<p>One thing we discovered during our search was that every college we visited - even if we didn’t like it - gave us useful information about what was ultimately important in a school. My piece of advice is, whenever you DO visit, you will get a bigger bang for your buck if you have already visited other schools closer to home, giving your daughter a framework for evaluating the east coast schools.</p>
<p>If you can only visit once (the big trip flying cross country) I’d use the visits to decide on which school to attend after all the acceptances (and financial aid offers) are in. </p>
<p>Our kids all did visits during their junior year high school spring break. For D1 and S1 those were cross country trips to the east coast. For S2 it was a week long driving trip around the Middle Atlantic and southern New England states, as we had moved to NJ by then. They each visited their top 2 or 3 schools in April of their senior year in high school to decide which of their top choices to attend. It has worked out well. D1 and S1 attended my alma mater and loved it. S2 is attending another very good LAC and it is a good fit for him.</p>
<p>I agree with others that if you can do short trips within a long drive of home that is a good idea, especially at the beginning of the process. Before deciding where to apply, it is very useful for your S or D to try to figure out what kind of college they are most interested in: urban vs. suburban vs. rural. Large research university, medium sized university or liberal arts college. Many people should have examples of each type within a reasonable drive, and visiting before deciding what kinds of colleges to research and apply to can be very helpful.</p>
<p>If only one trip across the country is in the cards (which sounds quite reasonable to me) them …</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I would NOT make the trip in the summer … IMO A LOT of the value of school visits is getting a feel for the students … which can be tough in the summer. (While that is general advice there are schools with lots of regular students on campus during the summer).</p></li>
<li><p>With only one trip I’d visit after acceptances … especially if this is visiting a lot of reaches.</p></li>
<li><p>I’d add a caveat to this wait for the trip advice … what I would do before applications if visit some schools locally to try to get an idea about categories like … Research U/LAC … urban/suburban/college town/rural … large/medium/small … etc. You may be able to cut down options before visiting target schools … (for example, my two oldest had very strong urban/suburban/college town/rural preferences almost immediately).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I strongly encourage visiting after acceptance if you have to choose. Staying overnight in a dorm can be great for a kid who isn’t sure how or if she will fit into the campus culture.</p>
<p>We did option A together (and she did some fall visits solo for sport OVs) and we didn’t mind school not being in session. She was very interested in seeing the campus and learning what the lay of the land was and what was available off campus. We were able to rule out 3/4 of her list by just taking the tours and seeing the schools and it made no difference to her that most kids were not on campus.</p>
<p>We traveled east coast to California to visit colleges, and we did your plan A. One visit, over the summer when we had time and could relax and process rather than rush around, and we went to about 6 colleges. </p>
<p>After that my D knew where she wanted to apply and never needed to go back for a second look. She crossed 50% of the schools off her application list after that trip - saved me quite a bit in application fees right there. It has worked out fine; she is a happy rising sophomore 3300 miles from home.</p>
<p>I think it’s too much pressure if you wait until acceptance and financial aid offers are in - there might only be a couple of weeks, and it will be while senior projects are wrapping up back home. My D would have found that idea highly stressful, and the last-minute tickets and planning would have been quite stressful to me.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with summer visits. We visited some colleges closer to home when classes were in session. So you see students rushing around, it’s nice to get the energy but not that big of a deal IMO. You can get a good idea of fellow potential classmates at the information sessions. My son is a rising HS junior and I plan to take him on 90% of his visits over the next two summers.</p>
<p>For certain highly selective schools (and possibly others? I’m not certain), there are admitted-students weekends where the school will reimburse you for gas/airfare. I know this was the case for MIT’s CPW and Olin’s Candidate’s Weekend (not an accepted students weekend, but still). So those are essentially free visits post-acceptance.</p>
<p>I apologize if this is irrelevant. I only have extensive experience dealing with highly selective schools that seem very willing to pay travel expenses for their >1500 admitted students, but there may be other schools that also offer reimbursement for travel to admitted weekends.</p>
<p>Based on the DC trip, D would like reasonable access to a major metropolitan area, but not necessarily urban. Urban is ok, but only if there is a defined campus. E.g., she liked Georgetown and American but hated GWU. She would not like rural. We were in Chico visiting relatives last year and she hated the area. Cute town, but three hours from civilization. No way. The only three schools in CA that she is interested in, at this point, are UCLA, Cal, and Cal Poly. But she has not seen any of them. Cal is close by and we can easily visit any time, but she would prefer to go farther from home, so not that excited by it, even though it’s an awesome school of course. She is doing a summer program at UCLA and will live on campus for a week, so that will give her a pretty good idea of what that’s like. We can try to work in a short trip to Cal Poly. That’s too far for a day trip and requires an overnight stay. I doubt she’ll like it. She’s not into the “CA beach culture,” which is the impression I get about Cal Poly. Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll definitely check it out anyway. She wants to be on a coast, so the mid-west is probably out, though I’m going to try to get her interested in some colleges in Ohio and western PA that I’ve been researching. Given her political, social, and religious views, anything in the deep South would be a hard sell. So the real focus is going to be on the mid-Atlantic states up to southern New England and west maybe as far as Ohio. She likes being a big fish in a small pond, so I see her enjoying a smaller university or LAC rather than a huge state university, but she may not have much choice. By the way, for those not familiar with CA state schools, they do not offer merit aid, so a large merit offer from a private back east could make the cost of attendance competitive with staying in-state and attending a UC or CSU. The hope is to give her some options between those two main scenarios.</p>
<p>DGDzDad, Cal Poly is absolutely NOT “California beach culture.” UCSB… yes, but not SLO.</p>
<p>OP, your son sounds just like mine! He ended up deciding between Tufts and U of Chicago, but the merit aid at American made it very tempting. He hated GW and did not get into Georgetown.</p>
<p>OP: Will you qualify for need based aid? I hope you are not over estimating meritaid. We live in the east, and D did receive several merit awards but none were substantial enough to make a significant impact. She did have the stats for need blind meets full need schools, and the FA did make attendance possible.</p>
<p>mythmom - FA highly unlikely based on income, at least until D’s younger sisters reach college age. But despite high income, cannot afford to pay full sticker price to non-merit aid schools like Georgetown, Tufts, etc., unless I bring wealthy GP’s into the picture (long story on another thread). One school I’ve identified is UMass Amherst. They offer merit scholarships of $6-12k per year to OOS students with high stats. Based on recent admissions thread, kids with stats like my D’s were getting offers of $10-12k per year. A $12k scholarship would drop the COA (tuition, room, and board) to about $24k, more than Cal Poly ($20k) but less than UCLA ($27k). UMass has an Honors College, which D would qualify for, with brand new dorm and classroom facilities opening this fall. So if she really wants the New England college experience, she could do it in the great college town of Amherst, with new state of the art dorms, for about the same price as staying in state here in CA.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to visit the financial/academic safety school prior to applications, in order to make sure that you have a true safety that your child will be happy to attend. If finances are a concern, I wouldn’t visit the reaches or the schools that are out of financial reach without merit aid until after the acceptances and scholarship notifications are in. So if her safety is in California, I’d visit there and save the rest. If her safety is on the East Coast, then you might as well see a few other schools while you’re there, as you’ve already sprung for the airfare. You can show interest in ways other than a visit, especially when you’re from so far away. I am assuming, however, since your D really wants the New England college experience, that she’s been to New England and has some idea of what that experience is.</p>
<p>My D was also accepted into the honors program at UMass Amherst and did get merit money. The school is undergoing some financial difficulties. Smith and Mt. Holyoke have merit money.</p>
<p>Skidmore has a music scholarship.</p>
<p>To help cull her list without visiting AND show interest— As you live either in or near San Francisco, are there any admissions reps from the East Coast scheduled to interview students in San Francisco?</p>
<p>My son had a few potential schools on the West Coast and culled them by having information interviews near where we live. He also is very familiar with both Northern and Southern California, so knew what life could be like on the West Coast.</p>
<p>After some of these interviews he received thank yous for showing interest.</p>
<p>As for your question about when to visit, and assuming there are obvious East Coast places to apply, I suggest visiting in February, when it’s potentially worst for someone used to California and the cost of travel is low.</p>
<p>Chronologically, my son did Spring of junior year visits, summer visits, fall visits, and winter visits. When he had to decide among acceptances, there was one school he had never seen, which was trumped by where he’s now an alum. All the visits were useful. It didn’t matter when he went.</p>
<p>However, since I am trying to focus on schools where D would be highly qualified in relation to the average admittance stats in the hope of getting merit aid that would make it affordable</p>
<p>Not just above the “average stats,” but well within the top quartile. </p>
<p>Also, find out if the school awards many merit scholarships. If the school only awards a small number, then stats probably need to be in the top 1-2% of the school. </p>
<p>I think one reason why answers are “all over the map” is because people have different circumstance. Some have more discretionary funds, some have Frequent Flier miles and/or hotel points, some don’t have to travel across the country for their visits, etc.</p>
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<p>I think you definitely need to take a step back and research schools and their financial aid policies BEFORE you plan a visit – or at least get clear in your mind what your own financial priorities are. For example, would you be willing to pay more if your daughter was accepted to a reach school, like an Ivy League? </p>
<p>Here’s the problem with a pre-application tour in a nutshell: Your daughter will be comparing the merit-offering schools with the school that don’t need to offer merit money to attract students, and she may very well find she likes the environment or amenities at the more expensive schools better. So you need to plan your itinerary very carefully. </p>
<p>Also, please take postings on CC about merit money with a grain of salt, simply because you aren’t getting a good sampling of information. The kids who get generous awards post the good results; kids who have the same or better stats but don’t get offered similar financial aid don’t bother. If a school guarantees aid based on certain stats, you’re in luck - but outside of that you need to keep in mind that schools use their merit dollars to fill a variety of different agendas. So some kid from Idaho might be offered a lot of money while a kid with better stats from Rhode Island is passed over, because that particular college is trying to build geographic diversity. (Unfortunately, despite the distance, Californians don’t get a big “geographic diversity” boost because there are plenty of us headed off to east coast schools already)</p>
<p>“Not just above the “average stats,” but well within the top quartile.”</p>
<p>Yes, what I said was “highly qualified in relation to average admittance stats.” Shooting for not just above average, but WAY above average, i.e., top 10%.</p>
<p>Our family would look at different areas of the country when we traveled on vacation. If there were Us in the area, we MIGHT drive by or around or near them. We did NOT spend time or money flying JUST to visit ANY Us. We did this for many years before our kids were applying to Us, just to have some idea of different areas of the country and how rural some campuses actually were, what show fences are and how they look, etc. </p>
<p>This was helpful without being draining and overwhelming to any of us. It also did not feel like a waste of time or money. We visited during the summer because that is the time that worked best for us.</p>
<p>Some kids go on tours with their HSs, but our kids declined and seemed fine doing it the way we did it. The U that our kids both attended ironically neither of them set foot on until S was there for move-in day in August after his HS graduation. They did a quick drive around campus, but that was all. Both kids ended up happily matriculating from there.</p>
<p>Personally, I think “fit” and the idea of the “perfect U” is highly over-rated. There are many good Us that will work for most students. If it’s a fairly large U, most students can find their niche, especially within the department the student plans to major in. That was the case for both of our kids, who went to a very large U.</p>
<p>Get in. Then go. Very empowering to be an accepted student. Schools look very different through the eyes of an admitted student. And you’ll know the bottom line cost. DD was admitted to 7 schools, 5 of which she hadn’t seen before applying. (all OOS publics, so “fit” maybe not as important as geography) In some cases schools went from bottom-to-top of the list based on final merit aid. In some cases, in the end, she wasn’t willing to take the time necessary to travel for a visit.</p>