Go to the college’s Open Houses because you usually get academic break out sessions and can talk to Dept Heads and Professors.
One can always contact dept heads and/or professors to meet with, no matter when the visit…open house days can be very crowded and sometimes aren’t the best when evaluating what a school is really like on a typical day.
@StPaulDad - We did several visits during MEA weekend thinking it would be nice since we’re off already and the schools have special things going on, but in hindsight it was not a great idea because EVERYONE was there. It was so crowded and the schools were so overwhelmed. We didn’t get a lot of one on one attention and didn’t get many of our questions answered.
We’re going to revisit a couple in February and are intentionally choosing days that we think will be more “dead”. Like, there’s a big visit event at UMN on 2/13. We made arrangements for 2/14. 
@ultimom - That is ridiculous. I can’t imagine having to go to the doctor because you are running a fever or have a bad cold. What are they going to do about it anyhow? So, you have to pay a big bill or copay just for a note? Dumb.
@cshell2 it was a pain. I had mine run up to a clinic at Walgreens or HEB just to get a note several times. They were really used to it. It was a total PITA.
All of ours were during summer as spring breaks were full of baseball tournaments. I would have to admit the smaller schools seemed “dead” during the summer which jaded S a bit but he understood it would be a different vibe during session. Many of the schools, however, had live activiites (summer classes, camps, etc.) so it was “vibe - lite”.
For us, it was virtually impossible to go during the school yr so you do what you can do.
We did not take any time out of school to visit universities. We did some visits while the universities were in session and some when they were not in session. In a couple of cases we first visited when the university (or LAC) was not in session, and then visited again after being accepted. In some cases the universities were in summer classes, with reduced numbers of students but there were still some students there.
We had one advantage in that some of our visits were on the other side of the US/Canadian border so the vacations did not always occur at the same time (eg, we visited some during US thanksgiving). This plus the schools that were really close to home were the ones where it was easiest to visit while the university was in session.
February break senior year was a good time to get visits in after getting acceptances. Even if the university is not having classes there will still be students on-campus. For schools in the northeast (most of ours were) this runs the risk of hitting either a massive snow fall or an unusually bitter cold snap.
We did arrange for tours and chats with professors at most of the schools that we visited. These were really helpful.
“One can always contact dept heads and/or professors to meet with, no matter when the visit”
This is a good point. We visited one school when they did not have any tours due to a short break (students were on-campus). We asked and got a tour anyway. Ask politely, and you never know.
I would not tour a college until they actually get into one. You don’t want to inspire false hope in your child by having them see an Ivy Leauge college and get there hopes dropped when they are rejected. The smartest way to do it is to apply to a diverse amount of schools, see where you get into and look at the financial, and then visit. It saves a lot of time and money. There’s no need to visit 20 different colleges when kids can take virtual tours online and look at pictures.
Actually we found that visiting some schools out east actually took them off my D20’s list.
We did a big road trip Winter Break of her junior year, when all the schools she wanted to see where still in session. She was able to eliminate half right away just based on a few hours visit, LOL. I think the crappy weather helped to cross off the ones with sprawling campuses. A few she claimed to be able to “smell” the stress. The two that ended up still on the list, we returned in the summer for a longer visit, and she even took summer classes at one.
Virtual tours don’t really do the beauty of some campuses justice, and others a virtual tour can hide a whole lotta flaws. Visiting makes these schools “real” and can tone down some of the romanticism of the elites “out east.”
My D20 was dead set against going, or even applying, to University of Michigan. We live about an hour away and have been to Ann Arbor many many times…but she has never really been on campus. She wanted to go away to school and considered UoM to be too local, with too many of her school mates attending…traditionally about 20-30% of graduates at her school matriculate there. I finally twisted her arm in September and dragged her to their Admissions Prep Day. It was a beautiful fall day and the campus really sparkled. The presentation was great. By the time lunch was served she was HOOKED, big time. It jumped to the top of her list. We plan on visiting again on Campus Day for admitted Students, as well as Scholarship Day at Michigan State (backup) before she maker her final decision.
If she gets accepted at her one Ivey left on her list, she will have a bigger decision to make. But, because she has spent some extensive time there, it will be an informed decision.
Hi. Also in Texas. We get a week off at Thanksgiving and two days off at Easter. We used both breaks for far away college visits.
BTW I have one senior heading to the PNW next year for college, and another one who doesn’t want to look at a single school in Texas. Not sure where we went wrong… LOL
I also agree about the value of visits if you can swing it. We saw 15 and D eliminated 7, including her favorite on paper. It also helped her figure out what was important to her.
We have done many college visits (some might say too many!). At the beginning we focused on D’s anticipated major, and many of the best programs were at large schools. After probably a half dozen tours—she found that she absolutely loved small LACs and that she could follow her career path going that route instead.
Our D has found that being on campus really makes a difference. Many of the places she loved online/in the Fiske guide/etc. were crossed off the list fairly quickly in person. This may be more of a small school issue, as it is more likely to find “fit” among 20,000 students than it would be among 2,000.
We have tried to visit when students are on campus, but last summer we did a “let’s stop by because we’re in the area for vacation” tour. She absolutely fell in love with the school, but now, having read more about the place, we’re wondering if she would have felt differently if classes had been in session at the time. Not always possible to be there when students are, though! Still, we have had so much fun on these visits (she’s a great travel companion), and she learns so much, that it’s been worth doing as many visits as we have.
As others have mentioned, we found visits to be quite helpful in firming up fit. S eliminated several from the list that he definitely would have applied to sight unseen. Not picking on schools but for example sake - Villanova felt too sterile and religious to him, Bentley felt like a big HS, Duke was snooty (for him), etc.
The virtual tours also don’t give a feel for the atmosphere, and meeting with faculty in person is much different than emailing or even talking on the phone. My S was all in on Arizona after meeting with a couple of advisors who totally sold him on the program. Then we went to his second choice, Washington State, and it almost moved past Arizona after our visit. He loved the vibe and the school spirit. But he ended up sticking with Arizona because of winter. 
It’s preferable to visit a college when it’s in full swing but that’s not always possible. To be realistic, pre- application visits have limited value in many cases. Let’s say if it’s between visiting Harvard and a match school, I would rather visit match school because Harvard is ultra selective so no point in wasting time until I have acceptance.
You are in Texas so start there and try to get the feel if you prefer small or big schools, rigorous or relaxed, urban or suburban, liberal or conservative, diverse or monochromatic, sports craze or Greek life, residential or commuter etc. These experiences would help you trim your out of state list. If you hate UT’s size, no point in going to UC Berkeley, if you don’t like UNT’s lack of high stars students, you are not likely to enjoy LSU either. If you don’t like Rice’s residential system, you are not likely to appreciate Yale’s residential system.
The most important visit is your ED school, don’t lock yourself without visiting. It may look good on paper but a trip can tell you that you’ll have to hop on a 6 hr flight to see your family or have no good internship/research opportunities are available in quintessential small college town or six months of harsh winter isn’t as appealing as it looks in a 2 hr movie.
Even if you can’t visit every college on your list, you can always visit your top choices after admission offers and financial packages to determine if you want to accept or decline.
We visited some when school was in session and some when it wasn’t. If you’re visiting several schools in one trip it’s difficult to avoid since they all have different fall breaks and spring breaks etc. For example, Bates was on fall break while Colby was in session, one day apart. The school my S chose (Tulane) we visited in summer because it came on his radar later in junior year. So he saw it in the heat and without students and still chose it. We’re heading to admitted students day this spring so he can see a bit more and know what to expect (and reduce any August anxiety), but he is already committed. This second trip is not “necessary” but since we don’t have to visit any other schools this spring, we’re doing it. If he had not gotten in to Tulane we would have had a couple of yet unseen schools to consider in different states.
We did a combination of summer visits, school break visits and missing school.
Yes, it can be helpful to see school in session. (DS had one school top on his list after summer visit, not so much during an in-session visit when at same city for an EA accept event.) But sometimes that can’t happen until April, after acceptances.
We did all our initial visits during the summer. Then each kid went to 2-3 admitted student weekends before making a decision. Some of the early admit schools did their weekends before April, which was helpful.
We are also in North Texas. My high school junior is not interested in OOS, unless they are within 2-4 hours of home, so OU, OSU and U Ark are a maybe, but in state is where his mind is. If he does decide to apply to those 3 out of state schools, we probably won’t visit until he has acceptance and merit aid in hand. That being said we are visiting TAMU & UTSA in February (both are Saturday preview days), driving 18 minutes up I-35 to UNT in March lol for their preview day (he’s least excited about this one lol since it’s almost in our backyard), UTD in April for their preview day (another local school he’s not excited about all but Dad and I really like it for him) and UT in April As well (on a school day but he gets 2 excused absences for college visits). Still undecided about Texas Tech, I think he’ll apply and then see about an admitted students day later on.