I wouldn’t worry about winter weather at this point. Northeast may still get a bit more snow, but I wouldn’t expect anything major, especially if you want to come in the 2nd half of March or in April.
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I am pretty sure international students do that all the time!
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We were originally going to do a tour of Cal Poly SLO today, but cancelled it. If he gets in, we’ll go to their accepted students’ open house on Apr 7. I already have a hotel booked for that weekend.
SLO is 5 hours from us. So we’d drive.
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This is such a liminal period of time… waiting for acceptances, reading our kids’ thoughts and emotions, determining best personal-academic-financial fit, facilitating the decision making etc. I’m continually looking for the concrete- a reason to go, a reason not to go. Also hoping for a perception, a feeling of “I belong.”
It hard to pull the full picture together based on webinars and marketing. An on-campus visit is so helpful, although very much a privilege of time, money, and circumstance.
Congratulations on the acceptances! Please do walk us through your visits and decision making processes. So glad we’re all in this together 
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Yup, we plan to go to Admitted student days/events if S22 hears positive news from any of the colleges we are still waiting on. He actually said he really has to see the colleges in person to make a decision since he likes all of them and doesn’t feel more strongly about one or the other. I guess they all have equally good web sites. 
I’ve already booked hotels for the three that I feel like he has a chance of getting into. Did not book any hotels for his reaches. We will need to fly to all of them but have not booked flights yet since they cannot be canceled as easily as hotel rooms. Fingers crossed that we get to visit at least one! 
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We’ve simplified the approach by prioritizing only OOS visits and that too only to schools S22 is likely to attend
- Michigan - not visiting because of the deferral and because we already lived in Ann Arbor and know the school very well
- Rose Hulman - not visiting because unlikely to attend. will likely decline admit
- Purdue - not visiting because not planning to attend and withdrew
- UW - no decision yet, but visited previously so no plans to visit again
- CU Boulder - not visiting because not planning to attend and declined admit
That leaves us with UIUC, which we will visit during spring break. As for the other UCs, we are close enough to visit anytime and have previously done so.
Deciding to withdraw a couple of apps really helped and has kept us sane.
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You describe this time so perfectly! We are there as well, with everything you just described.
I must add though that we know sooo much more now about the colleges S22 applied to than when he actually applied. Spent so much more time watching zoom presentations by the various colleges (with professors, current students, promotional stuff). His school list has shuffled multiple times. A top school that he loved last fall, is now at the bottom of his list, etc.
Well, best wishes to all!
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Smart, reflective kid! The on-campus vibe is real! And web-sites do generate a vibe too 
I mean, if we were deciding on websites alone, S22 would be going to Grinnell, hands down.
Agree on booking hotels, not flights. I have multiple reservations scheduled for multiple schools- visits, move-in, homecoming, etc. Especially at Purdue, hotels book fast, particularly around football games. Who knew.
Good to keep the reaches at bay, for now 
I guess we’ll all have a lot to talk about in April!
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Curious if others plan to attend admitted student days even if they already know they are attending (e.g., were accepted ED). My D is planning to attend but wondering if it will all be aimed at the kids still deciding?
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I would definitely attend if you are able to. Your D may be able to meet other students and those relationships might help her ease into school during the fall.
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If your daughter is able to attend, it would be a great opportunity to ask questions about her future life on campus. Colleges should have reps available to help you envision and plan for next year. Maybe it’s not so much about the decision, but about the planning for next year?
Does she want to research and how does that happen? How do freshman receive social and academic support? What kinds of opportunities are there for incoming freshman to find roommates, join clubs, audition for bands, etc? How do dining plans and other logistics work? Clearly I have a laundry list of questions
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My daughter signed up for admitted students day at the University of Michigan the day she got accepted. We live in state, she visited twice this summer (regular tour and engineering tour) and is definitely attending. It’s only 90 minutes away, but we booked a hotel for the night before since check in starts at 7:30am. I’m looking forward to it - we never got to do anything like this with D20 because of Covid.
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Thanks all. She had always planned to attend - it’s a fairly easy day trip for us - but then I got thrown by all the plans to attend multiple admitted days as a way of helping to make a decision and realized I was t exactly sure of the purpose (it’s my first time at the rodeo).
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You might also look at booking a hotel for move in weekend.
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Bucknell has an Enrolled Student Day, which is actually today. It’s for the ED1 and ED2 kids, so will be nice for S22 to meet kids who will be classmates. I’m so glad they do this.
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You are absolutely right! I hadn’t even thought about that. Many students from the class of 2020 went to colleges sight unseen as well. I know it can work out.
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We have already been to my D22’s pick 3 times, one for an “admitted scholars day” for the bestestest and brightestest supposedly, but there is one more admitted students day coming up in early April. She’s not sure if she wants to go to it or not. I thought it could be good if she wanted to try to work on connecting with some other students, but she’s not super extroverted in that forced environment so not sure if it’s worth it to go a 4th time or not. It’s not too far away (in state, but about 3 hrs away), so we can probably wait a little bit longer to decide since it will only be a driving situation.
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We’re from DC and my D only applied to schools in California. We did a quick tour of most last summer, but no one was on the campuses.
She’s been accepted at SDSU, so we’ve booked over Spring-break and we have an online zoom meeting for Webers Honors in the next few weeks. She pretty set on SDSU, but if she receives acceptances from UCI, UCSD or SB we’ll have to hope we can change the return ticket and add a few days of driving and do onsite visits.
I think an admission to UCSB would be the only one to pull her away from SDSU, so will have to figure it out. Good luck to everyone.
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I haven’t been active here but dropping back in now that we are in March. DS is looking at a music major (but not performance), although I won’t be surprised if that changes again. His schools are mostly west coast and mostly small LACs, and he likes the idea of the PNW since one sibling went to Willamette and one goes to Reed. LGBTQ+. Here’s where we are:
Willamette - accepted EA, has seen the campus since sibling attended but hasn’t been for an official visit. Doing a virtual admitted student thing today.
Lewis and Clark - accepted EA, did in-person admitted student day last week. Was favorite a while back based on virtual tours. In person he liked it but wasn’t blown away. Still a contender.
UN-Reno - accepted and doing a visit in a few weeks (only big school and cheapest option).
St. Olaf - accepted. Only non-west coast school. Really good music program and my niece went there so we’ve heard great things but all other things being equal I don’t think he wants to live that far away. Trying to decide whether to go visit.
Whitman - accepted but no merit scholarship so this one will probably drop off.
Chapman - waiting to hear. Attended in person for an audition. This one had been lower on the list based on virtual tours only but went way up after visiting and ranks above L and C if he gets in.
Occidental - waiting to hear.
Cal Lutheran - waiting to hear, although this had been mostly a safety and he’s got options he likes better.
Puget Sound - waiting to hear. This one is probably worth a visit if he gets in. I’m kind of confused here because I know they sent snail mail acceptances out over a week ago and we haven’t seen anything yet, also nothing by email. So I don’t know if they haven’t sent everything yet or if his acceptance/ denial letter got lost in the mail or what.
Best wishes to everyone who is still waiting. I have another kid who is applying to grad school and hasn’t gotten in anywhere yet so on pins and needles for her. For DS22 at least he already has some great options so I’m not worried but will be happy to be done with the process.
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S22 received an acceptance last night to one of his top choices!
University of Washington-Seattle. He is thrilled!
I can’t believe that literally just yesterday, the entire month was yawning ahead of us like an eon. All of the rest of his schools are big reaches so we are not stressing over them since he loves the choices he has now (UW, U San Francisco and Temple University Japan). Even University of Washington did not feel anything like a secure thing so S22 is so so happy. Of course, if one of the reach schools comes through, it might change things but for now, we are enjoying this moment.
I just booked flights to the admitted students’ day and can’t wait. I hope it will give him a feel for a giant state university and whether that is what he wants, or the medium sized USF or the miniscule (freshman class of only 400) TUJ.
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