<p>I visited 5 colleges (some more than once, with stays lasting anywhere from an hour to several days (free workshop!)) and ended up applying to all 5, plus 2 others. The schools I applied to are all over the place, so I only visited after I was sure that I was interested in all that their academics were about and what the location type would be like. Nothing beats seeing it in person, but Google Maps and that little label on Collegeboard of “rural,” “suburban,” and “urban” can tell you an awful lot about the location in advance.</p>
<p>One word of advice - don’t choose between close schools like BC and BU, visit both in the same trip! Also, I advise that you have your D narrow her list a bit before embarking on these college trips. For example, you have everything from large campus-less city schools to small women-only LACs on that list. I feel that your daughter might be able to figure out what type of school she wants by visiting similar schools that are closer to home with a bit of imagination involved. </p>
<p>Also, classify these schools into safety, match, and reach (or have her high school counselor help you with this and/or the combination of opinions from several websites like cappex/collegeprowlr/parchment). This way she can make sure to hit a few of all three, and have realistic expectations as to whether she’ll be attending when all the application process has finished up.</p>
<p>We did about 10 or so visits to different schools with my oldest son. Went back two or three times to a couple of schools. In the end, he chose a big OOS school with a huge scholarship and just loves it. He originally thought he wanted a small school.</p>
<p>With the younger son, who is a HS sophomore, we’ve toured two schools already. He would like to take a trip this summer through the Carolinas and Georgia to see a few more. He is the opposite of his brother – he wants the big school with big athletics.</p>
<p>I think we toured (formal tours, organized by schools) maybe 10, but we made casual visits to a lot more. Before starting out, we had our S come up with a logical list, based on his interests. Stuck to the West Coast (WA, OR, CA) though he did end up applying to one in the midwest, due to it having a perfect program for his intended major. We’re so glad we took the time to visit in person. Many schools were not at all what we had envisioned, so the tours/visits were well worth the time. Our S, who had always insisted he wanted a BIG SCHOOL experience, found he preferred the smaller schools, those with around 5,000 students. He applied to 9 schools in the end, and most are about that size.</p>
<p>it’s an awful process, no getting around it. we made a trip to NC last spring(saw 3) . started in Feb. of that yr. locally- MA/RI (4) . Sr. yr. with some acceptances in hand we are now visiting thos schools, just got back from (2) Penn State & SUNY/Binghampton . Penn is #1 choice and Binghampton (tho i great school and value) has fallen off the list - not a “good fit”. So that’s 9 so far in less than a yr. Waiting to hear on 2 more tho. We might be at the end tho, thank goodness! Good luck!</p>
<p>We did a visit junior year in Feb to a college literally walkable from our home. I thought it was a good baseline for future visits, and got my S thinking about college.</p>
<p>We didn’t do summer visits - I really felt students needed to be there. We did several visits in fall, interviews, class sit-ins, tour, just one overnight. In Jan-Feb he auditioned at some music schools so those were either an additional or first visit. </p>
<p>Once he has all accepts and FA info, he will revisit the strongest contenders and do an overnight, class, etc again. Probably not on “accepted students day”.</p>
<p>My D '15 is applying to a college summer program right now, she is a lot more interested in the process than he was. I imagine I’ll follow her lead as far as visits, but I found a mid- junior year start to be perfect for us.</p>