I think this is a totally acceptable option!
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D24 now in France. Train arrival in Nice delayed by 5 min because it took their group forever to get their luggage stowed away. 
Have received pics on WhatsApp from the French teacher. No word from kid but thatās ok because we told her no need to msg us, we will assume all is well. Since itās I think about 7 pm there now, Iām betting theyāre with the host families now.
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Anyone planning any college tours this summer? I know summer is not ideal since there will be fewer students on campus and itās harder to get the campus vibe, but this is the time we have and it is still short, since D24 is already committed to other things for most of the summer. Encouraged by her counselor at school, sheās decided to expand her list and visit a few colleges in Colorado in June. While D24 was resistant to touring more schools and wanted to wait until she had acceptances in hand for any more tours (sheās seen probably 6-8 already), her counselor told her āif your family is willing to take you to visit colleges, and you have the time, I see no reason not to take them up on that.ā Sometimes it takes a third party to convince my stubborn kid what Iāve been saying all along.
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We are planning to visit one of s24ās reach schools this summer. He knows the school is long shot but since weāll be vacationing in the area, weāll take a day to tour it. Otherwise, heāll probably wait for acceptances before touring any more schools.
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We are going to try to fit in some college visits. S24 visited a few colleges last year with his brother S23, but he was only looking at schools within about 45 minutes of home. S24 is interested in a wider geographic area so we would like to visit at least some of the possibilities and I donāt see how we could do it once the school year gets started.
Of course, we have some other life things that might get in the way of any visits. But we would like to do a couple short road trips this summer if we can make it happen. The schools that are much further away will have to wait until/if there are acceptances.
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Going to hit a couple of colleges as part of family vacations. One will be while school is in session, the other during their summer break. Not sure we will be able to give that one a fair shake, but hard not to visit when we are driving right past it.
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We are also going to see a few match/safety schools to get a sense of how many reaches he can apply to and if there is a fit of vibe/music program at these schools. He will also visit a few more in the very early fall. I think most of the reach school visits will wait until after the ED results and possibly until after acceptance.
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We were planning to visit famil over in the West coast end of June, with several extra days to burn, we will be checking out few of the UC schools plus Occidental and Claremont McKenna. S24 knew most are reaches, but its good to see the school environment and compare them with those in the South. *He really looking forward to see Occidental.
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We are planning on three this summer. One reach and two matches. That will be the end of the visits. After that, just interviews where they are recommended. Weāve toured a lot over a long time frame, so Iām thinking DS has enough visiting under his belt to make up his mind from whatās offered.
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Weāre visiting SMU, UConn and Brown over the next month.
Obviously ideally you want to go during the school year but thereās just not enough time so you do the best you can to get the college vibe.
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we are planning a multi-day driving tour of a number of upstate NY schools, probably in late June.
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We have one more planned college tour for S24, a somewhat local school that due to being on a quarter system is still in session until early June. We visit next week.
While you might not get a flavor for the student population over the summer - I think there is still value to visiting as some campuses might be immediate hits/misses due to other factors beyond the students. Also, I am a big believer in more information is almost always helpful.
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We are going to look at a few schools over the summer - itās not ideal, but we didnāt have time to see everything during the school year.
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We are planning on 3 West Coast and 3 East coast. Realistically, she wonāt have time in the Fall due to sport. Sheās pretty sure she wants to ED at one school but I want her to see another reach before she makes the decision. I also want to make sure sheās happy with her safeties and likelies.
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We donāt have any other college tours planned right now. Hoping to get D24 out to visit Centre College in Kentucky, but I think weāll tour there if she gets admitted and if the financial aid package makes it affordable. We did some road trips to colleges in NM and TX earlier this year. Will probably take D24 on another tour of U of A at some point this fall.
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D20 chose to apply ED. It worked out beautifully for her and she is very happy at her school.
I was conflicted about it as a parent, though. I worried about her committing that early in the year, I was worried about all the āwhat ifsā she might have later, I was just a big worrier (obviously).
I think it is smart to do your best to make sure that ED is right for your child, sounds like yāall are being really thoughtful.
D23 was easier, she didnāt want to apply ED so I didnāt need to worry about that. Instead, I found a whole host of other things to worry about instead. 
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Iām a big worrier too! My oldest (D22) was easier too. We were late and limited on visits due to Covid but she loved the first school we visited. It was a safety so no reason to ED there and we decided to hold off on the reaches until acceptances. She did end up getting into some of her reaches which we then visited. We also went back to the safety and she still loved it best. She just finished a great Freshman year there.
I am not a fan of ED but when we toured a reach with D24 we all knew it was a great fit so that is why we are considering it.
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we are trying to fit in a couple of colleges in the Boston area the last week of July.
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Math teacher.
I think DS has finally decided on the colleges he will apply to:
4 safeties that he really likes (one recruited), 4 matches that he also would be thrilled to attend (1 recruited), and 3 reaches (two with offered/promising pre-reads, one more detailed than the other).
Iām really proud of him for not letting the recruitment process drive all of his choices and giving the academics more weight. His coach encouraged him to do that and that really helped.
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