@allyphoe We are looking at several of the same schools, although my D has much different academic interests. Can I ask what you did not like about Tulsa and Lawrence?
As far as school visits, I am giving D a list and letting her choose one to get done this spring. On the list is Puget Sound, Agnes Scott, University of Denver. We have a trip to the Midwest planned this summer, so we’ll hit Lawrence and St. Olaf then.
@murray93 Mostly, she decided that she really really wants a women’s college.
UTulsa was maybe a little too big and a little too preprofessional. Lawrence was maybe a little too white and a little too alcohol-focused (my kid probably won’t be 21 until after graduating college, so “we have a bar on campus where seniors can drink with their professors” was not exactly a selling point). But the reason they are off the list is that she’s only planning to apply to women’s colleges.
Thank you for your reply. Haven’t yet been to either (and not sure Tulsa is worth the trip because I’m not 100% sold and it’s a little reach-y), so good to get some insight.
@NYC2018nyc @Itisatruth @momrath thank you for the info! Friend drove to Williamstown from Ohio for her dd’s touring, so I really couldn’t complain about a 3-hr drive. Lol
@HarrietMWelsch
I hope this is not a digression from the thread, but would you elaborate why Bowdoin dropped from the list after the visit? We are considering it since it has really good music program and its food is considered one of the best among colleges.
DS likes Swarthmore too after our visit last spring and will be applying.
@makemesmart, Bowdoin is a wonderful school! In addition to the music (and food), S2 was curious about/interested in their visual arts offerings.
His/our experience there was just fine. S2 took it off the list for very individual reasons, some inchoate and some clearly expressed. The one I specifically recall was that he (as someone with a powerful interest in all things visual, and some interest in architecture) didn’t love the way old and new were integrated on the campus. Then again it may have suffered overall in comparison to Bates, which felt right to him in multiple ways. And finally, hey, he’s 16. 
None of this should put anybody else off Bowdoin!
And please, Bowdoin fans or parents who scoff at non-academic reasons for evaluating college lists, don’t pounce. Bear in mind that this is our third kid and we’ve had years to watch and learn. YMMV, but DH and I are entirely comfortable with any reason S2 offers to take any super-competitive (“lottery” if that’s how you like to think of it) school off his list, regardless of how great we think it is. 
Believe me, our older two took wonderful schools off their lists for far pettier / more amusing reasons (as well as some very mature, well thought out ones).
Which reminds me that it’s time to go dig up that great thread in the Cafe about dumb reasons your kid won’t consider a school.
@HarrietMWelsch thanks for the reply. I don’t think there are “bad” reasons for dropping schools from the list since all our lists need trimming, one way or the other!
Williams from Hartford is reasonable. Visit trinity, Amherst, Mt Holyoke and/or Smith then head west. If you had two days you could drive by trinity visit Amherst. If your students are women do Moho that day. Stay in Northampton see smith in am and drive to Williams for afternoon and back to Boston that night. Visit the Boston schools on day three.
@HarrietMWelsch here’s that thread about stupidest reason a child won’t consider a school - one of my faves - I have it bookmarked. It’s been quiet for over a month so it may need to be reawakened 
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/705291-stupidest-reason-child-wont-look-at-a-college.html#latest
@CAtransplant, yup, that’s the one I mentioned above. (Pretty sure I contributed during its earliest days.)
S20 thinks he has his college application list set:
UGA
Pitt
U of SC
FSU
Bama
He’ll be gunning for merit and honors colleges. We are revisiting UGA and U of SC over spring break. S saw those two with his dad the first time. I can’t wait to see them, especially since the azaleas should be blooming.
We tend to do our college tours leisurely. We have five days to explore the two schools. We will do the campus tours, honors college info sessions, department info sessions, and hopefully a couple of class visits. We are staying in hotels close to campus so S can really immerse himself and pretend to be a student for a couple of days.
I feel that I have let this process get too time constrained as my D20 has not visited any schools yet. We too are probably full pay nursing looking for heavy merit in the south. As such I am trying to only schedule heavy merit schools but she wants to visit other schools which are not likely to provide much money.
Oh well we are headed to UNC in February and Alabama in April but I want to schedule in Kentucky, FSU and UF. It doesn’t seem I have enough time to get a good look at enough schools.
@WasIDremin Are you planning to look into any direct entry nursing schools. There are several good threads that list the direct entry nursing schools. You can also see information from this year’s admits regarding merit awards, which may provide some help determining costs.
Don’t let things get away from you. Discuss your budget with your D in an open and honest manner. Don’t waste your limited time visiting schools that you will not be able to afford. E.g., UNC-CH would be pricey out of state, as they don’t have much merit (I would normally say they don’t have ‘any’ merit, but posters like to correct that: Oh! She could win the Robertson!). Good luck! I am also looking at nursing schools for my D, but in the north.
@bigmacbeth Thanks! My daughter doesn’t seem to care too much about direct admit. She is overly confdent that ere grades will get her admitted to whichever school she chooses. I will probably add Clemson to the list of schools to visit though, and UTK is in our backyard, so it is always a fallback.
On a slightly different topic, what do people do when they are chasing merit? It seems we have a solid base of Safety schools but they don’t excite my daughter. I feel confident that we can get into the reach schools, but have no clue on how hard it is to get good merit there. Like you mention I have read UNC-CH is near impossible to get good Merit. My D really wants to go to a more selective school…
@WasIDremin oh boy, welcome to the club. Safeties not exciting and more selective schools have little merit! Just gotta try for what is out there and see what happens.
@WasIDremin Yep, the higher you go in selectivity, the less merit you can expect. Aim for a school where your D is in the Top 25% of admits (are you familiar with the Common Data Set for each school? This will provide you with this information. Expect a 3.9+ GPA and mid-30s ACT to get to the higher level of merit.
Sounds like your D wants the full college experience, whereas most of the direct admits are smaller regional schools. Very similar to my D.
Update for our Spring Break travel, which I have now dubbed the “New York Thruway tour” (coming from Mid-Atlantic): Middlebury, Bard, Vassar, NYU. D20 cut from the list: Bates, Brown, Conn College, Wellesley, Wesleyan. Already visited and still interested in applying: Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Reed, Sarah Lawrence. Already visited and maybe interested in applying: Macalester, Bennington. Progress!
Hopefully your D20 spring-break does not coincide with the school(s) on your list and those schools are in session. That will make your effort much more worthwhile.
@CaDad2019 :)) No worries on that front, I’m way too anal to schedule visits without checking the college spring break dates first. It’s making for a somewhat less efficient schedule as we have to see one school on Friday, then stay over the weekend before seeing the other 2. We’ll do NYU as a day trip, and I think I’ve convinced D20 to swing by Mount Holyoke for a revisit and interview since they interview juniors - get one of those out of the way before summer/fall revisits.
I saw someone mention interviews and I hadn’t thought about that. How do I know if a school does interviews? Should S20 reach out to someone? Will it be on the website? How common is that? Or is it more likely later in the application process?
At the schools my kid is looking at, when you scheduled a visit online, an interview was one of the options if you had an appropriate year of graduation. So if you changed your year to say you were a senior, you could see whether that changed what was offered to you.