<p>I have never visited colleges because my mother did not want to travel. I have applied to 12 colleges without even visiting them. Now my mother says that she will go and visit with me after a friend convinced her. I have spring break in April but I am going to a Spain trip with my school for 3 weeks so I won't be able to visit colleges then. Should I wait until I get accepted to colleges to visit? That way I can visit the college during their accepted students day instead of just a regular campus visit. But, I don't find out until april 1st from all my schools so I won't be able to visit until I come back from the trip. Should I start visiting now with regular campus tours and without knowing where I got accepted? Or should I start visiting after my Spain trip when I will have a very limited time to visit but I will be able to visit colleges on their accepted students day. Also, I have AP exams in May which makes visiting colleges and studying VERY difficult.</p>
<p>My D visited the far-away schools only after she got into them. She did regular college tours, not accepted students day. </p>
<p>I can’t advise how to fit it all in along with Spain/studying for AP exams… that’s something very individual. I’d definitely try to visit at least your top couple of choices and still commit to studying. Make it clear to your mom that the college trip isn’t a vacation – after all, you just got back from one – and that you plan to study in the evenings and whenever it’s possible while not touring the various campuses.</p>
<p>Start visiting now. If you don’t find out until April 1, and you are gone for 3 weeks, do you know that you must commit (put down a deposit) before May 1?</p>
<p>The one thing anyone should avoid is having to make a decision on short notice and without firsthand information about whether the school is a fit for them (IMO).</p>
<p>It may not be possible to visit 12 schools by April. Be prudent with how you set up your visit schedule. </p>
<p>I would not recommend an Accepted Students Day as your first visit. The campus is not going to be anything like a typical school day. On your initial visits, you should take the tour, attend a class, maybe have lunch w/ a current student or set up an appointment with your major department; an Info Session is just about useless at this point since it’s about admissions. If you are truly narrowing down a couple of schools, the Accepted Students Day is good; it’s also a great way to find a compatible roommate for freshman year.</p>
<p>BTW, if decisions come out April 1, when could you attend any Accepted Students days anyway?</p>
<p>Where did you apply? There are some schools where not visiting puts you at a disadvantage. Schools that know they are often looked at as safety schools know they likely won’t yield those who have not visited and reject on that basis.</p>
<p>I usually suggest to only visit school that your accepted into.</p>
<p>You have a 3 week trip in April, and haven’t visited any of your 12 schools? Do you know how difficult it will be to make a final decision without that information and under presssure to respond by May 1? Do you want to spend a whole year regretting your lack of planning?</p>
<p>You cannot possibly visit more than one or two schools in the small amount of time you’ve left yourself in April. You have to do the majority of your visiting in the next 10 weeks. Sit down with your mom, and if possible, someone else who is good at planning trips. Start with the closest schools and the match schools. Spend time on their websites - you’ll need to know about transportation and if reservations are required for tours; you need to know if an interview is required or suggested. There are a lot of threads on this site with tips about touring schools. [Reviews</a> of Hotels, Flights and Vacation Rentals - TripAdvisor](<a href=“http://www.tripadvisor.com%5DReviews”>http://www.tripadvisor.com) is another good site for general travel information.</p>
<p>If you’re waitlisted to one of your choice colleges, you may want to pay a visit to the school if it tracks demonstrated interest, and for the sake of fodder for a letter of continued interest.</p>
<p>“I have applied to 12 colleges without even visiting them.”</p>
<p>Happyniece applied to several colleges that she had visited, but she also applied to many more that she hadn’t. In the end, she had four acceptances with good financial aid. The place that offered the best aid was one that she hadn’t visited, so she went to see it before accepting their offer of admission.</p>
<p>If money is a big issue for you, you can wait to visit until you have the offers on the table. You would have time then to squeeze in a visit or two before making your final decision. The only reason I can see for trying to visit all twelve right now would be if your family is going to be full-pay, and you have good reason to expect that all of these schools will admit you.</p>
<p>As others have posted, if you get acceptances somewhere around April 1 (that week) and you are leaving for 3 weeks, you won’t have much time to visit and make a decision before May 1 deposit is due. I would seriously consider your top couple choices based on where you reasonably feel you have the best shot at being admitted, and then visit those. You want to see if you feel comfortable on the campus, and believe me, a visit is crucial. My daughter was excited and in the right mood to go one one visit, and then had a horrible time, and changed her mind about applying to the school. Another school, she had not expected to like as much as she did, and over time it has become her first choice, so , you never know! Do you have time off between now and April? I would try to plan some visits, even if it means missing a few days of school to do so. The next four years are pretty important, so you deserve to take some time to visit schools.
I am glad your mom’s friend convinced her of the importance of doing these visits with you! Enjoy the time together!</p>
<p>Thank you so much! i made reservations online to visit 9 of my schools and they fit perfectly because some of my schools are in the same city. It might be a waste of time to visit all of them but I think it’s worth it because at least I will know for sure where I feel comfortable. I reserved campus tours and info sessions. Should I do more? Like follow a student around for a day.</p>
<p>Oh and money is an issue for me. That is why I didn’t apply to as challenging schools as I had wanted. I applied to accelerated law programs with gw, rpi, drexel, cwru, njit, and hofstra. I applied to RD at rutgers, nyu, bc, fordham, american, and northeastern. My number one choice is the engineering law program at gw.</p>
<p>Best of luck on your campus visits!
RPI needs females, maybe you will receive a great Financial Aid package.</p>
<p>Try to sit in on a class at each of the schools you really think are strong possibilities if time is limited. Sit in on a class at every school if possible! You really want a sense of the interaction between professors and students, the “feel” of students in the classes, etc. I wouldn’t waste time on the info sessions at the schools because that is usually about applying and stats to sell you on the school, and you already applied. Spend time on the tours, class visits, and even grab lunch or a snack in a dining facility on campus and just kind of observe, get a feel. One campus we visited has stuck in the minds of my daughter and myself because even the dining hall workers were friendly, and positive, and polite, where at other schools we felt like we were treated rudely for being in the wrong payment line. We had never been there before, and there weren’t signs for visitors…Most importantly, ask questions beyond the tour script. Ask how competative the students are with each other - some schools don’t rank, so students study together, other schools can be cut-throat! Take a notebook with you because visiting so many schools in such a short time, you are bound to start blending info about each school together!
One thing I have noticed is that many schools use first year students to do tours. This is a terrible idea in my opinion! They haven’t had as much experience yet on the campus where classes and dealing with offices, etc, are concerned. The first year students tended to not be able to answer our questions, and had to seek out others to do so. Don’t let that deter you from asking questions though - and if it’s really important to you, don’t let them just drop it without getting you some sort of an answer!
Enjoy your visits!</p>
<p>Glad to see that you’re planning visits now. I think the advise to only visit schools that you’re accepted into is bad advice in general and nonsensical in your case, in which you have a very limited time to make a very important decision.</p>
<p>Definitely take advantage of any opportunitiy to get to know a student on campus - talking to one will be much more informative than the info session! (as teachandmom said, the info session is often the same information as what’s on the web site.) For example, GW has (or had) a “lunch with a student” program. You get a free lunch, and they make your parent leave so you can ask whatever you want!
The other thing to keep in mind is that certain schools will just not feel right to you, even if you cannot pin down the reason. Each of my kids had strong negative reactions to a couple of schools, and were super-positive about the school they wound up attending. Was it because of the location, the students or the course offerings? I couldn’t tell you, but in each case it was a strong predictor of happiness. Good luck with your search!</p>
<p>most books about college admissions will have a chapter about college visits with tips on things you should look for, questions to ask, things to do. I suggest reading thru one of those books before you go. </p>
<p>You might also want to start thinking about whats important to you in a college and making a list. I realize this can be hard to do because you’ve never been a college student so its hard to predict everything that will matter! But this is again where the book chapter mentioned previously comes in handy; as they talk about things to check out you can assume that these are things college students find important and so you’ll get some additional ideas over what you can already come up with on your own. Then make copies of this list and bring them with you on your visits, rating each college while its fresh in your mind. This can be helpful later when you’re trying to decide between schools if you don’t have a miles-ahead favorite you got into.</p>