<p>hello all! i am a senior in austin, texas. however, the schools i am currently looking at are in:
- maine
- minnesota
- ohio
- north carolina
- washington
- massachusetts</p>
<p>is there any way i can visit these schools without completely breaking the bank? my mom mentioned something about schools paying to fly students out to visit them, but i don't think thats correct. is there any sort of program in place that could help?</p>
<p>thanks x 2342938742983!</p>
<p>which schools, specifically?</p>
<p>Sometimes if you apply & are accepted & the school really wants you, they will offer to send you a plane ticket to visit, particularly if your profile is attractive to them (high grades, scores, good ECs, adding to their school profile). You might ask your GC about this and/or check different college's websites.<br>
I'm not aware of any formal program that allows students to visit schools other than what individual colleges sometimes offer. Some high schools take students on college tours as well, for a fee.</p>
<p>my current list: oberlin, carleton, bowdoin, wellesley, whitman, elon, beloit, and rice. i've visited rice and elon so far.</p>
<p>I was invited to visit one school (not on your list) after I was accepted, with them paying for the ticket and everything. Many of the people there said that all the schools they visited paid, but not all had approached them with the offer, they just asked if the school would pay for their visit. So, it would be very worthwhile to call the schools up and ask about it, especially after you are accepted, and especially if you are a minority.</p>
<p>My son checked with a couple schools about them paying for him to visit (Oberlin and Lawrence), and neither of them did so. I think it is usually just if a school really wants you that they will pay for you to visit.</p>
<p>My son chose to wait until acceptances came in to visit, figuring it was a waste to visit when he might not even get in. Then he just visited his top choices of the ones that accepted him. It wasn't cheap, but he was glad he did. Especially being a music performance major, he felt he needed to have a lesson with the person he would be working with, to see if he felt it would work out.</p>
<p>I think Amtrak has special rates for kids visiting colleges, but I couldn't find any such program on any airline. :-(</p>
<p>You can save money by getting permissions to stay in the dorms at the schools. Most schools will do that.</p>
<p>my daughter visited a group of schools with her junior class ( she attended a private school), in the region. Mostly to see types, rather than specific schools. ( now they even do a tour on the other coast)
We looked at few schools together- all within our region. While some colleges are especially eager to cover charges for promising applicants especially minorities, we also reasoned that if the school was difficult to visit, how difficult would it be to come home for holidays or summers?
Many schools have videos of campus which can be moderately helpful.
Livejournal is also a way to obtain information which you won't find in the school brochures.
It can be very worthwhile to visit schools,although many students attend schools that they have never visited. Both of my nieces for example are attending a school on the other side of the country that they chose after a visit to their high school from the admission officer.
Amtrak does give discounts to students on visits, and smaller schools usually have students stay in dorms rather than a hotel, so that is fairly inexpensive.
I would suggest to find out as much about the schools in which you are interested without any visits at all. also tour schools in your region to compare types of schools and to hear questions raised by other families, they often have thoughts that you won't have thought of.
Then after you have done as much as you can, identify just a few schools to tour that you can afford. It is possible that the schools will be more receptive to paying for your visit after you are accepted but before you have decided where to attend</p>
<p>The students at our local hs whose visits were paid for by schools were recruited URM candidates.</p>
<p>idk about your list but pittsburgh sent me a letter offering to reimburse me for like $200 travel expense. I think u have to have high test scores or something to get this offer</p>
<p>The only people whom I know that schools have paid to visit are: students who have applied and who are at the very top of the pool; highly qualified URMs; recruited athletes and low income applicants who qualify for admission to a well endowed college that meets 100% of financial need and is trying to diversify by adding more low income students.</p>
<p>With the exception of the most highly sought after URMS and athletes, to get flown in one usually needs to apply first and to basically be admitted. Sometimes the fly-ins are offered as the equivalent of likely letters. </p>
<p>Unless one is in an extremely sought after category, even the colleges that fly in students won't fly you in until you apply and adcoms have reviewed your application to make sure that you're likely to be admitted. They don't want to waste their $ flying in students whom they may not accept or who may not bother to apply.</p>
<p>If you can't afford to fly to those schools, you might want to think again about whether you can afford to apply to colleges so far from home. It can be nice to go to a college where it doesn't break the bank to fly home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, long weekends, etc. It's also nice to go to a college where your parents can afford to visit you for parent's weekend. </p>
<p>With the hurricanes causing oil prices to shoot up, airfares are going to go up drastically. My advice would be that if $ is an issue, apply to some places closer to home. In addition, airfares usually are high anyway during the times that students are most likely to travel because those are peak times and the airlines don't have to lure travelers with bargains.</p>
<p>As for seeing the college, do a Google search for the company that sells videos of guidance counselors touring colleges. At about $23 a video, that can be an economical way to get an unbiased view of colleges.</p>
<p>It is not absolutely necessary to visit until you know where you have been accepted--you can usually do interviews with local alumni. If you are accepted at several places and can't decide which one to attend-then you could visit 2 or 3 top choices instead of 6-10.</p>
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If you can't afford to fly to those schools, you might want to think again about whether you can afford to apply to colleges so far from home.
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</p>
<p>this is a really valid point because some colleges completely shut down thanksgiving, winter break spring break and other holiday weekends. If your college has no interim housing and you could be stuck between a rock and a hard place with either no place to go or completely dependent on the kindness of strangers.
I would look at the school calendar to see how many times a year your school is closed. Many schools will calaulate travel cost in your FA package (as the cost of attendance) but .do not give you travel expenses when calculating your FA (they figure that you will save your work study earning to take care of it).</p>
<p>Actually, it's important to ask each campus when the dorm is closed as opposed to what the school holidays are. Some schools have the dorms open even if the school has a holiday while others close the dorms several times a year for holidays; most schools close for winter & summer break but some close for more breaks including spring & Thanksgiving, etc. This is a signficant consideration especially if you live far from campus & intend to fly home every time the dorm is closed.</p>
<p>thanks everyone for your advice!</p>
<p>it seems like North Carolina ( asheville?) closes during breaks- not just winter and spring breaks- but they close for fall break- close on Tuesday for Thanksgiving....
They probably do arrange to have students stay with local students- but still it is good to know in advance.
<a href="http://www.unca.edu/housing/files/calendar/september.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.unca.edu/housing/files/calendar/september.asp</a></p>
<p>My oldest son did not visit until after he received his acceptances, and then visited only one school. (He had a clear favorite). If you cannot visit, make sure you contact each school on your list, either my mail or email (there is usually a link on their admissions webpage). You are not necessarily on their mailing list just because you have received a pamphlet or viewbook from a school. Let them know you are interested and request info. Also let them know your academic and EC interests. This way you will receive not only general info, but sometimes you will receive info from the specific departments and programs you have expressed interest in. Also you will be informed if they are interviewing or conducting info sessions in your area, which you should make an effort to attend. If the admission reps to not travel to your area, you may still be able to set up an alumni interview. Smaller schools will track your interest, so if you can't visit these kinds of contacts are important.<br>
Also, you can learn a lot from the schools' websites, the info they send, and college guidebooks. No, it's not the same as a visit, but hopefully you can identify a few favorites and then visit those after acceptances are received.</p>
<p>My D also only visited schools to whom she was accepted and if her #1 choice was not so self-important with no sooner than April 1, vs other schools who would either give hints to the GC or even sent likely letters, we would have saved hundreds of $. We knew we could not fit all the visits into April, due to EC requirements, but my D was very happy not to go see tons of schools, we researched here and online for the list.</p>