Hoping your family stays healthy.
We have visited most of the schools my son applied to, but only done an official tour at TAMU and UT.
Wow, you have had a lot going on. Sorry to hear about the health issues and hope your H recovers quickly.
Re: having to feel the campus vibe. Back in the day, I also visited some. But it was a drive and not a flight. Dās schools are 2,4 and5 hour flights. I am hoping that the schools will up their game for virtual programming for accepted students. Not sure I see a flight in april in our future.
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@SammoJ ā Hugs to you and your family. I canāt imagine how frustrating it is to think you may have gotten COVID from an unmasked person at the grocery. Grrrā¦ Thank you for taking all the precautions you are, and I hope the rest of the family stays well. Keep us posted on your husband.
My S finished his last app on Sunday so that he could be done b4 classes re-started yesterday. Yay!!
ā He has visited 7 of the colleges on his list, 3 in-state and 4 out of state. One of the OOS visits was with his sister 4 years ago, but heās physically been on campus (didnāt do the tour) so in the era of COVID weāll count that!
ā He has NOT visited the five others.
He has 3 EA acceptances in hand, and one ā WPI ā seems like a real contender so weāre thinking about a How Does the College Feel road trip / visit in February, possibly over Presidentās Day weekend. It would also prolly be good for him to see the college at its dreariest in terms of weather, lol. Weād have to get tested beforehand per MA regulations, weād eat takeout in our car, and compulsively clean our hotel room. Not expecting to get into any buildings, but he knows someone there who might be able to walk us around outside.
Of the remaining 5 he hasnāt visited, heās been accepted to 2 that will come off his list if he likes WPI, so weāre putting a pin in visiting them for now. (One, Colorado School of Mines, is across the country and weāre not ready to fly yet.)
That leaves 2 big reaches heās not visited (Rice and Penn), and weād try to see in April if he gets in to either. Of course, ideally heād like to re-visit a couple schools if he gets in ā but not sure thatāll be feasible.
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We did tours at two large state universities yesterday that are less than 3 hours away and while it was definitely helpful, without the students it did not really show the schools too well. Having now done tours ourselves and with campus provided student guides, for me it is much better to have the student guide, even though it can be a bit hit-or-miss on the guide.
I think it helped DS a bit though so we plan to visit those schools that accept himā¦
Thatās great that you can drive! We would be ok masking up and getting in the car. Itās the flying thatās more concerning. Someone also recommended asking AO to connect you with a current student. That may help to get a better sense of vibe, at least from one studentās perspective.
Having older siblings has been an advantage for those of us with seniors this year as that allowed them to see many colleges in the past. Our last visit then with this one was last Feb to Wash U in St Louis which he didnāt like so that was crossed off his list. He missed 5 schools over Spring Break, 2 of which I had seen with my daughters that he didnāt go with me on that trip and both are reaches anyway. Now we wait to see how things shake out. Itās a lot easier at this point to spend $50-$75 on an application fee after heās see the virtual tours. He really liked USC (CA) last year when he saw it, however, a lot of kids from our school always apply and we fully expect their applications to be up tremendously this year as has been the case all over, so now heās not sure heās going to spend the time completing the application, which he already pushed off from the scholarship deadline in November to the Regular deadline on 1/15. I think heās so burnt out with it all and just done.
I think there are 3 schools he will hear from this month and if he gets into at least 1 of the 3 he will be happy and can start to eliminate other schools and decide whether or not we will have to visit them or not down the road if he has yet to see them.
The worst is really the number of schools that donāt give decisions until March (after Spring break) and then families having to then make decisions. At that point if there are any acceptances, a road trip may be in order.
Good luck to all of you in the same boat as us still waiting for the bulk of decisions.
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Totally feeling this way. Itās been a loooong application journey.
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After Covid, we geographically skewed his away-from-home-list to Boston and the surrounding area. Super hopeful that at least one of the parents can visit where he is accepted. My husband has been vaccinated at his hospital but cannot do a 14 day quarantine away from work. Some schools may be closed, gated campuses. It will all be last minute planning once we find out his RD round acceptances and Iām not sure I want to look on the websites yet to see who is already saying no visitors. Might be depressing. 
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Thanks everyone! Yes, boys are going to be getting antibody tests, as am I.
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@SammoJ - Wow. Thatās a hard couple weeks. And yes, less family face time which is more precious commodity when teens are on the brink of spreading their wings or have already done so. I hope recovery goes well and is complete with no long-standing issues.
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We are doing things a little bit backwards for the schools we havenāt visited. After finals are over my son will be looking at some prerecorded videos and website reviews. What virtual and online resources did your kids find most helpful?
Iām a little bit nervous that my S might get turned off by random negative student feedback at some places. He did attend some official virtual sessions months ago with student guides and watched virtual Youtube tours, but most were not terribly helpful with the vibe of the student body and did not help the school stand out much IMO. WPI was an exception to that and we all really liked their online presentation. We really liked the old school big green Fiske book of colleges. They manage to give you a great overview of the schools in 2-3 pages, including the culture.
When he narrows it down fairly closely, we might look for a student connection to chat with. Right now just too many possibilities.
He visited 5 Western schools on his list plus Notre Dame, but some not officially. The in person trip we took two summers ago helped him eliminate Michigan and Northwestern.
Like so many, we had planned to visit a couple schools in particular last SB.
S has visited 5 of his 8 schools.
The three he has not seen include a safety that is 3 hours away, (easy to drive and walk around campus, but if itās his only choice, no need to see it bc āyou get what you getā at that point, lol).
The other two are 9 hours and 18 hours away.
And yes, the farthest away is his top choice.
Letās see how it unfolds, hahahaha.
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My D has not been able to visit colleges that are top on her list either due to covid. I was hopeful that if we were able to get vaccinated before her April spring break that we could visit then, but unsure how likely that is to happen.
The only school my son hasnāt been able to visit and where he is already accepted to is Texas Tech. Lubbock is about 5-5.5 hrs drive away from us. Weāre thinking about having him take a day off from school and taking a quick fight up there and coming back same day later this month once Tech is back from their break.
We have, no joke, only one school we can feasibly drive to so we will be flying to visit schools. Weāve all already been on a plane since covid and D21 is going with my H to take S19 back to school in Feb. Flying between Chicago and Boston or Portland feels safe since those states are 100% about the masks.
D has been to two of her 13 schools. One of those trips was when she was a sophomore. So we are behind on this. Of her three decisions that are in so far, two are in CA and CA is so closed up that itās not worth flying all the way there to walk around dead campuses. As soon as sheās got more decisions in hand, we will start making flight arrangements. I can think of six schools she would likely visit if she gets in. Three of them can be toured in one trip and the other three would have to be one-offs. But what can you do? If she gets into those, we are going to visit. At all of them but one, we know a student who can walk us around.
Vibe is the main thing important to her so this is really hard. All of the schools have majors that interest her and sheās been doing virtual events but no way sheās choosing a school without putting her feet on campus. We also might be considering what Covid looks like in April and how each school plans to deal with it in August. Not sure we will have much info by then but hoping we will. If two schools are kind of tied, Covid plans could break the tie.
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Out of the 11 schools my son applied to, heās only seen the campus of one of them (our alma mater where we have season tix to football and basketball) and even then not an official tour.
Our hope is over spring break to visit all of the ones heās been accepted to, which is no small task given how geographically diverse they are.
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He will have decisions by spring break?
I guess D will have most by then except her big reach which I think comes at the very end of March. Most of her decisions seem to come between 3/15-3/18 if they follow the same pattern as last year so that gives us about ten days to get flights and hotels since spring break starts on 3/27.
Iām trying to remain positive about this - if sheās accepted to a number of schools thatās an awesome thing and we will figure out how to get there PLUS it gets us out of dodge. Iām so tired of being home.
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D found the virtual student panels the most helpful. Some schools even have a chance to talk to a current student virtually. She also likes the tours that are done live with tour guides. Some schools have those and you can ask questions just like a real tour. Second best are tours that are given by students and are the same as you would have seen if you were there. The ātoursā where you just see photos of buildings and a map donāt give you a great sense of the campus.
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His spring break is the end of March through mid-April, so yes. I believe even if he got deferred he should know most of them by early April and if he doesnāt, honestly, weāll just move on. We canāt take it down to end of April when decision is due May 1.
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According to my observation of our local high school early round admits, itās been the opposite. Base schools did much better than previously years relative to their highly reputable magnet school counterpart.