@whataboutcollege my D wouldn’t think of visits this year and we all agree summer visits are a waste. We are heading on our massive college tour trip in September.
@milgymfam Wouldn’t September be school in session? Your DD has time away from school at that time?
I think S20 feels school visits are done. He tagged along D17 for most of her visits. He did a couple of his own here and there sophomore year. And during last year’s spring break, we went to the west coast and saw several UCs.
We had planned a spring university visit and a Robotics competition ended up falling over spring break. 
D20 has visited a couple of schools on her list but it is going to end up being really tough to work in any more visits unless we do some over the summer. One of the schools we need to visit puts a heavy emphasis on interest shown so we definitely have to get up there.
We tailored our college visits around family vacation. “Hey family let’s visit New Orleans and why we are there let’s check out Tulane”.
I know some colleges are not in desirable family vacation cities but we try our best to kill two birds with one stone…
@whataboutcollege we homeschool and her DE courses are online, so we can do school anywhere, anytime.
DD20 still needs to add a couple of match/safety schools to her list. She has 1 safety, 1 match, and 2 reaches right now. Going to tour what could be a match in April. If she makes NMSF we will add 1-2 of those bigger scholarship schools as safeties, but I would prefer to identify 1 safety with rolling admissions that works even if NMSF is not achieved.
We are still very much in need of a safety that ticks the “student would attend with enthusiasm or reasonable level of genuine interest” box. Otherwise done touring, though there may be some overnights ahead.
We have a big trip planned for late April, but it’s just seems so hard lately to know what is a safety! We’re visiting 5 schools, which is great, but I am nervous that the schools that seem like matches will reject S20. I don’t want to make him do a ton of applications, but looking at who got in and who got rejected this year was surprising. Kids with 1500s and high stats getting turned down from schools like BC and Tulane? It’s tricky!
I like your safety definition @HarrietMWelsch. I think DD’s hits that but it falls a bit short on guaranteed, easy affordability (part of my safety definition) since scholarships are stats based but BOTH criteria must be met (ACT and GPA). Stats do look good for now so it gets “safer” as we near the end of junior year. It falls at the way upper end of the budget though, even at full pay, so a safety is the label. I was just hoping for a slightly better fit at a slightly better price (aren’t we all!).
@Waiting2exhale We got that SLC mailing too, and having just returned from a college tour where D20 was weighing small campus feel against the lure of a big city, that “Why Choose?” message from Sarah Lawrence was pretty compelling!
Agree with everyone who is taking in all the Class of 2019 news from the last month and wondering if we need to reassess D20’s list for what we’re considering a safety, match, and reach! Yikes! D20 is also starting to talk about EDing, which she definitely wasn’t doing a month ago – I think she’s internalizing the admissions boost the ED brings at some places.
@itsatruth: Choosing Sarah Lawrence for myself would have probably been a no-brainer when I was in HS.
I know now, after walking the campus two years ago and just plain giving up at keeping the pace with everyone else at that time, that I have definitely chosen the right tag name here at CC. Boy, was I struggling, both to inhale and exhale…
@Dave_N : Did you look at St. Bonaventure at all?
Safeties. If a potential safety seems expensive, or stats are just barely there…then maybe that is a Match, not a Safety. Look down even another level. There are a bunch of great schools out there. (Says the one who’s D is looking at nothing but Safeties.)
@NYC2018nyc - our family defines a true safety as one where there is absolutely no question of admission once min stat levels are met (think Alabama, Ole Miss, Arizona,) merit is known and will get price to desired budget and bonus points if it is rolling admissions. And, of course, one the student would love to attend is really most important. I really hope S20 can put together a list that makes him happy and hopefully gives him some decisions early in the process so he can have them in his pocket as he waits out anything else.
@mountainmomof3 Zactly. Those are great options for kids with the stats to put them (well) above the top 25% cutoff. Some Directional U’s are good, too. It’s good to be a big fish for some kids. Those schools often have more school spirit, too, which can be a bonus for those kids who are into it, and want the full college experience.
My D17 is at MichSt, (for her, that was a #1 pick AND a safety) and is loving March Madness right now. I offered to send her to Minneapolis for the Final Four, but she wants to stay back and watch with all her friends at the arena on campus.
@bigmacbeth - definitely easier to find safeties the higher stat the kid. Early on we had a running list of schools with great merit, easy admissions for lower stats. Included directional U’s and some inexpensive OOS publics with tuition reciprocity with our state. Again, the list for each my kids was NOT designed to “wow” and both boys have been subject to a lot pressure to apply higher. But I think S19 and S20 “get it” especially since we have been upfront with our strategy since middle school.
Every family needs to come up with their own budget and strategy but this is what we found worked with us for S19 and hopefully will work for S20. Time will tell! ?
D20 finds out today if she will be offered an SCA crew volunteer position this summer.
All this talk about Safety, Match, and Reach is making me nervous. Lots of students in our school who are top top kids got rejected or WL’d from schools that should have been matches if not safeties this year. The big state schools that go by numbers were fine, its everyone else that really makes you scratch your head and wonder. If our val or sal can’t get into some of these schools, then who is getting in?
I’m finding myself re-evaluating D20’s list repeatedly. She’s a normal kid, with normal grades, reasonable test scores, and standard ECs., Nothing about her screams ‘take me over someone else’ I’m starting to get very nervous.
Regarding visits, we were hoping to decide where to visit over break when she hits the local college fair later this week. I tried to tell her that it would be too late, by then all the spots in the tours will be taken. Fingers crossed that I was wrong.
@MuggleMom I’m starting to feel the same way regarding constantly re-evaluating D20’s list. She has too many schools on there that she likes, even after visiting a bunch, and we are trying to pare it down. She wants to cast a wide net, but am wondering how many apps are too many (while remaining strategic and including reaches, matches, and safeties.)