<ol>
<li><p>I have been to Brown once, I'm pretty sure I will be applying there but should I still go there for another visit during next year, my senior year?</p></li>
<li><p>I never visited UPenn, Duke, JHU, etc, but I'm also sure I will be applying there. Since they don't offer the on-campus interview, should I still take a campus visit? But if I apply without doing a campus visit, will they see it as a sign of lacking interests?</p></li>
<li><p>For those schools that offer on-campus interview, like Wash U, is it better to make a campus visit then do the interview?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’d recommend visiting campus if you are able to more for you to get a sense of the community and general feel of the campus, rather than to “show interest” (I don’t know if larger schools like Penn track stuff like campus visits per se, although I supposed a campus visit might make the “Why Penn” essay easier to write in some regards…) </p>
<p>For me, campus visits really helped narrow down my choices, as I fell in love with Penn’s campus from the moment I walked on campus (something about the campus vibe…I still can’t quite put my finger on it), while for whatever reason, the other schools I visited just didn’t have the same draw/pull…</p>
<p>Go on college visits for yourself, not for “some college checklist”. Get a sense of what it’s like, the neighborhood, the cafeteria, the dorms, the overall vibe. If the school doesn’t offer on-campus interviews, fear not. They’ll come later in the form of alumni.</p>
<p>Research lots of schools before you head out. What makes them special? Be sure to investigate what other possible schools to look at while you’re in the area. Ivies, BTW, don’t track whether you visit or not. Some other schools do though (Middlebury, WashU, Emory, Northwestern, Rice, etc.) Williams only had on-campus interviews before Aug 27th.</p>
<p>If you can afford campus visits, by all means do them. Not only do they make the Why College essays much easier, but if you talk to lots of kids in their natural habitat you get a real feel for the place. The senior-year visits really helped my son decide.</p>
<p>My sons visited some campuses before applying and some afterwards when they were accepted. Campus visits really do convey what a school is like much better than just reading about them in a guide book. (And visit them while school is in session!) My younger son agrees with GeekMom that it is much easier to write the “why ___ college” essay if you’ve seen the campus. Both my sons only had alumni interviews.</p>
<p>I agree, if you can afford it, try and tour the universities you may or intend to apply to, since touring can drastically change that final list, and also helps in narrowing down the acceptance list as well.</p>
<p>We went on a several week summer vacation that involved probably close to 15 colleges that included safeties, matches, and reaches. Everything you see plays into the application decision, from the orientation, to the tour, to the tour guide, to the general vibe.</p>
<p>Then, once accepted, you can select a couple of colleges to head back to, if you can, where there’s some indecision. Visiting the same place at different times of the year (i.e. summer vs. spring) can also make a difference.</p>
<p>Providing a student lives in this country there is no reason that they should select a college to attend without ever seeing it. Even among the best schools in this country there is a different vibe on every campus. There are too many students that apply to these schools based on reputation alone. That is not a great way to select where you will live and study for four years. </p>
<p>When a student visits they have an opportunity to eat in the cafeterias and check out the food. You would also be able to talk to other students and get a sense of what life is like on the campus or if the students are your intellectual peers. Even among the top schools in this country there are many things to consider. Do you prefer urban areas or more rural areas with beautiful scenic views? or Would you prefer an urban type campus where the city is your campus or a university that has a college campus vibe? </p>
<p>These visits are very important and will actually save you from applying to schools that you have no interest in attending. I have heard of so many kids applying to schools just on reputation and then they gain acceptance. They visit the school to only learn that they could never attend the school because it was in a bad neighborhood or the living situation was horrible or it was too hot or too cold or too sourthern or too northern. There are so many reasons that students like or dislike campus’ so it is probably one of the most important things to do when you are considering colleges. I would also suggest only visiting a college when students are on the campus.</p>
<p>Visits can provide a type of information that you won’t get in any other way – especially if the impression you get is negative.</p>
<p>My daughter knew that she wasn’t going to apply to Johns Hopkins before we finished parking the car. We went through with the information session and tour anyway, but she already knew that this college was not for her – which helped to narrow the list later.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you shouldn’t make your decisions entirely on the basis of visits. My son greatly preferred the University of Delaware to the University of Maryland when he visited, but ultimately, he selected Maryland because it had a better program in his intended major, and he never regretted that decision.</p>
<p>If visiting before applying is tricky, you can plan to visit the schools to which you are accepted. Our son visited quite a few schools. He applied to a few that he had visited and to a couple that were reaches and in a part of the country that made visiting a problem before senior year. His plan was to visit those schools if he were accepted. I think this is a sensible approach.</p>
<p>So the pros of visiting are:
- Getting a vibe of the campus.
- Helps to write the supplement.
- Narrow down the collegel ist.</p>
<p>I completely agree with them. But say I will apply to 10 schools in New England and Mid-West, plus Emory, Pomona and Stanford, is it worth to make a trip to California and Georgia respectively to make the campus visit?<br>
Also since my school starts on the second week of September, I was thinking to make my visits+interviews during the first week of September. Any suggestions on my agenda?</p>
<p>Early September is a good time to visit schools - at least the ones that start in August. You don’t have to visit every school you apply to, but you don’t want to be accepted at so many schools in April that you’ve never seen that you won’t have time to make your decisions. Both my sons ended up doing four visits for accepted students events - and that’s pushing it. It’s easier if you have already got favorites. I’m not sure where you are located but I’d make at least one trip to see some of the further away schools.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people disagree with this, but I really never saw the point in visiting schools. I had visited 5 before I decided I didn’t really need to visit any more. What I don’t like about visits is that there are too many small intangibles that can color your opinion of a school. Things like weather, tour guides, running into small groups of students who aren’t indicative of the whole student body, can drastically change your opinion of a school. While I don’t deny that sometimes you can get that “feeling” when you’re at your perfect school, I think visiting should be held at a lower priority than most people seem to think.</p>
<p>You’ve gotten really good advice on the visits. Further thoughts for you: with highly competitive admissions, many students wait and visit the schools to which they have been accepted and offered aid (if that is an issue). It is painful to fall in love with a school that doesn’t accept you. On the other hand, if you really have no idea what kind of university would be your best fit, 2-3 campus visits can help direct you toward schools with a similar fit (See The Top 100 Schools book which lists for each school “students who applied here also applied to …”). On those visits: a class visit really helped my daughter to make her choices.</p>
<p>Of the schools you mentioned, except for Wash U, I don’t think you will get any edge by visiting. I doubt with tens of thousands of applicants, admissions is checking back if someone did a visit or not. </p>
<p>Although my son did get into Wash U without visiting – and they offered a free trip out to him and to many admitted students. I have read it doesn’t matter if you do the on-campus vs. off-campus interview or even sometimes the interview at all. My son did not visit or do an off-campus interview at Hopkins and was accepted (and then we did the visit). He did do the alumni interview for Brown which they will offer to all applicants. He didn’t apply to the others, so I’m not sure of their policies.</p>
<p>I guess I will just visit two schools in California and maybe other 7 or 8 schools in New England then. I’m afraid if I go to 10 colleges in a week and the next week I will forget about most of the visits and couldn’t help with my supplemental essays.</p>
<p>Definitely keep notes if you plan to visit several schools at once. GOOD notes. They will definitely blur otherwise. Track who you talked to (by name if it wasn’t a random passing student) and what you talked about, and how you felt overall. Maybe even take a picture or two. We never visited that many at once and they still blurred together.</p>