<p>I am the parent of two daughters, one of whom has already made her way successfully through college to graduation and is out in the world working in her field. (She is an actor who works as a restaurant hostess when she is not being paid to act.:))</p>
<p>My second is also in the arts, or, er, was. She is a dancer who suffered recurring bouts with stress fractures in her shins, so we got the news in August that in the doctors' (yes, that means several doctors) opinions, she should not go forward to major in dance in college. </p>
<p>That kind of threw the proverbial monkey wrench into the college planning machinery, because she has done a lot of research (with some help from me and from her teachers) on good college BFA programs in modern dance, and we were all set to roll on auditions and applications when the new school year started. Needless to say, we are playing catch up and trying to find good liberal arts college and universities that also offer minors in dance and are matches for her academically that she likes and can picture herself at.</p>
<p>We obviously don't have tons of time: she not only is a senior in HS, but she also had to switch out of her performing arts HS and into a regular HS, and so can't miss a ton of days visiting all over the place. (It would have been different at her old school. Not that you could miss tons of days, but they "got" if a dancer or actor had to be out of state doing auditions.) We have visited four schools so far and investigated more, and she really likes two that we've visited, but wants to go back again to both of them. (Both are out of state and not close, though not across the country.)</p>
<p>How many schools do you guys think a kid needs to visit, and how many times, before deciding where to apply? We just can't get around to 8 schools, and I am thinking it will have to suffice for her to apply and then visit when decision time comes, if she has choices. </p>
<p>Anyone have thoughts? This is all so foreign to me: I feel like I don't know how to help my kid select a school for academics!</p>
<p>My first two didn’t visit any colleges before applying. It’s looking like #3 might not visit any until he finds out where he’s been admitted. Is your daughter just looking for schools to add to her list? <em>Lots</em> of easier ways to gather information than making a visit. One of your best resources is right here in the Parents Forum. If you share a little more information about her and any parameters (GPA, test scores, geographic area, size, cost, . . .), you’ll get many good suggestions. I think a little time on the schools’ web sites, plus some of the school comparison sites, and you should have more than enough to consider.</p>
<p>FWIW–neither of my two older ones did a second visit until all admissions decisions were in and they’d narrowed it down their top 2-3 choices. Plenty of time for those second visits in the spring.</p>
<p>S1 visited one out of state school after junior yr. He was already familiar with the instate publics he was interested in.
After he was accepted to the instate public he liked best, he and a friend went for a weekend and visted w/ friends at the univ.</p>
<p>S2 applied only to instate publics. He was a football player so Fall visits were impossible. Did not vist until after he was accepted.</p>
<p>We only visited two schools before D did her applications – neither of which she was interested in attending. We were in Seattle the summer before junior year, and visited my two alma maters, mainly so that she could get the feel of a gigantic public flagship versus a small private school. Those visits served their purpose – she decided that she wanted nothing to do with a Ginormous Public U.</p>
<p>In the end, she applied to 5 colleges, 4 LACs and, at my insistence, a UC. The LACs were scattered around the country and visiting wasn’t practical, so we didn’t.</p>
<p>After the acceptances were in, we did go to Admitted Students Weekend at her #1 choice, just to make sure there wasn’t some allergic reaction once she saw it in person.</p>
<p>Four local schools, plus one out-of-town trip to tour two others.
She applied to five, was accepted to four, and re-visited three of them in the spring of senior year before making her final choice.</p>
<p>D1 visited three colleges OOS. D2 visited 7-8 (two if which were with D1). Most of those were in adjoining states by car. We never visited more than 1x, even after admission decisions.</p>
<p>It is nice to visit, and it helped us to trim the list, but usually it is not necessary. However, you might want to check if any of the schools on her list confider level of applicant’s interest as a factor for admission. If they do, you might want to try to visit and schedule an interview.</p>
<p>NotMamaRose - Please stop panicking! You were one of my favorites in the forum when my older daughter was looking for a MT program; you are smart and savvy, you will figure all this out! People may disagree but you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to go through this process without being a Performance Artist major.</p>
<p>You’ve looked at 4, she is especially interested in 2. Take the two she likes best and look for a few more that might be similar in size, location, academics, philosophy, etc. Start with their websites, CC reviews, their FB pages for this years entering class, and all the other on-line assistance, this will make it almost as good as visiting. Once she’s admitted you will have opportunities to visit for your final decision.</p>
<p>It is true, xcurious said, that interest does sometimes count at some schools but it still doesn’t mean you need to visit. Email contact with the school, phone calls, and local alumni interviews or phone interviews are all ways to show interest. </p>
<p>You don’t need the larger number of possible schools for LAC like you do for BFA programs. I understand your 180 turnaround confusion and frustration but take a deep breath and approach it in a methodical manner and you’ll find that even without onsite visits you daughter can get a good idea as to the school and the school can see her interest. Good luck!</p>
<p>Good point. When applying without visiting, it may be important to some schools for the student to show a little love. My D was very interested in one of the student activities, and had some email back-and-forth with Admissions and then someone connected with the activity itself.</p>
<p>My older son visited four spring junior year. Hated the process and said no more till after acceptances. He got into four (not the same four!) visited those and picked his favorite.</p>
<p>Son two visited seven before applying. He applied to two colleges he hadn’t seen. He got into one of the two and visited after he was accepted. It ended up being his second favorite. </p>
<p>It’s not the end of the world not to visit, but my younger son found it much easier to target the application to the school if he had visited. That said, he put together a good application for the school that accepted him that he hadn’t seen. They make their educational philosophy clear and their application gave opportunities to be creative - a strong suit of that particular kid.</p>
<p>I don’t know that there is a ‘right’ answer to this but keep in mind, you can visit schools on weekends too. I would defiantly check out Creighton in Omaha NE. They have a fantastic facility for dance and you do not need to major in dance to take part in the classes, etc. Is she thinking about maybe business and opening a dance studio??</p>
<p>I would visit enough schools so she gets a feel for the kind of school she wants, that might be one school and it might be 23.</p>
<p>Three kids. The first probably visited about 5, Second visited about 8 and we went a little overboard with number 3… I think visiting colleges is important. Re-visiting I absolutely wouldn’t do until after acceptance and financial package offered. My strategy was to visit colleges in Junior year as often as we could during breaks and not miss school or important EC’s. Each child also visited at least one college by themselves. We also visited a couple of colleges after acceptance instead of before.</p>
<p>My kid #1 visited two schools (the state flagship and a somewhat less selective school). He had to be dragged to both. He got into both. Chose the flagship.</p>
<p>Kid #2 visited about 10 schools. She decided not to apply to about half of them for various reasons, some of which were related to the visits. She chose one that she had visited for ED. She had also visited her second choice school, but she had not visited several others on her final list and did not plan to unless she was admitted and was seriously considering them. Additional visits proved unnecessary since she got into the ED school.</p>
<p>My son visited 7, but they could all be driven to, stretched out from spring Jr year to fall Sr. year. Would not visit more than those. Then he revisited his top 2 and picked one.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it would be more stressful to be accepted to a number of schools you had not visited and then try and go see them. Picking between just 2 made it easier.</p>
<p>I did 2 out of state/plane trip visits with my son, to two schools he was very interested in, plus our state flagship. He was done after that. He had spent a couple of summers at different colleges for camp and taking classes, so I felt like he had enough exposure to make a decision. He did not want to do any additional visits even after acceptances were in. My younger son seems fine with going to our state flagship, the price is right, and he has taken summer courses there. I will likely take him to another school or two, but we won’t do anything like a 7 schools in 4 - 7 days kind of thing. I do suggest you try to visit mostly schools that she will likely get accepted to, and not focus solely on reaches.</p>
<p>Visited 8 (all within driving distance); 6 Junior year, 2 senior year. Applied to 3, got into two, only revisited the top choice after acceptance.</p>
<p>OP, the real question is whether your daughter will be able and want to dance recreationally while in college, since that really changes the list. It is very hard for many students to go from dancing 15+ hours a week in HS to 3 hrs/wk in college, and of course, many schools offer modern rather than advanced ballet. Performance opportunities are usually more limited too.</p>
<p>Visits are not strictly necessary, as other posters attest. If opportunities for dance are indeed an issue, look for podcasts the school might have of its performances. My daughter, a musician, was able to eliminate certain schools that way.</p>
<p>We visited 18 schools. Initially we went to 4 different type of schools/location/size to see what kind of school that he wanted. Initially, he wanted a large university that was close to or in a city. Thus, we looked at a couple of private and then large public universities. Half way through the process, my son decided that he wanted a small LAC college with a traditional college campus which started the whole process again. Finally, we had a list of 4 reach schools and then we needed to find match/safety schools that met the criteria of his “favorite” schools. We spent this past winter/spring and summer vacation visiting schools but he has been able to pick 7 schools that he will apply to that include his reach schools and safety (not only being able to get in, but has better need and merit aid). While I think that most of the information can be retrieved on the various college websites and through websites like this one, I do think that it is important to actually visit at least the top choices of where your son or daughter feels he would like to attend.</p>
<p>Visited seven, he’s applying to 7, had 9 on the original list, we have two more to visit. One was eliminated during the visit. One we may not need to visit depending on the EA outcomes. I figure spending $1000 to make a $100,000 decision is money well spent.</p>
<p>Daughter visited two in-town schools, plus four out-of-town (in two trips). She does not feel like visiting any more before applying. She plans to meet with college reps from the schools on her list that she did not see.</p>