Our college counselor drafted a college list for our soon-to-be Sr. son. It included U of Chicago and Northwestern. She said campus visit is a MUST for both, but we are struggling with summer schedule. Want to get your opinions on this? Thank you in advance.
For Northwestern, a visit is important because NU does take demonstrated interest into account, and the application has a “Why NU” question. Without visiting, it could be difficult to answer this question in a meaningful way. Also, NU’s campus is stretched out along Lake Michigan in a linear way; it’s more of a strip, which may or may not appeal to some.
U Of Chicago is in a questionable neighborhood that, again, should be visited before one commits to attending. If you should visit before attending, why not do it before applying.
What is her reason for a visit being a MUST for both?
To determine whether a visit is worthwhile, you and your son should think about what aspects of the school each of you needs to visit to determine (as opposed to finding information on the web or other sources). If there are such aspects, then you and he need to make a plan to ensure that you see those aspects on the visit, rather than just visiting without really finding out things that may be important to you.
Chicago was high on D’s list until she saw the campus, after which it was crossed off.
@prospect1 It’s only questionable if you consider upper-middle-class academics to be highly likely to be criminals. Which, considering Fab Tourre teaches there, may not be incorrect. Otherwise, it’s no different from Penn’s or Columbia’s locales, and a fair bit nicer than Yale’s place in New Haven.
As for visiting, it’s a good idea, especially since Northwestern really likes them and both can be done in a day.
IMHO, visiting is a must for any college an applicant is seriously considering. Unless you qualify for application-fee waivers, in which case the college knows that you can’t afford to visit.
A pretty decent alternative is to attend the info sessions that admissions reps give at high schools, if his HS hosts these types of things.
Visiting non-local schools may be more of a luxury for students from higher SES families who have the money and vacation time. It is rather likely that many students never visit the schools they are attending until they arrive for their first semester of study (this probably includes a large percentage of international students).
If they are within driving distance, then campus visit for these schools may be very critical to demonstrate interest or lack of interest). We did dive 4 hours to NU a couple years ago for a campus visit. It was very helpful and informative. My was accepted RD but declined the offer as she does not like the campus there.
There are other ways than a visit to demonstrate interest. For schools that are not local. it is fine to send periodic emails to the admissions counselor. Admissions counselors know who is or isn’t within driving distance and will take that into consideration.
I do think it is good to visit before committing, not necessary for all schools before applying. A person only has so much time and money.
My D went to Tulane, which has a Why Tulane question and also considers demonstrated interest. We live 16 hours away. She did not visit until an admitted students weekend, in order to decide if that is where she should go. It works out fine.
Son was admitted to both RD and did not visit either one. If however, you are within a reasonable driving distance (he was not) I think it would only help.
Kat
U of Chicago actually has a stunning campus. But the reasons for visiting aren’t so much due to the campus as the intellectual vibe. They are quite different in that respect. The problem with waiting for accepted student days to visit is that the window can be short if you have multiple colleges to see. Tickets are expensive on short notice and the month of April is busy for spring high school activities.
If your college counselor stated it’s a MUST for your son, I’d say it’s a must. She knows your son, the high school, the track record of students from your high school applying to both schools, etc. If you can’t make time to visit both campuses (assuming you can afford a visit), that is a clear sign of a lack of interest in the two colleges–for you.
There are direct flights to Chicago, if it isn’t in driving distance. From our local airports, the airfare is quite reasonable. It’s a fun city to visit. Could you find a day or two to visit in the fall?
If you search for “Northwestern University Common Data Set,” you’ll find the CDS. It lists “level of applicant’s interest” under the category of “considered.” That sounds not so important, until you realize that the following are also “considered:”
Interview
First Generation
Alumni/ae relation
Racial/Ethnic Status
Volunteer Work
Work Experience
(I can’t find UChicago’s CDS online.)
Looking at the CDS, it states that Northwestern admitted 926 out of 2625 applicants early in 2014-15. That represents roughly 20% of all the admitted students that year. If your child is able to apply early decision, it can increase the chances of admission. However, I would not advise anyone to apply ED without visiting, particularly in an area with significant winter weather.
Do you have a long weekend in the fall when he can go?
Re post #3, after we visited the campus U of Chicago was tied for first place. It’s gorgeous and the neighborhood is mostly fine. We took the bus back to the airport (Midway) and so we saw the less fine parts.
U of Chicago has (or at least had) a “Why Chicago?” essay. My son did not see the campus until after he was accepted, but was able to write a very funny response which they commented on when they sent him a holiday card after his EA acceptance. If either campus is easy to get to you might get dinged for not visiting, but there are other ways of demonstrating interest - for example admissions officers may visit the school during the school year and have a session he can attend there. Most colleges understand that time and money are limited.
All that said, my son found it easier to write those “Why ___ college?” essays if he had visited the campus.
I think there’s a world of difference between Northwestern and Chicago…but sometimes for a family all that matters is cost and the kiddo is going to go where the cost is the lowest. In a case like that there isn’t much need to visit a campus because the destination is going to be determined by price. For a family where there is wiggle room and costs are less important then taking the time to be able to differentiate campus culture can become a more important factor and it makes sense to visit. Personally I much prefer the Chicago campus to the Northwestern campus but if the decision came down to cost both colleges are outstanding.
Thank you everyone for your comments! It’s amazing how much information & support is here for a first time parent of an applying student. Can you sense OVERWHELMED? 
My son’s background is all over the place, super duper SAT score, but GPA is only around 3.5. The counselor listed these two schools as “dream-a-little” schools and said that if we don’t show interests, they are basically off the bet.There is an information session in town from U of C and we are planning to attend. She also said a Sept. visit would be too late, which is why the stress right now with schedules. We are in Seattle, so midwest weather could be a bit of concern.
University of Chicago considers “level of applicant’s interest”, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=327 .
Perhaps the visit may be desirable because the city of Chicago may have characteristics that many students are not used to. It is both racially/ethnically diverse, and racially/ethnically segregated, according to http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/ .
We visited both schools over spring break bc uchicago had a full day of activities and we saw northwestern the following day. Our oldest son had the same reaction as mathmom’s son. Uchicago after that visit became tied for first choice & he applied EA. He didn’t apply to northwestern bc he preferred the uchicago vibe. It was a better fit for him.
I think if you just do the regular campus visits, you could probably do both schools in a day. And I agree with the above, if it’s within driving distance, you should make the trip. If not, and money is tight, I’d wait to see if he’s accepted. It’s a lot less expensive to apply to both schools than it is to visit.
From Seattle, it will be very expensive and time-consuming to visit. I wouldn’t bother unless he is accepted and still seriously considering them at that point. Check out campus photos to get some idea. I can see they might expect you to visit if you were within driving distance but I don’t see how a school could hold it against a family for not having the time and what, close to a thousand dollars for two plane tickets from Seattle and hotel?–just to make a pre-application campus tour.
Visiting is helpful as we were able to cross a few schools off after a pre-application campus visit. We visited all the schools within driving distance, combining some visits with family vacations. There were a few schools my daughter applied to that would have involved a plane trip to visit and I was not willing to do that before having an acceptance in hand. As it turned out, those all dropped from her list of final contenders either because she got into schools she knew she liked better or else she was not accepted. She also received an offer of subsidized travel to visit one of the schools, after acceptance of course, and I would have felt silly if I’d already paid for that.
How will you feel if you spend the money and time on this Chicago visit and end up with two rejection letters?
My son and I just got back from visiting both schools. UC was not top 5 for him before but is now number 1 by a long shot. He’s almost obsessively intellectually curious and just loved the vibe, loved the students we met, and loved the ad coms we talked to. The campus is stunning and there are security and cops everywhere. I’m not even a little worried about safety there. Northwestern was awesome too and if we hadn’t just come from UC it would have seemed perfect. The campus is beautiful (especially this time of year, not so much in Feb).
Both schools care about demonstrated interest. And I get the sense that UC is very yield sensitive so that might make it even more important.