<p>I wouldn’t visit a school that you KNOW you won’t pay to send her to UNLESS there is a reasonable expectation that she could raise her stats to the point of qualifying for a virtually automatic financial award that makes it affordable for you. In that case, a visit could be motivational. Otherwise, it is just asking for trouble.</p>
<p>The Mark Twain scholarship mentioned above at Mizzou requires that the student be in the top 50% of their class, with a higher award for kids in the top 25%. Her current ACT qualifies for the lower award of up to $4000, depending on rank. If she achieved a really big jump in her ACT, and is in the top 25%, she could get as much as $5,500. That would reduce the OOS cost of Mizzou to about $30K. MSU is about $21K. If there is NO WAY you would come up with the difference, I don’t see the point in visiting. IMHO, $9K is too much to expect a kid to cover in outside scholarships and jobs. And keep in mind that the scholarship can be lost if the college GPA falls below a certain level. This one isn’t particularly onerous, but any kid can have a really bad semester.</p>
<p>Mizzou is certainly more affordable than most privates, even with merit money from the latter.</p>
<p>Edited to add: If there is a reach school where the FA policy is such that IF she were accepted you could afford to send her, and IF the improvement in her stats required to be a viable candidate is within the bounds of probability, then I might visit. I do not think, for example, that a student with an ACT of 27 has a reasonable chance of raising it to 34.</p>