How many schools should we visit?

College Search & Selection
1

My son is looking at applying to a decent number of schools for Music and also CS. We have taken him to Vassar, Cornell, Hamilton, and Colgate. He is all about music, but is interested in a BA with a double major (leaning toward CS). He plays drums, plays in 2 bands outside school, and one produced and released an album. Both of the bands are primarily cover bands for performances. He has scored 100’s on highest level NYSSMA for vocal and drums. And yes, working on the music supplement. Here are his STATS: 1420 SAT (730 M/690 V), 32 ACT, 4.0 GPA, plenty of honors courses, but only 1 AP ( three courses in which he can take the AP this year). He is looking at a few IVY league schools, but is aware they are reaches. Other schools he is seriously considering (in addition to the 4 we already toured): Haverford, Amherst, Tufts, Williams, Bates, Skidmore, Bard, Oberlin, Wesleyan, Connecticut College, Ithaca.

My question is, how do others reasonably visit every school your child is applying to, especially when they are spread out all over the Northeast? Do you fly? Also, I have looked at the Common Data Sets in terms of if interest is considered, but should that be the only factor in deciding if we visit? Should he not bother visiting any Ivy League schools, since his chances are much lower at those? I’m just feeling overwhelmed and concerned that waiting until he finds out if he’s accepted to visit may mean less of a chance at getting admitted for some schools, and not enough time to visit and decide for others. What is the typical process? I certainly have the means (time and money) to take him to more schools, but also don’t want him to miss school to see a college he may never go to. Also, if there are any schools we should be considering or eliminate, please let me know! We are NY residents and he is applying to SUNY as safety schools.

2

Here’s what we did and our rationale.

First we created a list of schools that were strong for her intended major and met her academic criteria (hands on first year engineering class, co-op/internship focus, research, type stuff), that ran the gamut for her in terms of reach/match/safety.

Our initial college driving road trip was in the summer and included a large public flagship in a great college town, a small private research institution in the middle of nowhere, a large public flagship in the middle of nowhere, and small private research school in a big city. After that trip, D had a clear preference for a more rural location. (We made that trip a family vacation).

So, our second road trip eliminated the city schools but she was still torn between large/small so we visited five more, this time ranging in size from 2000 students to 18,000. She preferred the larger schools but left one of the smaller schools on her list as a safety because it ticked the rest of her boxes.

We ended up having the most difficulty finding D’s reach school because she didn’t like the vibe of most of the reaches. We did a few more weekend day trips from our home and then visited two more schools in MD where we were expecting to move to.

All told, we visited 15 schools and she applied to 8.

In retrospect, we shouldn’t have bothered with visiting the reach schools. She already had a list of much loved matches and safeties and we should have not bothered. D would have been perfectly happy not applying to any reach and I should have followed her lead on that. (I gave that a lot of lip service on spending the bulk of the time on matches/safeties but still thought she needed to have at least one high reach on her list. It was stupid because she liked her one match school heads and tails over the rest.)

I think the benefit of visits are:

  • The student can decide if the school is really a fit for them. I was surprised how critically my D evaluated each school, and if that school should even stay on the list.
    That cut way down on application costs for us!
  • The student should be able to write a much more precise "why us" essay after a campus visit (don't just do the regular admission visit - spend the day - do the admission visit, have lunch in the dining halls, talk to students who aren't working for admission, visit the departments of your student's intended majors.
  • Some schools do consider demonstrated interest. You can look that up on the common data set for each school on your list.

I will also caution you about trying to do a lot of visits after acceptances. Second semester senior year is an even tougher time of year to miss school. D really wanted to go to her accepted student days for the school where she committed so she could meet people, but every single date conflicted with something major that she couldn’t miss (her last theater show, her senior recital, a retreat she was leading, etc…)

I would try to parse this list down. Start by what your son liked and disliked about the schools that you’ve already visited and then edit some of the schools. I would then focus on visiting the match/safeties. Most schools offer weekend visits.

3

Since you have the time & money, consider asking your son if he would like to visit more schools prior to receiving an admissions decision.

4

Thank you for the feedback. I honestly feel like we got a sense from the schools that we did visit of what type of school is a fit for him. It was clear that he preferred a smaller school. I have the opposite problem in that I feel he has too many reach schools, but they are also the schools that meet need. We won’t be state or Pell grant recipients by any means, but we will have some need and many of the safeties won’t meet need. That said, he might be offered merit aid at some of the schools? I’m also trying to convince him that we need to focus more attention on the schools he has a reasonable chance of being admitted. He’s a strong student, but some of the schools are extremely competitive and I don’t want him to be in for disappointment in the spring. All of the schools we visited, except Cornell, have been matches, and I’d like to visit a few more of both safety and match—just wish they weren’t so spread out.

5

Definitely visit colleges that are big on demonstrated interest. When looking at colleges we tried to combine it with vacation or spring break, killing 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.

6

Vassar - 23 % acceptance rate
Hamilton - 24% acceptance rate
Colgate - 28% acceptance rate

IMO, any school with a sub 30% acceptance rate is a reach, not a match, especially since your S’s scores do not put him above the 75th percentile and he’s lacking course rigor. Maybe a low reach, but still a reach.

Run the NPC for every school on your list to see if they are affordable. That might help cull the list right there.

IMO, if you are needing merit money, you are better off looking at less selective schools.

Hopefully someone will chime in with more experience for music scholarships.

I know this is way far from where you are looking but St. Olaf in MN has a great music program and they are generous with merit aid. Might be worth a look.

7

If you can afford to visit and interview at the ones where an interview or demonstrated interest is “considered” or even “important,” as per the Common Data Set, then it is good to do so. Your visit to Hamilton will help, for example, because Hamilton says it cares about demonstrated interest.

For the schools where those do not matter, there is no pressure to visit before applying. The schools you already visited can help give him a sense of how he feels about big/ small, rural/ suburban/ urban, etc., which is one reason visits can be helpful (along with just the psychological value of adjusting to the idea of going away from home as he pictures himself on each campus during the visit).

If your child gets into a college he has not visited and is seriously considering it, he can visit it then, between his acceptance and the May 1 reply date. At that point, he can narrow down to a reasonable list of only two to four top contenders to contrast.

Plenty of people are unable to visit any colleges at all before they arrive at their chosen college in the fall semester of freshman year— for reasons of finances, distances, etc.

8

Thank you! I have encouraged him several times to look at St. Olaf since it seemed to me like it would be a good fit, but he doesn’t want to go that far away from home. He has taken nearly the most rigorous courses at his high school. They don’t offer many AP classes and, in fact, eliminated AP’s this year and replaced them with college Level in high school, with the option to take the AP at the end of the year. In terms of the schools we visited being a match/reach, I have cautioned my son that even schools that appear as matches, may still be competitive/hard to get into schools. I don’t see him having a problem getting into Ithaca, Skidmore, or Bard, or any of the SUNY schools, but I am concerned about all of the others on his list. I am open to suggestions for more, or even better safety and match schools for us to consider.

9

I would turn your focus to the music department at each school you are considering.

I think for a music major a priority would be the professors, their style of teaching, what types of band/ensemble/orchestras they offer, plus considering local opportunities in the city closest to rhe college.

I know nothing about music, but from reading on this forum, it seems musical students are unique, and the fit of a college music program is more important to the student.

So even if you can not visit a college, emailing the music department and asking questions could help you better understand if your child would thrive in that school.

Ask to get child connected with some current and graduated students to find out their experiences. Are music alumni getting the kind of jobs your child is seeking?

10

Part of proper matching depends on preliminary research, an aspect that can actually be confounded through too many tours. As an opinion, it would be important to visit about five more well-chosen schools at this stage. If your son perceives missing elements after that, he can use these visits to reconsider his criteria and add further choices. I’d also largely disregard geography. For example, based on your son’s interests, it would be preferable to visit Wesleyan and Oberlin rather than, say, Wesleyan and Trinity.

11

Btw, the figures in reply #5 seem to mix figures from different years. By the most recently available statistics, Colgate (22.6%) and Vassar (23.4%) round to similar acceptance rates, and Hamilton lands near 16%. Note, however, that the acceptance rate for male applicants to Vassar registers significantly higher than that for female applicants.

12

Thank you! He has eliminated Trinity as one is considering. His first choice right now is either Hamilton or Vassar, He had a great interview at Hamilton. In retrospect, I wish we would have also scheduled interviews at Vassar and Colgate. We are also feeling pressured to put together a music supplement. As a percussionist, he almost never plays alone, so I’m guessing we would need to rent a space to tape a solo performance? He does have several solo vocal performances we can submit, but I’m not sure exactly what each school might be looking for, and I’m not certain it is important enough to put much time into it, when he isn’t looking specifically for a conservatory program?

I do see what you are saying in terms of it just visiting schools that are close together, but focusing more on the ones that might be the best fit for him.

13

@nextstepcollege Before making multiple road trips, view videos in lieu of making visits initially to get an idea of fit in terms of topography, architecture, style, substance, vibe, etc.

14

Lots of good advice here. I will say that we definitely prioritized visiting the schools (before applying) who ranked Demonstrated Interest high, and also keep in mind the application schedule (as in EA, ED, or regular decision). Also, son’s interest obviously played a part in which ones to get to…and some, we never got to. As an aside, applying lots of EA was GREAT for us as it brought expectations in line by 12/1 and gave us a better idea of options…still with time to apply to other schools and visit if needed.

In retrospect, we spent too much time on Reach visits, although we hit a big reach early on and it proved very motivating (which was one of my reasons for going). I think I might agree with you about spending time/money to visit Ivys, since they are so reachy and sometimes can set up this “dream” school that makes the others seem less than. There are other ways to demonstrate interest at Ivys.

We found second semester Senior year an easy time to do visits; school was understanding, however, my son wasn’t involved in a school sport or musical. My son did a foreign language trip his senior year spring break, so figure that in if that’s a factor…no time for any visits to accepted schools then. We did have a hard time making it to multiple accepted student days in the spring (because that spring break trip ate up spring break and both weekends), so that is something to consider as well.

PS Oberlin administration has a lot of criticism right now over a local issue, if you are unaware you may want to look into it.

15

We have a family vacation planned in February to Universal in FL. I was seriously considering canceling it, but we’ve already bought air fare. We were planning to go somewhere over April break, but have decided to keep that entire week open for any visits to accepted schools. We also have a long weekend over Veteran’s Day that I’m hoping to plan for college visits as well.

I have run the NPC and we come up with around the same figure (give or take) for all of the schools, and it isn’t anything unexpected or unreasonable. That said, I know that not all of the schools will come to that exact amount. We surprisingly come up with about the same amount we would be expected to pay whether my son goes to a state or private school, so why not consider both.

16

I vaguely recall hearing negative press about Oberlin, but am unfamiliar with the details. I will definitely look into it. Thank you!

17

The visits were important to S as he eliminated several just by feel / fit alone. We spent a good amount of time creating a list based on his interests / goals / wishes using the websites and then wanted a closer look in person. For whatever reason he had a dislike for certain schools and others stayed high on his list. I would ask him where X was now after the latest visit and he would generally say “still top 3”.

We created family trips around most visits. So we would choose two or three within a reasonable drive from each other and, do a solid two days of colleges and then go on a family trip in the area. (UVA/ Richmond/ W&M became WIlliamsburg and DC, Duke/UNC/ Wake Forest became a week in the mountains in Boone, NC, BC/BU/Harvard became a few days in Boston (including Fenway!) and a trip up the Maine coast. We were used to taking fun family trips all over the country and knew that junior summer wouldn’t allow for the national parks out west (which is what we love) so we tried to recreate as much of that for the rest of the family. Think I only did 4 one-on-one with S.

18

Your son’s stats are similar to my daughter’s (she has a bit more rigor and slightly higher SAT) and our lists are nearly identical. She is looking at History/IR/Poli Sci/Econ, a strong orchestra she doesn’t have to be a music major to be in, and a smaller student enrollment with a maximum distance from home of 5 hours. We did a couple of road trips and either planned a drive in a direction to the furthest school in that area and worked our way home by stopping for overnights near schools on her list or planned a large loop (for example Lehigh/Lafayette/Muhlenberg/Franklin & Marshall/Dickinson/Bucknell/Rochester). Some trips were 2-3 schools in 2-3 days, others were 7 schools in 5 days but those were done in the fall and spring when students were on campus. Over the summer, we planned similar trips back to the schools she really liked and were able to repeat the tour, ask questions, as well an do interviews. All told, her initial list had 40 schools, we visited 20, and she has a final list of 10 to apply to with interviews already completed. We eliminated all Ivies figuring schools like Hamilton/Colgate/Middlebury/Vassar were enough of a reach that there was no point doing all of the apps and supplementals for schools where she had almost 0% of acceptance. If your high school uses Naviance, you can also get an idea of how applicants from your school do at various colleges and narrow the list that way.

19

The CDS is not what you rely on for "what matters. " It’s all going to matter and something getting a higher check isn’t saying it’s “more” important. Also, no one polices the CDS, not the feds, not CB, and often not even the colleges themselves.

Where the rubber hits the road re: demonstrated interest is NOT just visiting. Of course, if you’re in NY, you want to visit schools you can easily get to (even with some effort. It’s not that far to MA.) That’s logical and they’ll notice if you didn’t. But in the end, the way you demonstrate interest is in the quality of your app and supp, how well you matched yourself to what they want, your answers in supps and any Why Us question. That’s not pleading your love or listing some classes you want to take, but knowing the traits, stretches, impact these colleges are looking for and matching yourself, then putting the care into those answers. That’s a LOT more than high stats and some good ECs.

I’ve seen this, time and again, in real life. Kids who can’t answer the Why Us or give generic answers (“you have my major” or “you’re a top college.”) It does take some work. But the more competitive the college, the more it directly impacts chances. After all, if you’re truly interested, you do take the deep look, right?

20

How does it work with Naviance? Do we have to be given access to see how other students do with admittance to other schools? We looked at some of the PA schools you mentioned, and I’m not sure entirely why he isn’t looking more closely at those?