Between our two kids, we visited about 30 colleges. Tow completely different college searches…one music, one engineering.
In both cases, most of our college trips were vacation trips to visit family and/or friends. We asked our kids to apply to colleges either within a 3 hour drive of here, or within an hour of a close friend or family member. That made our trips…fun.
Each kid went on a flying trip to someplace. DS visited several colleges in the greater Dallas area. DD visited colleges on CA (we live in CT). Those were flying trips.
We drove DS to Boston and DC area, and also flew to Pittsburgh.
We drove DD to colleges in the south east and to a couple in New England.
DS applies to 7 colleges (which included a second visit for auditions).
DD initially applied to only three schools…but later added a reach and one school closer to home.
They applied only to places they visited…and clearly…with almost 30 visits…they scrapped a LOT of places!!
We visited a total of 20 schools over 18 months; made several visits to each of D’s top 2. She applied to a handful of Early Action schools, was accepted in mid-December at her top choice, and so didn’t complete the other 5 RD apps that she had started.
Our D visited our state’s public university which is about 25 miles away as part of a school field trip. She also visited several colleges in Southern California as part of another school field trip.
For her college visits with me requiring plane travel, I told her she could choose up to three colleges of her choice as long as we could cover all of them in one multi-stop trip over her high school’s Fall break during her senior year. Her top three colleges she considered required flying to visit them, and as a result of our visit, reinforced her choice of which one to apply to ED.
Thankfully, she was accepted to her top choice, highly selective LAC where she applied ED, so the trip was well worth the investment as she is currently a college senior there, and on track to graduate on time this coming May.
Regardless of how many colleges you visit, we suggest budgeting time when practical to visit the local area surrounding the colleges and even do some sightseeing to make the trip(s) more memorable and enjoyable and to help make an informed college decision, since your student will need to go off campus from time to time at whichever college they attend.
With my older D we visited 8 colleges and applied to 5. Two of the visits we just happened to be in the area so we swung by to see(Penn State and Georgia). 1 of those we almost applied to but in the end decided it was too far away.
With my younger D we are just starting our visits and we have 4 that we will visit and apply to as her intended major isn’t offered at a lot of schools so her list is a bit more selective. All are within 4 hour drives or less so for the most part just a day trip to see.
Not sure why you are asking… but I’ll offer an opinion.
You know…you don’t HAVE to visit a lot of colleges. Some people have the resources to make these college trips, and some don’t.
Where I live, there were plenty of students who applied to colleges, and did visits to their top 2-3 choices AFTER they got accepted.
We were able to combine our college trips with family vacations. I honestly don’t think we would have visited as many places if we had JUST been planning college visits.
We have done 15 tours/open houses, starting the summer before junior year. Two plane rides - one to Raleigh for Elon, High Point and Wake and the 2nd to SC for College of Charleston, South Carolina, Furman and Clemson. One drive that involved an overnight (Pitt/Duquesne). All the rest were day trips.
We have also done a bunch of self guided tours while traveling for family vacations, etc. Mostly in the Philadelphia area where we visit family.
D19 is having a tough time shrinking down a very long list of schools to apply. She has already submitted 8 apps and probably another 4 or 5 to go. We initially tried to limit to 10. Several of her Apps were easy with no essay, etc.
The upside is that all the schools have Early Action so she will be finished with most applications by a 11/1. T minus 27 days. Not that anyone is counting.
Adding…if you DO take your kid on college trips…be more flexible than I was! For example, we took a family vacation to the southeast…and visited some friends, and did some sightseeing in addition to college visits. It was almost a two week trip.
Our first stop was University of Richmond. We pulled up to the college gate, and DD announced that she didn’t like the place and had no interest in getting out of the car. Based on what? The begonias planted outside? The red brick buildings? Tough, we said…and we went for,the info session and tour. Bottom line…our kid didn’t like the place after all that, and…neither did we, despite that it seemed to check off most of her boxes for potential colleges.
We should have just driven on!
But we spent the night in Richmond and had fabulous BBQ!
So…be flexible. We left places early, didn’t go to some info sessions, didn’t go on some tours helped after info sessions, did some self guided things instead.
My S went on one road trip to visit colleges on the east coast, from the Philadelphia area to New England. Several schools were eliminated based on these visits. He flew to California to visit 2 schools after having already applied to them. He would have eliminated one of them had he visited before applying. He applied to 6 schools.
Our D went on one road trip, and two trips by plane. Several schools were eliminated based on these visits. She applied to 5 schools.
Ironically both kids ended up at the only schools they did not visit before being accepted!
S16 visited 8 schools, one of which he had to fly to. He ended up attending that school and now needs to fly back and forth to get to school.
D18 visited 9 schools, again one of which she needed to fly to (her brother’s school). She instead ended up going to a school that is a 90 minute drive away although in a different state.
As a side note, I really enjoyed going on college visits with my 2 kids.
For my son, we made zero “admissions office visits” to colleges prior to applying. However, he had seen a lot of colleges when he was on the national debate circuit. He applied to 6 colleges. He first saw the University of Chicago on admitted students day; after doing an overnight he declared “this will do.” He graduated with an AB in economics from UChicago. (Turned down acceptances at Reed, Carleton, Williams, UMich, MSU. He first visited Williams after being admitted but didn’t like it. Too isolated for his taste. He never visited Carleton, but would have visited had he not liked Chicago.)
My daughter made one large tour looking at art colleges and programs in PA, NY, RI, VT, and MA. Actually toured about 10 colleges, not counting in-state major universities, which she didn’t want to attend and did not apply to. She applied to 6, including 3 that she had not visited (in GA [SCAD], MD [MICA], and KS [KCAI]). Got into all of them, and attended RISD, where she earned a BFA in industrial design.
@TiggerDad “My approach was rather “reversed” in terms of the order of the visits, that is: 1) apply, 2) get accepted, 3) narrow down by selection criteria and FA offers, then, 4) visit the finalists.”
What about the colleges where “demonstrated interest” is very important? Shouldn’t an applicant at least visit those colleges?
@socaldad. “Demonstrated interest” doesn’t require visiting, I think. It certainly didn’t for our son. For our daughter the only reason she visited colleges is that she wanted to see certain ones first-hand, including the urban environment since she wanted to attend college in “a real city.” For the average applicant who is looking at colleges around the country it’s EXPENSIVE to make a lot of visits.
“What about the colleges where “demonstrated interest” is very important? Shouldn’t an applicant at least visit those colleges?”
That can depend on which colleges. There are many colleges, though – tippy top in particular – that don’t give a hoot whether you took a campus visit or not. For them, this actually could just demonstrate that you’re financially well off. Given the current trend where colleges are ever more keen on socio-economic diversity of their applicants, they’re fully aware that such college visits are simply not possible to the most on the lower income status.
Our strategy on this issue of demonstrated interest was, rather, through those essay parts dealing with “why ____ college?” and through interviews. For each college essay and interview, my son did an extensive research on that particular college’s resources (programs, facilities, faculty, etc.) that relate to his own interest and how the college’s resources could benefit and help him further grow and flourish in that environment. There are other ways of demonstrating one’s interest, too. When the admissions representatives from various colleges visited our small city as well as my son’s high school, he signed up each time and asked various questions. He also sent some follow up questions via email that these representatives handed out on certain occasions. He also signed up on some selective college newsletters. Etc. None of these cost. In hindsight, the most effective method in demonstrating interest, in my opinion, was the essays and interviews. Proof? We had never set our foot on the campuses of those seven colleges that he was admitted to. On the other hand, he was waitlisted (we declined to “wait”) from two colleges that we had visited during our family vacations.
Older D wanted to stay within a driving radius of home, so all of our visits were within the northeast. We visited 7 schools before applying to give her a sense of different sizes, types, environments, etc. because she had no idea of what she wanted. She applied to 4 of the ones we visited, plus 5 others. Post acceptances, she visited 3 of the schools she hadn’t seen earlier - and wound up choosing one of those to attend. Her current school, Hamilton, does consider interest, so prior to applying she did sign in with them on their web site and had a (great!) local alumni interview - so it is quite possible to demonstrate interest to a school without a visit beforehand. And yes per @TiggerDad if there is a “why school” essay, that’s a vital way for a student to show they’ve genuinely looked into a school.
Younger D is still a few years away from college being a real concern, but I already have the feeling she will not feel the same geographic restrictions as her older sister. Fortunately we have family spread around the country, so we should be able to combine “away” tours with visiting relatives.
We visited 7 (4 during summer programs), D applied to 12. We stopped visiting universities after UChicago. Once my daughter attended the informational session at UChicago the search was over.
We officially visited 9 schools; if you count “drive-bys” that number increases to 13. All flying trips as D19 doesn’t want to apply anywhere in CA, where we live. She is applying to 12 - of those, 6 were official visits, and 1 drive by. The rest we will visit if she gets in and has any desire to attend. She feels an affinity only for those she’s visited and 2 schools we thought she’d love - as well as the whole notion she might like an urban campus- were knocked off the list based on visits. Interestingly, the only 2 schools she’s applying to with mandatory “why us” essays are among those she didn’t visit. They are the last two essays and it’s next to impossible for her to write anything that feels unique. If you can, it is so helpful to visit schools. Not to mention what an amazing time it is to talk to and bond with the child who will soon be leaving the nest. Wouldn’t trade those trips for anything.