<p>Well, I have done a few college visits already, and plan to visit all of the top schools that I want to apply to. But, I have a large list of schools, and it would be a bit too costly to visit them all. Is it all that important to visit a college? Of course, upon acceptance, I will visit all of the ones I will be considering going to. But during jr./ beginning of sr. year, is it that important to visit all colleges to which you are going to apply?</p>
<p>On a side note, I have read here that colleges look favorably upon people that have visited. Is this true?</p>
<p>I live in the Midwest. Visiting all the colleges I was considering on the East Coast would have been ridic expensive, and considering my chances at all of them hovered around 10%, it wasn't worth it to my family financially to make the visits. I don't feel that it really hurt me much, and consequently I only visited schools after I'd been admitted (in the end, I only ended up applying to two schools on the East Coast, both of which I was admitted to, and only one of which I actually visited and will be attending next fall). </p>
<p>If you still feel that you really want to visit schools before you apply, try cutting that list down using the resources currently at your disposal on the web first. </p>
<p>And regarding your side note, it very much depends. If you live a distance away that would make travel overly expensive or difficult, even those schools that take visiting into consideration can't really hold it against you. All in all, it won't be a make-it-or-break it point at most schools (WashU is a potential exception, but I've given up trying to figure out how they work anyways).</p>
<p>visit a few schools so you can see what you like and dislike generally about college campuses, but you dont have to visit all the schools you applied to. Once your accepted, visit ones you are really interested in, that way you can avoid falling in love with a school you can't get in to.</p>
<p>My personal experience was I visited about 5 schools (out of state) my junior year, ended up applying to only two, and ended up not getting in to either of them. Then I had to go back and visit schools I had been accpeted to. It would have saved me money if I had waited untill acceptances to visit.</p>
<p>I think that you should visit your very top schools (ie dream schools and whatnot) for sure and an indeterminate amount of other schools based on distance, interest, and anyother factor that you deem important.</p>
<p>If you can't visit, see if you can have an alumni interview near where you live, or connect with a rep at a college fair. Or see if the colleges you are interested in assign admissions counselors/officers to specific students (often based on area). I didn't visit any of the places I appied to and I wish I had. It would have helped me narrow down my search. I got into all of them anyway, but after visiting them there were a couple that I wouldn't have bothered with if I'd seen them earlier.</p>
<p>There's a lot of disagreement from what I've seen on CC about the importance of college visits. Some people swear by them, claiming they are the only real way to asses fit and to save oneself from going to a university in the fall discovering that, "Hey! I actually don't like this place!". Others seem to consider the impressions one gains from a few hours, on one day, from a very limited number of students to be unreliable to say the least, and can very often be misleading. Most people however, seem to have a generally favorable view of college visits however, in my readings here at least.</p>
<p>IMO, wait until you've been accepted. It will save a lot of money. Ironically, the one school of my top three that I didn't visit (until I was accepted) is the one I'm going to.</p>
<p>-> And that school is WUSTL. Seriously, they're not going to reject you because you didn't visit- just make sure to still show interest.</p>
<p>It also depends on the school. After her EA deferral, D2 was considering applying to Skidmore without having visited. In speaking with a local alum about an interview, he indicated that the # of applicants have increased significantly in the last 2 years and, therefore, "expressed interest" was highly regarded by Skidmore. He may have been honest, but D decided not to apply. In Dec, she tweaked her list of schools and replaced 3 with others...and was admitted to them...all sight unseen. BTW, after returning from college visits earlier this week, D2 committed to one of 3...the last school she saw. So, in this instance, it was the visit (after being accepted) that made the difference.</p>