<p>My son applied to two safeties and ten reaches. He only visited 9 of the 12 schools. He was accepted at all three that he didn’t visit, and two of the nine schools he did visit. At the last minute he visited Rice for the first time and Virginia and Tulane for the second time. He gathered enough info to choose Rice and so far he’s had a great freshman year and looking forward to August.</p>
<p>On a more extreme note a friend of mine grew up working class far from California and got into Stanford. The first time he saw the campus was when he showed up for freshman orientation. He had a great four years and has had a great career.</p>
<p>Agree with JHS that visits can be a crap shoot. Admitted Students’ Day puts the University’s best foot forward, but may not give a true view of the seamy underbelly. Getting a terrible host can make you hate a school when the school would otherwise have been a great fit for you.</p>
<p>I made my decision without visiting, only looking at the cold, hard numbers and browsing through pictures of students at the university through some picture-sharing websites (not sure if I’m allowed to mention them). I DID visit one university, but that was after I submitted my deposit. I LOVED the place and I was so glad I had chosen it.</p>
<p>So, it works out well for some and badly for others, but in my experience it was all cool.</p>
<p>Personally, I did a lot of college visits and they meant almost literally nothing to me. Colleges I liked upon first sight I changed my mind about later due to impressions I received from current students and reviews on websites. I only ended up having visited one of the colleges I applied to. I think looking at independent websites that use student-generated reviews can be just as useful as visits themselves.</p>
<p>S1 visited one oos school (less than 2 hours from home) in the summer before acceptance only because DH and I hounded him to do it… His other apps were instate publics. After acceptances, he and his best friend went for a weekend visit at the #1 sch. Loved it. Loved his four years there.</p>
<p>S2 had no interest in discussing college visits or even college for that matter in junior year.
By the time he got interested late summer before sr. year, varsity football was in full swing and missing a practice was not an option.<br>
So he applied to instate schools, got accepted and visited his first choice in Feb.of his senior yr. He would have gone to the school sight unseen with no qualms but the visit after acceptance did solidify it for him. He’s a rising senior now and has no regrets.</p>
<p>S2 sounds just like my son, PackMom. He is a rising senior. He has visited one college, which he liked. He has a high B average and average SATs, which we got today. He has no interest in looking at colleges. </p>
<p>Child 1 must have looked at 20 colleges, but not the one she is attending until February of her senior year. It was, in fact, the last college she visited. </p>
<p>So my point is that you don’t have to visit. I do hope DS has a choice or two of where to go!</p>
<p>I think seeing the campus so the student can feel that it “clicks” for them is important, although as JHS has stated, not a guarantee. With our S we visited some and left many on the reach list unvisited. We thought to visit them only if he were accepted. He ultimately chose uChicago but only after going to accepted student’s weekend. He loves it!</p>
<p>Visiting colleges is “nice” but can be very misleading. The visiting student and parents can get a very different impression than you get when you live there full time. </p>
<p>Part of it is the “WOW” factor. You’re visiting and its all new to you. Sometimes it seems boring as you’re not involved in any normal campus activites. </p>
<p>I grew up on the east coast and went to school there. However, I’ve lived on the west coast since I graduated. During a family visit, we went on the college tour at my old college as my daughter was interested in applying there. Based on that tour, I would have never applied!!! It was horrible. Even my daughter opted to leave the campus tour half way thru as she had seen (and heard) enough. The tour didn’t represent what the school was like at all. She had been with me before to visit the school and some of the people I know that are still there. Even she commented on how poorly the tour represented what she thought the school was like.</p>
<p>On that same trip, my daughter visited another school not too far away (as long as we were there). Spent an hour in a auditorium meeting and an hour walking campus. Ended up applying, getting accepted and going there. She was concerned about so little time having been spent on campus. But once she was there and got to know the people, she happy as could be with her choice.</p>
<p>My son applied to several schools but was not able to visit them all before applying. He ended up going to one he didn’t see until accepted student’s day. He researched the schools by looking at web sites of the surounding areas, college student blog sites (that weren’t part of the school “advertising”), etc. He also asked some of the kids that he knew that were already attending. He is pretty easy going and probably would have done well no matter where he went, but he did enjoy his college years there.</p>
<p>I think the other thing is that you can get a sense of whether this is a college that most reasonable people would like, all else being equal, or whether this is a college that has some significant aspect about it that people will either love or hate. My nephew went to P sight unseen. He turned down the opportunity to visit it before deciding – he figured, quite rightly, what’s not to love? There are colleges that fall into that camp and colleges that fall into the “uh-oh, you’re going to need to check this one out for yourself.” Without knowing the places, it’s difficult to know which you are talking about.</p>
<p>We did have the philosophy that we wanted our kids to see all the schools before applying, but once we did 16 or so schools, they could pretty much figure out that yeah, they’d like Carleton or Macalester just fine without visiting, that type of thing.</p>
<p>I found college fairs less informative than school web sites. DD learned that her impression of a school was heavily influenced by how much she liked the rep they sent. (Two fairs with different reps for same school resulted in vastly different impressions.)</p>
<p>I’m going to echo to check the common data set regarding demonstrated interest…Emory is by far the outlier (thus the reputation for this). In recent years GW has gotten sticky with kids who live within a few hours drive but never make the effort to visit. If a school says it does not take this into consideration, take them at their word. They assume if you apply you want to attend. As others have said there are lots of ways to show interest.</p>
<p>I think the advise to visit once the field is narrowed and fin-aid is presented is a good one. I might avoid the dog and pony show of accepted students day and visit at an alternate time if at all possible. I also agree with keeping an eye for when reps are going to be at your school or in your area. Some will visit larger college fairs or host information nights at local hotels if you are in a larger city. This should be listed on their website.</p>
<p>My son was actually able to interview locally with a rep visiting our area the summer before his Sr. year for a college several states away. This was a great opportunity as we were not intending on visiting until all information was in the following spring. He had sent preliminary scores the end of his Jr. year and was contacted by the rep as to dates they would be in the area asking if he would like to meet. I would guess you could simply contact the school, ask if there is a local rep, and see if they conduct local interviews. The one-on-one time was a great chance for my son to get some good information about the school.</p>
<p>We did take our kids on some college visits & tours over the years. The college S accepted was one he had NEVER set foot on before he went up to move in! We did drive around the campus en route to visiting other places & he was familiar with LA in general, because we have often vacationed there. He did find it eye-opening to go out to Rochester & see snow fences and poles for the 1st time & find out that snow DOES get that higher or higher (decided then that he is more of a warm weather, urban kid than a rural cold weather kid) :).</p>
<p>I definitely do NOT think it is necessary to have college visits, especially of schools that may or may NOT accept your child. My sister & her D chose to visit Us after she received her acceptances & was trying to decide between the 4 she liked bast. This seemed a more rational approach and was helpful to her in finding out more about the atmosphere of the Us. She was very happy with the one she chose after the visit.</p>
<p>In case of my D. visits were the most important in her decision making, and not just one, but several with overnights. She needed to do it for both UG and choosing Medical School. So, far I can assure that it has worked perfectly for UG choice, still have to see about Med. School. D. actually has changed her mind after visiting second time Medical Schools that she was considering. However, none of it was expansive, since D’s criteria #1 for applying to specific school (in both cases UG and Med. School) was limit of 4.5 hrs of driving. She would not apply to any outside of this range, no matter what ranking or other opportunites or strong advising.</p>
<p>If you have high financial need, keep in mind that some schools, especially the wealthier ones, will offer an all-expenses-paid trip to the admitted students weekend (once you’re admitted of course). I took advantage of this because I’m from the west coast but applied to mostly east coast schools, so I didn’t have to pay for airfare etc. I toured my top two schools that way and could have done a couple more if I had wanted.</p>
<p>SW is running their “40th birthday” specials making travel affordable if it were just 1 school he was considering. I tallied 20 schools in 8 states that are over an 8 hour drive and most are LACs.</p>
<p>I have til tonight to book airfares. I am still torn on some, but the schools which are more financially feasible for him to attend are my priorities. I’ve learned enough here to encourage him to build the list up form the bottom. Of course, these more financially friendly schools are not LACs.</p>
<p>He doesn’t care where we visit, he just wants to visit if we can afford it.</p>
<p>My 6th grader thinks he is crazy. Of course, my 6th grader likes to write, so he is the type who would apply to 20 schools and then visit. My high school son hates essays and really would prefer to restrict his applications to 6 schools.</p>
<p>Schools we’re considering visting:</p>
<p>CA - Claremonts, Oxy and USC</p>
<p>TX - Trinity and Rice</p>
<p>LA - Tulane</p>
<p>AL - Bama (as a financial safety)</p>
<p>PA - Pitt (as a financial safety)</p>
<p>Carolinas - College of Charleston, Warren Wilson, UNC Ashville, UNC Chapel Hill, Clemson</p>
<p>And this is the cut down list. He has eclectic taste and interests. Most kids would never be conflicted by some of these combinations.</p>
<p>Not every kid gets that “this is where I belong” feeling. I know that my daughter did not. She applied to a very odd combination of schools, but they made sense for her. And she is at Pitt.</p>
<p>Longhaul, MD Mom,
“PA - Pitt (as a financial safety)”
"Not every kid gets that “this is where I belong” feeling. I know that my daughter did not. She applied to a very odd combination of schools, but they made sense for her. And she is at Pitt. "</p>
<ul>
<li>Another proof that visit or not is very personal decision. My D. has withdrew from Pitt. Med. School after Interview visit. It was crucial, since Pitt is very highly ranked Med. School and she was so happy to be invited to interview there. D. said she just does not see herself going there. As I have mentioned, visits are important for some and irrelevent for others. They were everything in my D’s decision making for UG and Med. School.</li>
</ul>
<p>Went to College Night for Harvard, Duke, Penn, Georgetown and Stanford. They all told us that they do not keep track of college visits because they know it would not be fair to the applicants that cannot afford to travel to the schools. You can “show the love” by friending their respective Office of Admissions Facebook page.</p>