<p>I would absolutely recommend a tour...there are questions asked, things that need to be thought about, etc, and a tour is very useful for helping narrow down possibilites, or even become aware of what to consider when it gets time to pick where to apply</p>
<p>you don't have to do many tours, but doing one will give kids a feel for what they need to be thinking about....</p>
<p>my D didn't think she wanted/needed a school with a traditional campus, that school spirit thing, but when she saw the differences between the traditional and the more urban (Fordham vs NYU) it helped her solidify what she was looking for...</p>
<p>these are 15 year old girls, they can handle a college tour</p>
<p>I am not saying every school needs a tour, but one is helpful</p>
<p>WHen we went to boston, we walked around Harvard and MIT (reaches for all involved and no one was really interested) but they were historical and interesting places</p>
<p>Check the web sites of the school you are planning to visit. Some require appointments for info sessions (like Stanford or NYU) - you can still all go, but you have to sign up in advance.</p>
<p>Okay, so you can color me compulsive, but I'm in favor of tours at multiple colleges. They're very good for prompting "I never even thought about that" kinds of questions and subsequent mullings and what issues surface on one tour may not on another.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>You know, given CC...I wonder if there is anyone out there who has toured all 3,500 colleges....</p>
<p>I just want to make it clear--I'm not AGAINST tours at this point, I'm just saying that I don't think that they are necessary, either--you shouldn't feel like you have to go on a tour to visit a college. However, I am a very self-directed person and was already researching the kinds of info that comes up in tours and info sessions, so they may be beneficial to kids who are really just starting out in the admissions process. </p>
<p>During the "official" college trip marathon that my father and I took, we always did a tour and info session, when they were available (we always did a tour--there weren't always IS's, though). Also, if the OP or anyone else is thinking about a hardcore marathon tour like I did, know that it is possible and is a realistic way to visit many colleges (i.e., you WILL be able to remember and differentiate the separate colleges), but that you need to be super organized to pull it off. We had a binder that had all our trip info--itinerary, Mapquest directions, info for each college, and hotel info--organized in chronological order, and I am sure that we could not have pulled the trip off without it.</p>
<p>My daughter was definitely not ready to think about college during her sophomore year, but we did incorporate visiting some colleges into a vacation the summer before junior year. This trip was very low key, and it worked out very well -- it helped her figure out what she liked and didn't like in broad brush strokes (urban vs rural, big vs small). </p>
<p>However, most of her classmates were not interested in doing college trips until spring of junior year. Some weren't ready to start thinking about college until senior year. If your daughter is "very undecided" -- that is normal for a sophomore, and for most juniors (and even many seniors). By making visits in spring of sophomore year, that means the whole college application process will take place over a 2-year span. For most teenagers, that's a very long time -- it will seem like forever, a lifetime, and you risk burnout. </p>
<p>Also, junior year is really critical. I saw kids who had high GPAs crash junior year, and get mediocre SAT scores. You don't want your kid to fall in love with a very selective school based on 1 1/2 years of HS that may be totally out of reach by the beginning of senior year.</p>
<p>If you want your child to apply to a few rolling admissions schools, it seems like waiting until senior year to visit is waiting too long (unless the student plans to visit after applying).</p>
<p>Also, my daughter (currently a HS sophmore) may want to audition as a dance major. So I'm thinking she needs to get a feel for different dance programs before late in her junior year, especially as modern dance offerings must vary greatly from school to school. (In fact, she may need to visit in order to decide whether or not she wants to audition as a dance major.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
now that it is possible and is a realistic way to visit many colleges (i.e., you WILL be able to remember and differentiate the separate colleges), but that you need to be super organized to pull it off. We had a binder that had all our trip info--itinerary, Mapquest directions, info for each college, and hotel info--organized in chronological order, and I am sure that we could not have pulled the trip off without it.
[/quote]
Roger that. There were times that I felt like the Slim Pickens character in "Dr. Strangelove," running through my checklists as we approached departure date and then flew through our fail/safe points. </p>
<p>In counterpoint to Sly, I'll say that it depends on the kid. On one hand, D knew from second grade that she wanted to go to college and by the beginning of high school it was abundantly clear that she was going to be looking in either very or most competitive circles. Very fortunately, she was not inclined to fall in love with any one or two schools until late in the game and even then she was very methodical, dealing with EA rejection and then visiting the top two choices to make sure of her inclinations. </p>
<p>Her criteria--and I'm not wild about the term but someone else used it a couple of days ago--were certainly "fussier" than many students might find necessary but knowing D and her interests, I think they were appropriate.</p>
<p>But this raises an issue that's been evolving in my mind as I've read numerous conversations on CC over the past few months, an issue that causes some parents to look at the statements of others with faint comprehension and/or dubious belief: our students really are different. And qualities as individuals aside, I think one can do a triage, separating them into those who will have equally good experiences at any number of colleges and others for whom various personal traits and interests introduce a wildly variable response among the same colleges. One of our best friends' sons is among the former; our D is most definitely one of the latter. Nothing good or bad, smart or dumb, right or wrong about either end (or being somewhere in the middle...I don't think it's a binary condition). But seeing the process through the refractive lens of how our own offspring tick can make us puzzle over some views from the other side.</p>
<p>There seem to be a lot of parents of "only" children on the board, in line with demographics. I've seen some suggestion from those who have multiple children that they've encountered a difference within this framework between two of their children. </p>
<p>Actually, TheDad, I did say it depends on the kid -- that was one of the points of my post. My daughter was ready the summer before junior year, but many many kids were not (her friends included). One of our friends has sons who are one year apart. When the older brother was a senior, his junior brother refused to go visit colleges with him. He just wasn't ready.</p>
<p>so what if a kid is not "ready"- sometimes a parents job to is to expose kids to new things</p>
<p>"refused" to go....well, sorry, sometimes, you just go with your parents...it doesn't have to be a marathon trip and the kid doesn't even have to talk, but you would be suprised at when the student realizes its just exploration, and there is no real presure, they can actually learn something</p>
<p>sorry, but i would have taken that Jr....snarky or not</p>
<p>I agree with most of what Carolyn said, but not all. Whether or not you should include some reaches this early depends upon your child. My kid saw a super reach school during the fall of 10th grade by attending an EC event for high school kids that was held there. During the event, kid went to a class with a friend and to an info session. Came home and announced "I am going to go to X for college." I said, "Yeah, right. Not with your grades you aren't." Kid said "It's not too late to turn it around--I even asked about that." I'm sure you know the end of the story---that's where my kid went to college. </p>
<p>Now, if your kid is a B+ student who is working hard to achieve that GPA and stuggles with math, I wouldn't haul him/her off to look at MIT. But, that said, for kids like mine who tend to underperform, seeing some of those reach schools can really light a fire under them. Someone else commented about how some kids can crash and burn as juniors. Well, others can suddenly get their acts together and they may be more likely to do it if they get a "taste" of what working a bit harder might get them. </p>
<p>Yes, I was lucky because it worked out for my kid and not everyone is so fortunate. Still, for the kid who is a late bloomer or a bit of a slacker, a visit to a reach school can be beneficial. And, of course, for that plan to work the kids have to LIKE the reach school--which doesn't always happen.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom: Please don't get worked up over my anecdote. I don't know all the inner workings of this family, but if a kid says -- "mom, dad, I don't want to take time off from school my junior year to visit colleges with my brother" -- why should the parents force him to go? I know many cases where only one parent visited colleges with a kid, while the other one stayed home. This kid was not being snarky or unreasonable. His decision to stay home meant that all the attention was on his brother, which I think is a good thing. This wasn't a family vacation we're talking about, but visits during the school year. His parents accepted the fact that he wanted to stay home and study, play a varsity sport, hang out with friends, etc., instead of visiting college campuses with his older brother. Do I think this kid was being foolish, and short sighted -- perhaps. For whatever reason, he just was totally uninterested in visiting colleges in his junior year.</p>
<p>Spring Break is a bit rushed with 3 kids. They will get bored with nothing but colleges to see. At this age, if what you want them to do is see a large school, LAC, urban, rural, etc., I would do the trip during the summer as a vacation, which I did with D and her friend. We scheduled touristy stuff, visited family along the way, hit every Six Flags from TX to MA, and Dollywood. Had a great time, and although we didn't see many students in classes, etc., we were able to get a feel for the schools. It worked, and she was able to whittle down her list and set her priorities.</p>
<p>EJR, I guess I'm in an argumentative mood today--this came up in another thread earlier--but summer is emphatically not the best time to get a good sense of a college, whether it be an LAC or a research university. The physical plant is not nearly so important as the feel of the campus with actual students on it, not students shipped in for various summer programs. Summer beats not going at all if either schedules or finances don't permit but it's far from optimum.</p>
<p>We saw Georgetown twice, once in session, once out: two different places. I've been on both UCLA (often) and Smith when in and out of session...two different places. In all three cases, the schools show <em>much</em> better when in normal session. Fortunately, high school Spring breaks and college Spring breaks appear not to often align, so if you <em>can</em> travel during the Spring, you'll usually get a good sense of the college.</p>
<p>Sly, I went back and re-read your post and I still think the same upon re-reading: it's mostly negative on the idea of early visits to colleges. All your points are valid but I think drawn too broadly.</p>
<p>We came across lots of younger siblings tagging along on college tours and sitting in on infomration sessions. IMO a small dose of this is a good thing. It is a lot more useful for someone about to enter HS to hear what colleges are going to be looking for than for someone about to enter their senior year.</p>
<p>10th grade seems a perfect time to visit, but it might be best to be respectful of the more immediate needs of the admissions folks to give the most attention to seniors/juniors. Because of our schedling, we have one week each spring to see non-drunk (i.e., weekday) college kids on campus, so we're going this year (9th).</p>
<p>I think it's very late for a senior to still be making a first round of visits.</p>
<p>I've been dragging my kid through every college we go past since she was in second grade. It's one of the things I remind her of when she doesn't want to study ("wasn't Williams College so pretty that time we visited?")</p>
<p>I alluded to it in my previous post, but I do think it bears a bit of repeating: you do owe it to consider the other people on the tours a bit. Certainly most, if not all, of the siblings on my tours were perfectly well behaved, but it can get annoying to have those extra bodies taking up space on already overcrowded tours, and this is only magnified when the kids really doesn't want to be there. I'm not saying that siblings can't come! I'm just saying that they should try to stick to the back of the group and, if they are just going to mope around because they really don't want to be there, left to chill in the campus coffeeshop or something during the tour. </p>
<p>I 85th, or whatever number we're on, the "every kid is different" sentiment. I saw the "big three" (HYP) BEFORE I entered HS--and this didn't bother me a bit. It didn't make me feel pressured, or feel like my parents had unrealistic expectations. However, with a different kid in a different family, this would border on poor parenting and would stifle/put huge amounts of pressure on the kid. Doesn't make it wrong for me--but it would be wrong for some kids. Same thing with visits before the kid is ready, as long as there is some more time later to do visits. I do agree that at a certain point, a parent might need to "force" a kid a bit, but that time isn't 10th grade, IMO.</p>
<p>techiemom: My advice: The main focus of sophs should be to determine the
TYPE OF SCHOOL (as opposed to specific colleges) they might be interested in. Have them visit at least one LARGE UNIVERSITY, one MEDIUM COLLEGE, and one SMALLER college. Mix them up: State vs. Private, Suburban vs. Urban vs. Rural, etc. Once they do this, they will have a "gut feeling" about the TYPE of school might suit them best.</p>
<p>As the students progress through the junior year, they should get more and more in tune with SPECIFIC colleges they might wish to consider. But, as sophs, looking at SPECIFIC colleges is like putting the cart before the horse.</p>
<p>The one thing that concerns me most about sophs picking specific colleges is this: Where did they come up with the names of specific colleges to visit? Usually they are influenced by friends, peers, family, etc...which is not good so early in the ballgame.</p>
<p>Remember this: For decades, college choice used to be about a 10-month process. Because of the "college frenzy", it has evolved into a process that students are taking way too seriously at a younger and younger age. The result: too many students are spending too much time doing "all the right things" to get into a good college. The price they pay is that they are missing out on the joys and experiences of being an adolescent. Instead, we are seeing to many teens falling victim to eating disorders, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, etc.</p>
<p>Be sure your sophs don't take the college selection process too seriously!</p>
<p>I'd be a little leary of the best friend element here. Neither of them has a clear idea of where they want to go to school aside from possibly wanting to go together. That may or may not play out but it might add a little pressure that they view schools through a shared lens. If this was a trip for another purpose which happened to include some college campus sightseeing it might be different, but I'd prefer to do just parent/child.</p>