget. We visited a skazillion, but we live in a college-rich area and wove them into other trips over time. It was extremely useful. Final decision was made with confidence.
You are OOS for UNC-Ch Hill and is that where you are saying someone is guaranteeing your HS sophomore that she will be admitted? Or is it another school? Rgardkess, Is this person someone who is high up in administration who can really make such a guarantee? Does she know your daughter? And your daughter’s current intended major isn’t offered there? (They offer exercise science).No worries, with kids this age, the school of interest and the intended major may change. Unlikely it’s really “done”, as you indicate in the OP.
I would urge the OP to re-read this thread of his as well. Lots of good advice in it about 15 and 16 year olds changing their minds…about college majors…related to this query in my opinion.
Luckily everything my son visited was within 3 hours of home, except one up in VT that was closer to 5 hours (we’re in NJ). We visited maybe 5-7? Can’t even remember! We didn’t start until spring of junior year, and by spring of senior year we re-visited 4 because he wanted to refresh his memory before deciding! And he ended up choosing Rowan, which he hated on our July visit when it was about 110 degrees outside but we had him apply to anyway since we’re both alumni!!
We visited about 10 schools applied to 8. Son17 did not like touring schools, he hated every tour we went on. Found them boring and was annoyed by most of the tour guides. We did better by just walking around and checking things out ourselves, and attending an info session if we liked the place. We did not do tours or info sessions at his “safety” schools.
I don’t think I’m going to visit as many with son19, maybe visit more after gets some acceptances back.
Solely based off of affordability and if grad school is in the cards ug is much less important. We have seen 4 total 1 small, 1 med, 2 large, and in the end she doesnt care too much just wants to graduate and get in the workforce.
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.
Nope, not super competitive. About a 50% admission rate. She will get in on her own merits, but we always have the person we know who will make sure, if that is still her choice in 2 years… knowing her, as she is my daughter, it will be…
@VaNcBorder - The visits may not have helped cut the list but they have given you an incredibly important insight. You’ve learned that neither size nor location is an issue, which means that your son can focus on creating a list of schools that are best fits for academics and affordability. Lucky you!
We tried to make family vacations out of many of the out of town visits. We visited 13 schools with each of our kids. But, I LOVE visiting college campuses so very much looked forward to the opportunity.
We have made trips out of them… but 2 of the remaining places are Pittsburgh and St. Louis - and I have been to both - and find neither all that exciting as a vacation destination. Good cities, but not for vacation.
I also enjoy visiting campuses. I wrote 3 reviews here for the College Vibe section of this site - all positive.
St. Louis has lots to do! And Pittsburgh has come a long way too.