<p>I’m newish here too…posted a couple of times a few weeks back. For whatever reason, arranging college tours seem hard to me but our high school sophomore is our oldest child. I’m sure this will seem easier once the younger siblings go through it. </p>
<p>My question…</p>
<p>When do you do all of this college touring for high school students with a schedule full or nearly full of AP classes? </p>
<p>My 2014er gets a little nervous when she misses one day of school. I suppose there is spring break but what if the schools the child wants to visit are on spring break then too? </p>
<p>And what about summers? I see people saying to not visit in the summer but is there any value to it if that is when it works best for a family to squeeze it in? I was hoping we could incorporate campus visits into a summer road trip in a few months but now my 2014er is headed overseas for the summer.</p>
<p>As crazy as this sounds, are kids ever too tied up with their obligations that they can’t go on college visits? Nuts, eh? I can’t believe I even have to ask this.</p>
<p>I think a farily large school with a fair number of summer offereings would be ok to visit during the summer. There would be students on campus and you could get a feel for the campus vibe. Otherwise, we did ours with dd1 on days when there was no school or we did have to pull her out. Not ideal.</p>
<p>My '14 flat out refuses to look at anything before spring of next year.</p>
<p>Yes, fitting in college visits can be difficult if your child has a full schedule and missing school is a problem. This is why starting sophomore year gives your more time. I promise you they will only be more busy in the jr year!! Most universities have their spring breaks earlier than hs spring break but it is good to check. Also, try to take advantage of teacher work days and visit any schools that you can do in a days visit. It takes planning, but it can be done. There are some schools that you can visit over the summer and not loose too much of the feel of the university, others really clear out. I know my S2’s university is hopping year round due to the number of students that take advantage of summer term. </p>
<p>You don’t have to visit ever school on your students list if they are applying coast to coast, however you can try to incorporate urban, rural, small, med, large, university, LAC, etc, so they can get an idea of what they like and don’t like. This can help them determine early on “I prefer a larger research university vs a small LAC”.</p>
<p>Curious what everyone’s thoughts are on visiting schools that are financially impossible or huge reach schools. Does anyone see any <em>real</em> value? We’re heading to the mid-west this summer and will be touring a range of school types but the last thing I want is for D to fall in love with a school that doesn’t offer merit aid. I know I will need to emphasize characteristics to fall in love with, not necessarily these particular schools but I’m wondering if I’m setting her up for heartbreak.</p>
<p>Thank you, ordinarylives and blue iguana! We do have occasional days off throughout the school year. That is a great idea to use those and visit schools of varying types within driving distance.</p>
<p>We’ve used school holidays to visit. Also, at least here colleges are back in session before the high schools which go after Labor Day, so the last weeks of the summer may be worth doing. My D won’t miss school either. We are going back to her #1 on a Saturday later this month so she can see one particular program at an open house type thing. If you have an alumni relationship with a school your child may even be remotely interested in, they often do special sessions for legacies and some include one on one interviews where they review the kids’ schedule, grades and scores, EC activities etc. We did that after D’s sophomore year. I think it really got her focused and more familiar with expectations. I sometimes forget that things that are obvious to me from when I was applying, and from when step-S was going through this 8 years ago, is not at all apparent to my high school kids. If you have a reticent child and a reasonable college option within an hour or so, I’d really push it. My S’14 was not at all enthusiastic about this but was a good enough kid to let me have my way last week, and now he’s completely interested in college searches.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t volunteer to take my child to visit a school that I cannot afford that is not known for good merit and financial aid, but it would be hard to say, “no” if my child asked to visit it. I expect that my D13 would love Georgetown where one of her closest friends is a first year but I won’t encourage her to consider it even though it has excellent programs in fields that interest her. I would hate to disappoint her by telling her she couldn’t attend if she got in, simply because we aren’t willing to take out PLUS loans.</p>
<p>We visited colleges with son (HS '12) in the summer because due to HS sports that’s when we could do it. You don’t get the total picture, but it’s certainly better than no visit.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great advice. Just got back from our college tour of the DC area and it went without a hitch. Perfect weather and got great tours. GU, GW, American and UM-College Park. Seems like a great area to go to school. Got dd really excited…really liked GW. Highly recommend taking sophmores to start to look. Was an eye opener and <em>hopefully</em> a motivator!!!</p>
<p>We plan on using teacher workdays when the kids are off and then spring break of junior year to make quick trips to tour schools. I figure we can hit 2-3 on each of those teacher workdays, and then several more during spring break. </p>
<p>We also squeeze in campus visits, although not always formal tours, whenever we happen to be near a school that holds some interest for my son. My parents live in the Bay Area, so we’ve strolled through both Cal and Stanford campuses. The last time we went to Northwestern for a football game (DH and I are alums) we arranged for S to meet with the department chair of the honors science program from which my DH matriculated. To our surprise, the chair asked 2-3 current students to meet with my son, gave him a tour of the department, and spent about 90 minutes with us.</p>
<p>pinkmom- glad the tour went well! You got a lot done!</p>
<p>We took advantage of the spring break and drove Sunday to see Gettysburg. Yes, it was Easter, but we didn’t have any plans, and Monday was the only day S’14 did not have baseball practice or a game. Good tour, nice school. Definitely on his list of places he would consider.</p>
<p>If the schools you want to visit are within driving distance, you can always squeeze one in by leaving early Saturday morning (if they offer Saturday tours). Wesleyan was on my daughter’s list only because they offered Sunday tours.</p>
<p>We just got back from seeing 3 schools - we added them to the end of a getaway. We saw College of Charleston, Clemson and Elon.</p>
<p>It was a huge eye opener for dd. She now gets why college is so exciting and we found out a lot of hugely useful info to help us narrow down our search. She defined what she does and doesn’t like in schools and as long as she doesn’t drastically change her mind, I now have a great idea of what she’s looking for. Having gone through it this year with my class of '12, I feel way less stressed about admissions and am immediately focusing on fit.</p>
<p>Eyemamom, why less stressed about admissions? Please share your calming secret! Apollo I agree about giant reaches. My D has loved UNC forever. We are out of state. Her numbers are ok for it but it’s a reach for anyone. Our deal is, apply and if you get in, we will go visit. Seems fair enough, both in terms of money to go visit and in terms of letting her focus on loving schools she can get into ( or ones we hope she can!).</p>
<p>89 - it’s less stressful now, first of all because dd is only in 10th grade. I also get that the work we put in researching schools for my son when he was in 11th really paid off for him. However, it took him a long time to start figuring out what he wanted in a school and with him being dyslexic his sat scores were miles apart between cr & math and it made it very difficult to figure out where he would get in. Plus, I didn’t understand the process at all. If I didn’t find this website I don’t know where we’d be today. I didn’t even know the common app was a website! </p>
<p>Now I get it. Colleges are way more understanding of kids than cc posters let on. Don’t for a second believe that ALL kids are taking ALL ap’s, starting businesses, doing a bazillion hours of amazing community service and are leaders in everything. I kept hearing about rigorous this and that, only to discover, some ivy admits didn’t take all ap’s, or even all honors! </p>
<p>I get that if my d goes to a less selective college than her older brother she will still be happy, will still be successful and will still be able to have a great experience. I have seen for myself this year, highly selective schools want kids with personality that will add to the campus. However, they are also doing social engineering imo. Creating a pseudo perfectly proportioned class. </p>
<p>I’ve seen way too many people this year not apply to the appropriate schools and face crushing disappointment. However, we lived it and I’ve seen good kids have great choices as well. </p>
<p>My d is a great, joyous child. I now get what she’s looking for in a college and as I told her, now she just has to focus on doing well in high school and having a great experience. The rest will come and we have plenty of time to visit schools here and there and build her list of schools.</p>
<p>College4many, you don’t need to visit that many schools. Most HS have spring break in april, and most colleges have spring break in march. So april is a good time. Also we saw a few boston schools when my S school was closed for a professional day. You can also see schools on Saturdays, just not with a tour. But some schools may even offer Sat. tours. </p>
<p>In the fall of my S junior year, we looked at 4 schools in Boston. 2 one day, 2 another. More than 2 would be too much. We looked at schools in the city (NE, BU) and schools outside city (BC and Tufts). This gave him a good overall idea, of suburban vs urban campus. Then in Fall of senior year, we did a southern trip and saw over 4 days, 4 schools. I think we incorporated it with a thursday/friday off at end of sept, and he missed 2 more days. At the southern schools we did the info sessions and tours. Honestly I found the info sessions profoundly boring, and redundant. The same info is given on the tour. </p>
<p>We did not visit any other schools. We figured if he got in, we would go But we never did. He got into a school that he fell in love with, and even with other acceptances rolling in, we never visited. </p>
<p>What they like in a school at 16, is different then they do at 17 or even at spring of senior year. See schools while you’re on vacation as a side trip, take kids on the long weekends in the fall and spring ( we got ours to kiss 1 day but with a day off of school,myou can fit in three or four). Until that acceptance comes, just find a type of school, small to large, rural, urban, campus vs not and get a working plan. Since this willbe kid 4 for is, don’t visit a ton, or even more then 6 until you know they’re accepted</p>
<p>S14 just got offered the Yes Abroad scholarship to spend next year in Malaysia! He’s still holding out for a year learning Chinese with NSLI-Y or to attend United World Colleges but he’s got a terrific option for next year. Things are going to get a little dicey if he doesn’t hear from the other programs by Yes Abroad’s acceptance deadline.</p>
<p>Wow, Apollo, congrats to your son! I have a friend whose daughter is just finishing up a year in India with YES and it has been a fantastic experience. Hope all works out with the deadlines and such.</p>
<p>So, with the end of the year approaching, are your kids starting to feel the pressure from the tales of the horrors of junior year their friends are sharing? I have a D13 who is like the walking dead right now, between AP classes and all the testing… and they have 2 months of school left. S14 just got back from a school trip. I’m hoping he is refreshed and ready to apply himself this quarter to make the final marks as solid as he can at this point… He is going to be receiving a motivational speech from me, as soon as I can make one up in my head. : )</p>