WEll, for what it is worth: we did a guided outside tour with a real student tour guide last summer, and it was more helpful than the 6 or so we did on our own as self tours, BUT the ones we did mostly on our own (many have guided walking tours you can follow online, which is much better than walking around and guessing) DID help! She eliminated some on campus layout/location alone. We are in the position of needing to cut the list and it was helpful. However, we are trying to go re-visit 3 of them that had very little online info but she knows are a fit from other sources and she liked the layout. I think it is definitely better than nothing. I am with you on the summer tours not out yetâwe have one tour booked for one long weekend this summer, we both took off work for it, and now I need to hope the other schools in the area will have options that work, as we are booking flights etc.
Their school lets them miss for college tours so we have two drivable ones we are seeing soon which will have students on campus and are âRealâ guided tours. These two were priority over the flight-needed ones, and she doesnât have time in the school year for more than basically day-trips or day-and a half-trips, so we managed what we could. Good luck! Even the ârealâ tours are not nearly as helpful (many are still outside-only) as D21s experience (we got lucky and toured many before covid ).
good luck with your plans as well. I also have a D21 and though she did many tours before COVID, she ended up attending one sight unseen until move in day. Itâs working out fine.
Weâre pretty much done with tours for the twins. Thing 2 will be spending a week at the UT Austin campus in June for Boys State, so weâll visit Southwestern University in Georgetown on the way home when we pick him up. All the other schools heâs applying to weâve already been to or they are local. Same with Thing 1.
Weâre now in finish-the-year-strong-AP tests-begin your resume-start thinking about your essays mode lol.
Goal is to have all apps for the public schools submitted Aug 1-5, and the EA apps for Thing 2âs private/LACâs before Nov 1.
They will be busy with Marching Band starting July 27thâŠIâm buckling up for this crazy ride!
Does anyone have info on the Honors Program at Temple? Or if they give merit for OOS? We have heard great things about the school. My son is leaning towards a smaller school, but is open to a big school with a good honors program that gives a âsmall college feelâ to a big college and has nice perks. Is that the case for Temple Honors? Very interested in psychology research opportunities and study abroad (full Spanish immersion preferred.)They also have menâs gymnastics (my son is a Level 10 gymnast) so thatâs a bonus, although he wants to focus on academics in college and isnât sure how much of a commitment is involved with the gymnastics team. I think itâs considered D3 or a club level but they do compete because they came to a gymnastics competition in Rochester and we watched them compete after his meet. Any info on Temple Honors is greatly appreciated! Itâs about 6.5 hours away from Buffalo so we could probably schedule a visit in the next few months. Thanks!
We did some open houses and tours/info sessions last summer and I think you can definitely get the âfirst impressionâ vibe of the school to determine whether you child even wants to apply. I told my son if it has potential, he should apply, see what the offer looks like (is it affordable?) and if itâs in the top 3 he can return for an accepted students day to go to campus when school is in session to make the final call as to overall fit. This strategy helped my daughter and she fell in love with one of her Top 3 at accepted students day. It happened to be Loyola New Orleans and we had a nightmare visit for her music audition (stuck on plane for 2 hours before take-off, missed connecting flight, had to reschedule audition for later, spent and hour on campus before having to go back to the airport, etc.) But they were so welcoming and she loved our quick view of campus so the accepted student weekend really sealed the deal!
I think it can be worth it to visit schools on your own, if thatâs the only option. S21 hadnât visited any schools prior to everything shutting down in March 2020. We ended up visiting a few schools over the summer - basically walking around quiet, empty campuses with a map and driving around the nearby area. He was able to eliminate a few schools that way and also get a little more of an idea of what he wanted in a campus setting.
With D23, we visited a bunch of schools over spring break. All official tours, with admissions sessions and student tours, but by the end of the week she was exhausted and barely interested in the last few schools. There are a few more schools sheâd like to see and luckily they are within a 4 hour drive, so weâll try to visit them this summer even if we canât get an unofficial tour.
We only visited 4 schools so far. S23 is going to apply to 3 of those schools plus 3 others we didnât visit. Plan is to apply July/August to all, visit the 3 we havenât seen in the Fall. They are all safety schools so no pressure. He canât miss any more school this Spring and would rather wait until campus is in full throttle to visit.
i like to take the official school sponsored tours/days. but i know those dont always fit in with schedules. Do you guys think itâs worthwhile to visit colleges that are not in your budget? I have such mixed feelings on that.
If you run the NPC and know itâs not going to be affordable, I would not visit.
@AmyIzzy My D17 is a Temple Honors EE grad and my D20 is a current Temple Honors CS student. Weâre out of state and a similar distance away. Feel free to message me and Iâd be happy to discuss in great detail. The short answers:
- Honors classes are small, but not 100% of early class requirements have honors sections. You can cover nearly 100% of liberal arts core requirements with separate honors sections. My kids are STEM, and most of the early STEM core classes that are usually big lecture style (Physics, Chem, Calc etc) had small honors sections which was wonderful
- The Honors program is very tight for kids that decide to go all in. My daughter is heavily involved in honors, hangs out in the honors lounge, and is an honors ambassador for tours and open house days
- OOS merit awards go up to full OOS tuition (itâs called the Presidential Scholarship)
- Honors has dedicated on-campus housing in one of the nicest dorms on campus, and has several other perks, such as early registration at the same time as athletes, which is golden
Happy to discuss more, my daughters both love Philly.
I also like to plan ahead, so for my D21, I called the admissions office at the schools we were considering and asked what their summer tour schedule would likely be. Some didnât have all the details, but most gave me specific answers at least a few months in advance. Even though the schedules change from spring to summer, most schools have the same tour schedule summer after summer. Theyâve usually already recruited their summer tour guides and given them a schedule! They just donât post that early for prospective students to register.
I think self guided summer tour coupled with watching all the official virtual content is a very good option. I went back and watched the virtual tours from the schools we visited over Spring Break and itâs most of the same content.
The only thing missing will be the âpeople contentâ which you wonât really get during the summer anyway.
I actually did that and am doubly frustrated that was I was told isnât what is scheduled. But we will do the best we can.
That is frustrating! Sorry to hear. I hope the timing works out for most places and agree that a summer tour, even without students on campus, can be helpful. We saw quite a few over the summers, and our D eliminated several based on some basic things, like the layout of a campus (too sprawling, too divided, prominent Greek housing or athletic fields, etc.).
Good luck to all of the 23s taking AP tests! Ours has 4 in the next 7 daysâŠbut then those classes do not have any significant requirements the rest of the year(the final semester exams already happened), so she will finally have a couple of easy weeks with only 2 classes left that have significant work and exams!
I donât. âYou can look, but you canât touchâ can be really hard for most people.
If a school is out of reach financially, itâs also likely a school with lots of physically attractive qualities: the beautifully landscaped campus, the soaring windows on the new ____, the things that will draw your student in. And then the other schools - the financial fits - will be weighed always in comparison.
For schools that require a flight, we did not visit until we knew it was a financially viable option. I do let my kids apply to schools that may be a financial reach, and they know that before filling out the application. I just tell them âletâs see what happensâ. With my 21 we did just that, and schools we thought for sure we would never be able to afford, came in at the lowest costs. We did fly out over Easter last year, and the school she chose, was mostly shut down due to Covid. We did a self-tour (admissions was not offering tours) and the minute she step foot on campus, she said this was it. she is finishing up her freshman year now, has a great group a friends, involved in several clubs, and her suitemate/future roommate will be a forever friend for her. If that is all you can do, sometimes that is enough, but I honestly wouldnât spend the money upfront unless you know for sure it is a viable option.
I think that more important than touring specific colleges is to tour a bunch of different types of collegesâand that includes the WASP and HYP types, just for the basis of comparison. (And you might be surprisedâin the course of a single tour my oldest went from really desperately wanting to go to Penn to âNo way in heck Iâm going to a school like that!â)
I would not visit a school that is not financially viable. It could set up all the other options as disappointing. I would, however, let the student apply if the NPC shows a possibility of it being in range. If the student receives an offer that makes it viable, go visit then, but until then it is a âyou can try, but unless it is $xxxxx, it is not an option.â
Related, I did let my son visit an academic reach. It was on an early trip with other more realistic choices, and I hoped it might provide some inspiration to put in best efforts on the college apps and remaining grades, which I think it did.
Thank you very much! This gives us a good picture of the honors program at Temple. I may be reaching out with more specific questions but this is extremely helpful.