How many college visits

Parents Forum
1

Hi,

We are fortunate enough to have some time over a four day period in April to begin looking at some schools. DS 24 has an idea of what he wants to see and I would like to make sure we get the best bang for our buck while we are there without overdoing it. Is looking at two schools in one day too overwhelming? I’m hoping to actually sign up for tours at each of the schools which I’m guessing last a couple of hours. Also trying to figure out how much time to spend on campus before or after the tour, and the surrounding town to get an idea of what it’s like. I know it’s early so I don’t wanna overdo it and overwhelm him, but I also would like to take advantage of these unexpected days we have and see what we can to hopefully rule in or rule out some schools when he is ready.

2

Can you share a little more about where you are touring? Los Angeles, for example, has many colleges but the time to get from one school to the other can be challenging.

3

We are thinking of VA and NC to start. These are the definite four so far:

James Madison
VA Tech
Elon
NC State

We live in Massachusetts so our plan was to fly into Dulles airport and do JMU first, then Virginia Tech, then drive to Elon, and at NC State and fly home from Raleigh. It is a 2 Hour drive to JMU from the airport. Then a 2 Hour Dr. from JMU to Virginia Tech. 2 1/2 hours from VT to Elon and an hour from Elon to NC State. We would tour Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and fly home Thursday evening. So I guess I’m wondering should I keep it at one school each day to get a good experience and account for driving distances, etc. We would plan on a hotel in each of the towns near each of the schools. Or should I take advantage while I am down there and also make sure he looks at UNC, Wake Forest, for example. I just don’t want to overdo it.

4

Short answer and @lkg4answers point is important - you need to have time.

For example, we did Gtown and GW in a day - actually walked between them - we had time. It was a 10-12 and 2-4.

Others, if you have to drive, you need to account for maybe hanging after asking questions, lunch, driving.

Two in a day is definitely possible - you can even walk the campus before the morning tour - just to get a vibe - or have breakfast at a local bagel shop.

On the flip side, info sessions are - the same - everywhere - and over 4 days, you’ll be bored/tired - after a couple. So you do have the risk of just taking on too much.

You might see which schools look at demonstrated interest and make sure you do their activities - info session, tour, etc. Hopefully the AO doing the presentation is the one assigned to you. If not, let them know you’ll be there and ask if you can pop in and say hello.

But if the school doesn’t track interest, an option is to tour on your own, make an appointment with an advisor or professor in a major that interests you (to get a feel for it) or a group (we met Hillel at two campuses), stop kids on campus and talk and get real life examples - the tour guides will be honest but are also on a canned script, etc. My daughter got a lot more from self visits. We also found the Hillel on each campus - just to see how far it was and if it was safe to walk to. We all have different priorities so find yours.

One last thing - some schools offer info sessions and tours separate - not a lot but some - where you can just do the tour. You’ll find info from the info sessions on line - in fact, you probably know most of what they’ll tell you up front or they offer them virtually.

But your plan - if schedules and distance align - can work. But it can also cause burnout.

Walking helps a lot with burnout…as does food.

So plan time for both.

Edit after reading your response: In August 2020, prime covid time - so we did this trip - 11 schools in 4 days. We started at home in Nashville - saw UTK day one. High Point (would only let us drive through - so at each school make sure they’re even open), Wake Forest (same with drive only) and Elon on day 2. Elon was doing 1:1 tours so it was great. And finished at Duke on own.

Next day UNC and William & Mary.

Final day - and all self done - Richmond (drive only, they wouldn’t let us get out of the car), UVA, JMU and Washington & Lee - where we bumped into a prof and his family and had a great 30 minute talk.

The publics will likely not track demonstrated interest but you can check - either on their websites or the common data set Section C7 - so they give you flexibility.

The driving only schools my daughter hated - maybe because we couldn’t walk but I think it’s their campus and locations - she’s at a city school.

But she definitely enjoyed the trip - self touring - more than the trips loaded with info sessions and canned tours.

5

With this schedule I would definitely do one per day. I would do the info session and tour (and if these are your first tours, I’d do the information sessions, and then after this trip decide whether you family finds them helpful). I’d also see if you can meet with people with special programs you’re interested in (i.e. a major, honors program, etc). I’d walk around, eat on campus, ask students questions who look like they’re just hanging around (i.e. not on their way to class). Also, see if you can sit in on any classes in a field in which your student thinks s/he would be likely to take a class.

Does your child have a preference yet for smaller vs larger schools? If not, I’d see if you can visit some colleges that are close to you before your spring break trip (small, medium, and large as @tsbna44 usually recommends). That way you know if you want to focus on the big state schools or more of the smaller privates when you’re down in North Carolina. But with your schedule and the locations of these universities, I would not aim to do more than 4.

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6

All very helpful advice, thank you! And it’s hilarious we are surrounded by colleges and universities and DS24 says he has no interest in going anywhere in the Northeast because he wants to experience living someplace new and different which I can totally appreciate.

I think we will stick with one school on each of the days. They are all very different from each other so I think he will at least get a sense of what smaller versus larger and suburban versus urban campus feels like. He has been to Boston College which is my alma mater but that was years ago when we went to watch a football game. He has also walked around BU just because we’ve been in the city a bunch, and he was recently at Holy Cross for a high school football game so at least he has been on college campuses before.

I did reassure him that it is very early since he is only a sophomore and this really is just to give him an idea of what the schools are like so hopefully we can just have a fun four days together.

I guess that would be my final question is I know it’s early are they really going to track interest based on us visiting as a sophomore? Probably a silly question but do they just track you through signing up through the admissions offices for tours, or how do they keep track of who visits and who doesn’t, especially if you decide to just do a self guided tour? Things sure are different from when I applied to school 8 million years ago :joy:

7

In our experience, two tours a day was a lot. It doesn’t seem like it would be, but it was, for us. I think if you overdo it you run the risk of your child just not going on the later ones, or checking out, or getting burnout on the process when you are really just getting started. One school a day is better. And at the 3rd or 4th school, the tours might all sound the same and blend together.

We may have done Elon and WF on the same day since they are an hour apart. (My son attends Elon and they are VERY GOOD at tours and presentations. WF is also great and touring it made my son realize, later, that it wasn’t a good fit for him).

Our general “flow” for visits was arrive early and do a quick drive around for a first impression and see where we were going to park. After the tour, my DS usually didn’t want to hang around much, OR go to the dining hall…I think maybe he didn’t want to be seen as the prospective student hanging around with his mom. But we always made time explore the surrounding town, for lunch or dinner.

So yes, keep it fun and not too packed. And they track electronically by name and/or email address. We’ve done our own "drive arounds’ but not an official “self guided tour” (OK actually did one of those years ago at UCLA on a school holiday, but we did have to walk in somewhere and check in)…if you are doing it on your own and don’t sign in anywhere, you can still get “demonstrated interest” by signing up for mailing lists; I wouldn’t worry about it too much, some schools don’t even consider demonstrated interest, and you can get into that later.

8

Definitely do one tour a day on that schedule. Are you heading down during the MA April vacation break? Definitely eat on each campus. I’d also recommend staying for dinner in each college town if possible. When you’re at JMU they DO NOT take people by the amazing UREC rec center. I don’t understand why they haven’t added it to the tour. I highly recommend you go by there on your own. Tell them you’re touring the school and they’ll let you right in.

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9

You picked great schools - and on off time, you can always drive by or have dinner near another.

For example, you’re at Elon and headed to NC State.

Stop in Chapel Hill for dinner and walk the campus. Chapel Hill is really hard to get into OOS so if you don’t have top grades, maybe skip - but you see what I mean. Chapel Hill is enroute from Elon to NC State - and Duke is just on the other side of the freeway…you could do one at dinner, one early AM breakfast and walk and get to NC State, etc. Chapel Hill a much nicer place to “sleep” than near NC State anyway.

These are very different schools. JMU is rated really nice and the campus is gorgeous. But it’s a small town and the I-81 splits the campus although it’s mainly on the West.

Va Tech - for my money - the nicest school in the country. It’s just - unbelievably gorgeous. But it’s HUGE - and it’s in the base of the mountains - so nature - it’s its own world. Blacksburg is not a a big city but has everything.

btw - when you drive from JMU to Va Tech - stop in Lexington for dinner and walk W&Ls gorgeous and small campus and the town is cool…great restaurants. Or maybe there’s different colleges you’d like enroute. This way, you aren’t going out of the way, you are breaking up the drive, getting some exercise and keeping nourished. btw - wanna get excited about W&L - read up on the Johnson Scholarship.

Elon is your small and equally gorgeous - but there’s nothing there - like a few restaurants and the nearest town ten minutes away.

And NC State is your near big city school.

You might also start to think - is it important to be near a major airport or is it ok if she has to fly and take a 2 hour bus, etc. to get to school from breaks.

But I think you can stick with this plan - but if you have other interest - you can in an afternoon or dinnertime - at least stop at another if it’s enroute so you aren’t going out of the way - and try to get the vibe by walking or checking the area - if that makes sense to see if maybe more consideration is warranted once you get home (virtual tours, etc).

Good luck.

PS - check to see who requires the interest - google the college + common data set and it’s section C7. Elon will - JMU, VA Tech, and NC State likely not.

You can get on each of their “request info lists” - they’ll ask your year.

But b4 you do that - and you are way early - but you’ll want to set up an email for your son’s college stuff…just college…nothing else…we used HSname, first name and grad year at @gmail.com Just something - where all things college can funnel to.

But yep, you’re early!!!

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10

Keep in mind many HS breaks are in April, tours book up well in advance. The first thing I would do it to check availability, and then you have the issue of having the timing line up for 2 tours each day.

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11

What is your son looking for? Potential major(s)? We might be able to narrow or expand the search. What tier schools do you think are a match based on grades/PSAT?

If he likes a big school experience then VT and NCState are fits. If he’s thinking smaller then maybe WF, Elon or even Richmond. If he likes rural like JMU then maybe App State.

I would agree that one visit per day is ideal unless the schools are close. NC State is one of my favorites. They make their own ice cream.

12

He’s not sure of major yet- more strength and interest in humanities than sciences but equal grades in both. He thinks medium or large, doesn’t want to be at a school with less than 5000 students. But that may change once he visits a campus in real life. He’s only a sophomore so no scores yet, 3.9 uw gpa. And not sure if he’s going to do SAT or ACT.

13

In my opinion for early (sophomore) tours, it can be more about finding inspiration or just demystifying college. Also a good chance to start to learn some general preferences, such as size, location (rural, town, city). Keep it relaxed and throw in some fun things along the way too. And…read this tip on here years ago…think about taking some notes somehow. They will blur together, especially two years from now.

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14

We visited both Wake Forest and Elon in one day when DD was the same age as your son. They’re so close to each other it was pretty easy, spent the night before in Winston-Salem. We drove on to Durham the night of the visits, not much else to see in Elon proper. They’re both suburban, fairly compact campuses with welcoming presentations and it wasn’t overwhelming.

We also visited UVA, W&M, Duke and Va Tech on the same trip and I wouldn’t recommend trying to see any of them in half a day. DS and I visited Richmond and W&L the same day, but stayed in Lexington for two nights. We rushed through the Richmond tour since it was a haul over to W&L. Both kids ended up at Wake Forest.

I would caution you not to see too many schools on a trip. They all run together after a while and the kids get overwhelmed. Parents experience visits in a different way from teenagers, especially when they are younger and don’t really understand the admissions process. Some of the presentations scared our kids, made them obsess over their ability to get admitted.

I also agree about throwing things in to lighten the load . We visited Old Salem, Monticello, and Williamsburg on the first big college trip, and it reduced the anxiety a bit.

Have fun!

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15

OP, take all these suggestions & prepare to roll with what works on the day. We have done many, many college visits with the collegekids, and the ability to be spontaneous & flexible is really useful!

One of the most surprising thing is how viscerally the kids sometimes respond to a place, and over the years I have learned to respect that response. I have yet to successfully talk a kid around, even when in theory the school should suit. As an example, for one of our lot College X seemed absolutely perfect. However, once we got there, barely 10-15 minutes into the tour it was crossed off the list entirely because she didn’t like the ‘feel’ of the place. So, we melted away off the tour (you will see that happen on most tours btw), and re-configured the schedule.

You can tell your son some of the “BINGO” type things to look for in the tours/info sessions: X number of volumes in the library / if there is an activity you are interested in that doesn’t already have a club there is SG money to start one / there is a superstition about x place / thing (walk across it & you won’t graduate, etc) / etc.

And you can make the sessions more interesting by getting him to plan questions to ask. Some examples:

For the tour guide:

  • How helpful did you find your freshman year advisor?
  • What do you wish you had asked on a campus tour when you were in my place?
  • What’s a typical weekday like for you?
  • What was the biggest difference for you between HS & college

For the info session:

  • What are some common mistakes students make when applying?
  • How many APs do successful applicants usually have?

And my favorite:

  • About how many applications does each Admissions Officer read each year?
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16

D20 is most likely an anomaly but she fell in love with the very first school she visited, as a sophomore. It was the standard by which she measured every other school we saw, which made us nervous as it is a reach for almost everyone. She applied ED and got in so you never know :woman_shrugging:t2:

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17

I want to echo the advice you’ve gotten to keep it to 1 per day, especially because you’re starting the process early (which I think is great). We have found with DS23 tours are a lot to take in (not just the info on the tour itself, but also the layout of the campus, the surroundings, the feel and fit - it’s a lot of brain input!) and our son has definitely done best with a lot of time to process each tour.

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18

I bring this up a lot on CC - but we found the website Daytripper University quite helpful. They provide hotel ideas, restaurants that are popular with students and then a few that are popular when parent are paying :), sites to see, coffee shops etc - we found it incredible helpful to get the “vibe” and go back and read to refresh our memories too.

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19

I would agree with one school per day considering the drive between schools. We’re also from MA and our S22 wants to go to school in the mid-Atlantic area. Over the long weekend in October 2021 we drove to visit the University of Delaware, Drexel University, the University of Maryland, American University, and George Washington University. On the 4th day we visited UMD (self-directed tour), AU, and GWU (scheduled tours and one info session). It was exhausting but he’s a senior and we wanted to make the most of our time and miss as little school as possible. Many schools have virtual tours you can access online. You could try those out for schools you’re not yet able to visit to see if you like them enough to visit in the future.

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20

We usually did weekend trips, trying to see two colleges per day in the same city - but obviously less, if they were a distance away: We would see Boston U and NorthEastern the same day in Boston, or UMass and Amherst the same day, or Georgetown and GWU.
But, when going to Williams, there was nothing else in the Berkshires to combine that with.

Anything longer than two days, I would certainly build in a buffer - because I fear there’ll be diminishing returns. At some point, it will all turn into a blur and/or the last few colleges won’t get a “fair share” anyway because everyone’s “so over it” by then.

I remember my daughter going with a few peers and one of their parents on a multi-day trip - and they started skipping a college the last day, because it was just more input than they could process.

It did help her, though, to figure out some early selection criteria, as far as urban vs. not, large vs. small. But a year later when acceptances came in, she had to go back because she really couldn’t remember one from the other - or what she had liked about it to make her apply there.

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