My daughter is a rising senior who will start her application process in a month. I’d like to take her on school visits the week of July 20th. I’m a bit worried that she won’t get the feel of the school without all the students present, but I don’t want to wait until fall either, as there are so many to see. We are planning on seeing Vassar, Cornell, Williams, Tufts and Univ Wisconsin. (We’ve already seen Vanderbilt, UVA, William & Mary, UPenn, and Swarthmore).
Are there any school that folks think we should wait until fall to see?
When does your daughter start the school year? If she is at a school that starts in Sept, visits in late August can work at many schools so that you can hit them when they are in session. It is MUCH better to visit when schools are in session, especially for smaller schools like Swarthmore, Williams, and Vassar.
Some schools look favorably on visits, or meetings with their college representatives at high schools as part of the admission process. I would prioritize those and visit those she plans on applying early to first. Seeing a school out of session is not all that helpful to get a good feel for the campus, the students, and the vibe of the place.
I think seeing schools that have summer programs or summer terms during the summer is okay. So Cornell should be fine. We visited Dartmouth last summer and there were a fair number of students on campus.
The summer visits when you go on a tour or where there is an open house seem to go well. The summer tours are well attended. The schools also interview in the summer.
Just showing up and wandering around campus in the summer usually isn’t a great idea.
If you do tours in the summer, just remind your D that OF COURSE the campus is going to look ‘dead’ - especially at a LAC (like Vassar or Swarthmore) that don’t have grad students and/or classes year round. You can’t sit in on classes that aren’t happening or eat in a cafeteria that’s closed or peek into a dorm that is locked up for the summer, or check out those bulletin boards for activities that aren’t scheduled. That said, you will probably get a lot more personal attention on the tour from the guide, even some frank conversation and an interview with an admissions person who isn’t rushed.
So the real question is how good is your kid at visualizing what a place could be, rather than what it actually is on that day? (This is not as much of a problem at larger schools that have big summer programs, grad students year round, etc…, so try to schedule those schools in the summer.)
Great schools! Has your D picked out her safety school? One that is affordable, she is guaranteed admission and most importantly she would be happy to attend. If so terrific, if not I would be sure to spend some time considering those.
I think you do lose a good bit visiting when schools are not in session. You don’t really get a sense of what it is like when the students are there. I’d say this is particularly important for the LACs which each had a decidedly different “vibe” (we visited a number of LACs with my D but not the ones on your list). Still, if it is the only time you can reasonably schedule a visit, then go.
We visited a lot of schools during the summer last year. Some had summer sessions going on and it was possible to get a feel for what campus is like in session.
Most of the schools on your list are reaches, even for students with stellar scores. If visiting Cornell & Vassar, why not consider Union? Or if looking at Williams, perhaps St. Lawrence? My D has a classmate with superb grades and scores (but so-so ECs) who got into only one of the elites to which she applied. When May 1 rolled around, she really didn’t have any choice at all, and she should have been a student who had plenty of choices.
All this about missing out when schools aren’t in session is true to an extent, but I do actually think that people put way too much weight on that sort of thing. Go and visit when you can visit—and since your child is a rising senior, earlier is better. In particular, she can get an idea of which of those schools she definitely doesn’t want to apply to, thus saving you all a bit of time pressure and such over the next few months.
Agreed, my DD has an internship during her senior year coming up that makes college visits during the school year more difficult since she can’t miss many days in that program. We have motored around to colleges that were open prior to commencement season, completely dead in that period between commencement and summer session and even hit one school right on commencement day (on a major trip through a bunch of schools) and another this past weekend on an alumni weekend. What we have found is that it is great to visit no matter when to see things like campus layout, the surrounding area, get a general feel for the way the school interacts with the community and even just to gauge what kind of a drive it is to school from home.
Great way to learn more about places she has only seen on a computer screen, can rule out places that are uncomfortable and can focus her energies on seeing different things once she goes back to those that become accepted student trips later, which thankfully are mostly on weekends. Go on summer visits, they are definitely worth it as a first step if you can fit them into your schedule, even better if there is an open house or tour available.
We did most of our initial school visits during summer and winter breaks — just too hard to do it during the school year! I think we got enough of an idea about the schools we visited.
That said, if it’s important to her, she can always revisit her top choices during the school year—or even after she’s been accepted.
Thanks, everyone! We do have Virginia Tech and JMU as safeties.
@MidwestDad3 if my daughter gets into any one of the elites, she’s gonna have to be happy. I tried putting Penn State and Pittsburgh on the list but she reached over my shoulder and deleted them from my spreadsheet.
@N’s Mom - Swarthmore looked dead even when school was in session, when we visited on Veterans Day and classes were in session. Beautiful campus but sooo tiny. (My daughter attends a big public high school.)
Perhaps we’ll visit the safeties instead of Williams and leave Williams for the fall. We’re going to be in NYC so we may as well as see Vassar, I think.
OP, I’m from Pennsylvania originally and Pitt has a very impressive honors college. I hope she reconsiders. Glad she has the other two safeties though.
@MidwestDad3, I went to junior high and high school in PA. Do you like Pitt’s honors college better than Penn State’s? I especially like Pitt’s rolling admissions. Will keep working on my daughter…
We visited Syracuse on a weekend. Arrived Saturday evening for dinner and left after a campus tour at around noon on a Sunday. The campus was in session, but was so deserted looking that we actually questioned whether we had messed up and arrived during a vacation period. I guess kids were getting ready to go out for the evening in their dorms on Saturday, and were still not awake by noon on Sunday. After that fall visit, I felt that it didn’t matter when you arrive on a campus. Do what works best with your schedule.
I grew up in western PA and have a sibling who was a Pitt undergrad, and a relative who taught there. I really admired their longtime Chancellor, Mark Nordenberg, who IMO brought world-class status to the University. But I don’t know enough to compare the Pitt program to Penn State’s.