<p>I can’t imagine visiting 20+ schools. My older son hates traveling - he put his foot down at 4 before getting accepted. He ended up getting accepted at colleges he hadn’t visited so he had 4 colleges to visit after acceptances came in.</p>
<p>Younger son visited 7 colleges - 3 in DC in early Sept., 2 in NY one day during February break, and 2 in Boston April junior year. Then after he was accepted he visited 1 for the first time and 3 for a 2nd time.</p>
<p>We found half day visits were okay for colleges close together for a first look.</p>
<p>Whatever route you take, for the parents - realize this can be a stressful experience, especially, if your son or daughter is like ours, and after you have taken off from work and driven X bazillion miles to tour yet another place you can barely (as if!) afford, says “it’s just not my place”, and you think it would be just fine…</p>
<p>Off topic, if you are considering Canadian, it can be a great thing financially, but wise to keep in mind that the drinking age is 19 in Canada. We just toured McMaster, and the tour guide in the dorms made it sound like party central (not that American universities aren’t). I was a little shocked at the frankness, before I realized that the drinking age there is 19, and everyone thinks this is the (legal) norm. Here we think of it as the (illegal) norm.</p>
<p>Kid here!</p>
<p>Over Spring Break we visited 12 colleges in 7 days.
One was just a drive-through, though, and another we only walked around for an hour or two. But the rest were full-blown tour, info session, walk around campus, etc.
While it was exhausting, it was NOT overwhelming and I WAS able to keep them all straight. I’m from CA and so this was my one chance to see East Coast schools–thus, this was really the only way to do visits. With careful planning (and maybe avoidance of the NJ Turnpike!) and a good GPS system, it’s feasible, though not ideal.</p>
<p>Sylvan - just remember the U.S. is the only country in Western civilization with a 21 drinking age. Furthermore, the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta are 18 - all other province (including Ontario) are 19. Concerning this topic, the United States is definitely the “abnormal” country. In the 25 years since the federally coerced 21 drinking age, exactly zero countries have joined us on this crusade!</p>
<p>I actually suggested to my S that he consider Canadian schools specifically to avoid all the drinking age-related BS that comes with U.S. colleges. He declined because he didn’t want the colder weather, and because he said there is never a problem getting alcohol if he wants it.</p>