<p>My niece (11th grade) is full swing into planning campus visits. She has lots of us willing to road trip with her so that her mom doesn't need to take vacation to help. She wants to get a full range in during the summer -- the problem I see is she may be planning too many visits -- at what point do they all look alike? Especially given it will be summer, so few if any students on campus.</p>
<p>Ideally, a visit during session is best, but she doesn't have the ability to take off too much in the fall.</p>
<p>I think it’s wonderful that your family is all involved in the college application process. If your niece is doing this as the first in the family, she’d probably want to visit more colleges than if she has an older sibling who has already gone through this process. I have found it most helpful to schedule 1-2 colleges a day. But stay flexible. You might discover you really like a college and want to spend more time on the campus. (Eat a meal there, campus tour, info sessions, interview, talk to students, etc.) My suggestion: drive in the late afternoon, go to a new hotel, info sessions first thing in the morning. </p>
<p>With that in mind, organize the visits so you cover as many schools within an area as possible (up the eastern coast) so you are very efficient. But if you are trying to see colleges that are far away from others, that makes your visits more limited.</p>
<p>How many visits? Expect to visit 20+ There’s a lot to learn and while online websites are a great start, there’s nothing like a visit to get the “vibe” and begin to envision yourself there as a student.</p>
<p>From personal experience, 10 in a row is too much. Summer isn’t a terribly helpful time to visit though, because it’s hard to get a feel for the college. There are lots of schools with “nice” campuses, but it’s a moot point if “nice” campus doesn’t have “nice” people. I would start by looking at colleges near by, and see if she can narrow down what she likes (big/small, rural/urban).</p>
<p>I think it’s too many visits once it starts becoming a crippling burden on the student’s family. If Dad has to be strapped to the minivan roof after suffering a massive sunburn instead of going to the hospital because you just have to hit Elon, Grinnell, Pomona, and Virginia Tech in the next two hours then you’re going on too many visits. If you can no longer remember the identifying features of colleges #24 and #58, then you’re going on too many visits. If you no longer have enough money to pay for college because you spent all your money on gas for your college visits, you’re going on too many visits. If you’ve been to so many colleges that you now, technically, have enough credits to start as a second-semester senior in the fall, you’re going on too many college visits.</p>
<p>If she has no idea whatsoever as to what she wants, try to hit places with extreme variations - Penn State and Bucknell (huge and small), Boston College and Northeastern, State U and Catholic college, etc. Talk about what she likes and doesn’t like. Generally, you can start to whittle down the TYPES of places and won’t end up having to visit every institution of higher learning in the country. Online virtual tours can be helpful, but I find that they don’t really give a sense of the place, as they tend to put everything in the best possible light, and of course there is no sense of the people. Most schools have summer sessions, so there is still going to be stuff going on. Also, if you can get a tour, it’s better than just wandering around, but, if not, wandering around is better than nothing.</p>
<p>I’m hoping we are down to 4 or 5 more, which would bring us to 17.</p>
<p>I think sylvan gives great advice. Start with schools at different ends of the spectrum to nail down a few parameters (size, location, public/private, etc.). Then, for wave 2, focus on the type she is most interested in. Sylvan is also spot-on with the input that there is no substitute for being there, when school is in full session. You need to do this to really get a feel for the students and campus vibe. </p>
<p>Our D did not go on enough visits to different types of schools junior year, and as a result, applied all over the map, and used senior year winter visits to whittle down the list. Really not the way to do it!</p>
<p>Wow! Seventeen schools! Well, I guess our choices were limited because S2’s major is pretty specific (aerospace). We visited three in one week over spring holiday, and will see two more this summer. Think of it like perfume… seriously, once you smell more than three at a time, you have to take a break with some coffee. They all start to smell the same.</p>
<p>We were going to do a day trip to MPLS for Macalester & Carleton in mid-May, and everyone rebelled, including myself - so we’re saving that for the summer. Yes, I know it’s not as good to visit in the summer, blah blah blah. But at one point they all started to blend together, and my kids need a break before we go visit any more.</p>
<p>Focus your visits where demonstrated interest counts in the admission process if you have strong interest in certain schools. Visiting these schools matters more although you can still get in without a visit. Also, schools where on-campus interviews are done are good to see for that reason. Agree with sylvan8798 that visiting “opposites” right off the bat (large v. small, etc.) is a good way to whittle down your list- that was extremely helpful to focus my D1 and saved us a lot of time looking at certain types she realized she didn’t like. We did not do any summer visits because D1 wanted to attend classes not available over the summer and see full-time students on campus to get a feel for fit.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this helps but we visited about 25 schools with our first son, 15 or so with sons 2 and 3 and 10 with last child. The first kid seems to get the most visits in.</p>
<p>I visited two schools, would have liked to have visited a third but my parents wouldn’t allow it. I think how many visits you need, or how many are too many, depends on how broad the choices are. I applied to a reach school I wanted to visit because it was my top choice, I applied to a rock solid safety and visited since I figured there was a good chance I’d end up there and the climate there was vastly different than home, and if I’d had the chance I would have visited my top choice of the match schools. My visits were done during christmas break senior year and during spring break. By then my options were whittled down, either by myself or by rejection letters. I can’t imagine 25 schools really ALL being serious contenders.</p>
<p>We visited 8 schools for D1. D2 went with us on those visits, so I don’t think we will re-visit them. We probably will go visit 3 to 4 schools with d2. Schools that do not track visits we probably will skip, save those visits if she is accepted. I am not a big believer of school visits anyway, especially after our experience with D1.</p>
<p>Sigh…the schools my child is most interested in are spread out all over the country. Visiting during this school wasn’t an option for various reasons, and visiting senior year will be hard too. So, it’s the summer for us.
We did look at three schools last summer - the obvious local choice, and two in California. I think we will look at the remaining two top picks (in wildly different parts of the country - each will require about 3 days minimum), a solid safety (large state school with an excellent rep in his areas of interest) and maybe one more safety and one reach.
I cannot imagine visiting 25 schools at all either.</p>
<p>25 sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. I mean, if you enjoy the visits, go ahead, but that should never be a necessity.</p>
<p>I agree with starting by visiting schools that are fairly different, and then narrowing things down.</p>
<p>I flew out to the Midwest to see 5 fairly different schools (I knew I wanted small, but they were rural vs urban, etc) spring break of junior year. Then I visited 3 more within driving distance one long weekend fall of senior year. That was enough to narrow down my list, and it was also nice to spend some extended time with my dad away from my rest of my family.</p>
<p>We took one week to visit 7 schools in one area of the country. We added on 2 days just to travel to that area. I would not suggest more schools than 7 in a week. One day was just too ambitious for us. We saw 2 schools, and our son interviewed at both schools that day. The only reason we even made it to both in one day was because the 2 schools were within 30 minutes of each other and we walked out on the first school after our son realized that it was not a good fit for him (midway through the tour). This school wanted us to stay and eat lunch with a current student, but we just kindly declined the invitation. It also meant that by the time we got to the second school, the dining hall was closed. We did try a restaurant within walking distance of campus, but my son was unable to sample the food at that college. It is really better if one can stick to seeing one school per day, and one can take several pictures of campus at each school to jog one’s memory. My son also wrote down some quick notes of what he liked/did not like after each visit. My son was happy to have the pictures to look at a later date.</p>
<p>When it starts doing more harm than good to finances, homework, home life, that’s when it is too many. For some families, ANY visits are true luxuries and sacrifices and NO visits are made. We are talking about the majority of folks in college.</p>
<p>College visits are a privilege for those kids who have the funds and wherewithal to make them.</p>
<p>For those who are borrowing a lot of money, paying a lot of money, it is a monetary investment of sorts, and that has to be balanced against the time and money spent.</p>
<p>Thanks all – the reason for us extended family taking her on some visits is that it WOULD be a burden for her Mom to be able to take her.</p>
<p>Neice decided after an urban summer program last year that small & non-urban was her comfort-zone. This would be great if there weren’t SOOO many LACs in the mid-Atlantic region. Her list so far is about 40 schools YIKES!</p>
<p>I suggested to trim the list by the cost/FA factor - no sense falling in love with the impossible – we’ll see. I’m hoping to be drafted for the Oberlin leg because after spending time on these boards it seems like a potential for my kid down the road.</p>
<p>We will probably end up visiting about 20 schools over a 1 year period. We started while on a road trip the summer before S’s jr year. He seemed to like everything we visited. Then we started visiting more schools during the school year and started to narrow down the list and types he liked. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) S said he would be happy anywhere and while he liked certain schools better than others he really had no preference. Because of his ever falling GPA which is big time out of line with his relatively high SAT the academic dean at his school suggested something 90 degrees to what we were looking. (a small LAC vs busines school). So now we start the process all over again. OK, I would rather have the school a good fit going in rather than worry about transfers the second year. </p>
<p>So as others have said, try for rural vs urban, large vs small, etc. Try to narrow by major, if she has a major in mind. Eng majors will not be looking at LACs, etc. Also, if she is going into her sr year, she may want to schedule interviews at those schools they require or recommend them while she is there. </p>
<p>She is very lucky to have such a great family willing to help. My poor 10yo D will have a summer vacation trip that will consist of many campus tours. (as long as they have ice cream in the cafe or nearbye she is OK!)</p>
<p>We actually started our (17) school tours last spring in DS’s sophomore year. DD is 2 years behind him, so we made it clear that they were both supposed to be giving them a look. We shortened our spring break trip to Florida, rented an SUV, and drove back to New York over a period of 3 days. On the way, we stopped at Central Florida (Orlando - hugemongous but beautiful), Duke (what can you say?), UNC (DD loved it), and UVA (no one was thrilled). We didn’t have tours, and just wandered about and tried the food, etc. It was actually kind of fun, and the family time was something special. </p>
<p>Later in the summer, I took the kids to see BIL in Harrisburg and we stopped at Cornell (DS loved the libraries - maybe not the best reason to go to school there), and cruised up to Penn State (AFAIC there is no place like it, DD also liked). </p>
<p>This Easter we drove to Boston, where we didn’t have much time, but saw Northeastern and Boston College. We saw Geneseo and U of R later in April. Now we’re mostly left with the closer schools.</p>
<p>These trips can be good family bonding time, if you don’t make it just about the tours. And northeastmom is right, even 2 in one day can be a lot, although if you just go to wander and don’t have a tour, it can work ok.</p>
<p>If your niece is involved in ECs like debate, yearbook, band, etc., she may be going to events at college campuses for concerts, workshops, etc. Those are EASY ways to check our campuses, even if it’s only for the large/small, urban/rural vibe. (I have one niece who’s a band geek and the other who’s a big policy debater, and they are at college campuses all the time.) If there are colleges in her area, visiting those may be a good weeder for what she does/doesn’t like before folks start committing time and resources for longer trips.</p>
<p>If she has friends at some colleges she’s interested in attending, contacting those folks for some on-the-ground intelligence and/or floor space is helpful.</p>
<p>Writing down her impressions of the school as soon as she’s visited/taking pics will help her keep each school’s uniqueness in her head (and make for more effective Why X? essays).</p>
<p>My older S acquired quite a network of friends (including slightly older students and profs/faculty advisors) around the country through his ECs, which gave him a place to stay and the inside scoop on every school he considered. The kids all wrote up report visits and shared them with each other, too. These were really useful since most of them had attended the same math program and so they had a shared basis of quirky culture/love of math that made the reviews useful, whether the reader was looking for the same thing or something different.</p>
<p>We tried to connect visits with already planned travel to reduce costs and keep thing interesting. Agree that it’s hard to get a lot out of summer visits.</p>