Spring College Visit Trip to Acceptances

Parent Cafe
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<p>Okay, so I'm applying to 17/18 colleges and I've already been accepted to 4 colleges (Knox, Hiram, Ursinus, and Lenior-Rhyne). I know I may be starting this thread a little early, but I need to start planning ahead for my spring college visit. I'm obviously not going to visit all 17 colleges because I probably won't get admitted to all the schools, and for my family it's going to depend mostly on the financial aid. So, some of these schools will be getting crossed off the list before I go on the trip(s). I live in Metro Atlanta, so it will obviously be our starting point. I wouldn't focus on the Southeastern schools because those should be easily visited in a couple hours drive except Flagler is more then a couple hours.</p>

<p>Here are the list of schools, so everyone can get an idea:</p>

<p>Northeast-
Hobart and William Smith (Geneva, NY)
Sarah Lawrence (Bronxville, NY)
Clark (Worcester, MA)
College of Holy Cross (Worcester, MA)
Wheaton (Norton, MA)
Ursinus (Collegeville, PA)
Juniata (Huntingdon, PA)
Allegheny (Meadville, PA)</p>

<p>Midwest-
Hiram (Hiram, OH)
College of Wooster (Wooster, OH)
Ohio Wesleyan (Delaware, OH)
Earlham (Richmond, IN)
Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois)
Lawrence (Appelton, WI)
Cornell College* (Mount Vernon, Iowa)</p>

<p>Southeast-
Flagler (St.Augustine, FL)
GCSU (Millidegeville, GA)
Lenior-Rhyne (Hickory, NC)</p>

<p>I should know where I'm accepted by most of these before April 1st (3 I won't), but the problem is that my spring break is from March 30th-April 8th. This will be the big trip we will be going on. We will be driving, so it will be easier to just take schools off the itinerary if I don't get admitted or what not. I know Hiram College has already offered $300 in reimbursement for airfare, but I do not know if they will reimburse for gas. Do most colleges reimburse for gas or is it just airfare? I was thinking about doing two trips: a midwest and a northeast trip. However, some of the midwestern schools aren't close to each other. </p>

<p>Would u a 3 day weekend be worth a college visit as well? I'm off Jan 14-16, but it's because of MLK day. Would the schools be opened on the weekends and on this holiday? I could always just visit Flagler that day. I also have a 4 day weekend February 14th-17th, but are these short weekends worth the visit? I was thinking that spring break would be the northeast trip. But here is the problem. I am only allowed to miss 3 excused school days (including college visits) next semester or I won't be allowed to exempt finals. To exempt finals you need an A in the class or a 90% average, but 2nd semester of senior year is the only time in my whole high school career I can exempt. I've been waiting forever to do this, but 3 days isn't much to visit schools. </p>

<p>I just wanted some ideas about the different college trips I would have to make? How would you split up the visits? I'm assuming we could visit some in one day. I don't think it's every too early to start planning, it's only 4 months away. Thanks!</p>

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<p>Whew. You are a kid after my own heart as I preplan things too. </p>

<p>For starters, relax. 17 to 18 colleges is TOO many. Some people love to have lots of options but you are off in the deep end. </p>

<p>Have a sit down with your parents and really, really listen to what they have to say about the money flow. Do you have siblings? Take off the rose colored glasses that say “I can go anywhere and do anything and be anything!” The choices you make may affect your parent’s retirement and your siblings futures. </p>

<p>Unless you are a tippy top student, colleges are not going to pay for you to visit. </p>

<p>You have two things that affect your trip planning: Where you are admitted AND where you have good financial aid. Sounds like you (or a parent) could write a frank email to the financial aid offices of the schools on your list. It could say something like </p>

<p>“I am a X.xx GPA student from Atlanta. My Fafsa EFC = $$$$ and my SAT score is ZZZZ. (That’s enough for them to ball park how much they are interested). I am aware that each year and each student is different, but I am would deeply appreciate indications on the amount of grants and scholarships similar students were granted in this past year and your forecast on how this year is likely to be in comparison.”</p>

<p>Here’s the deal. The answer will be one of the following (with the translation after)</p>

<p>1). Apply and you’ll know in April! (Translation: don’t expect too much)
2) Apply and we’ll guarantee financial aid! (Translation: expect loans, not grants)
3) Apply. Students with your GPA, SAT and EFC typically receive $XX,XXX in grants at Happy College (Translation: you are someone we want and we’re ready to start talking details).
4) We are too busy to respond right now. (Translation: who the heck knows what will unfold). </p>

<p>Parents and students who have done massive road trips will tell you that colleges start to blend together. You really need to give each college a day of your life before you give it 4 years and many thousands of dollars. </p>

<p>So you need to cut down your list to your top three. </p>

<p>BUT You have all of April to do this. You should start hearing from the colleges (with financial aid details from March 15 to April 1). You have until May 1 to make a choice. </p>

<p>So, if it were me, I’d spend now narrowing the application list to ten colleges (at most). Then polish the heck out of those ten applications. </p>

<p>Then wait until April. Sure, it’ll be a hectic rush to decide which three colleges to schedule – and it may be some mad dashing. But you’ll have the financial aid info in hand and that will make a huge difference. Why go see a college and love it if it will put you into mountains of debt for the rest of your life? Why not go see the three affordable colleges (surely one of which you will love) without ripping apart your parents retirement?</p>

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<p>The problem with my approach is that December, January, February and half of March do not have “early” as the center of the family universe. Please share that comment with your parents. They will likely laugh. These few months could be a great time for you to give back – less time agonizing over college websites and a few more minutes cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming the car and volunteering to make dinner might be a start.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your advice. I know the choices I take will affect my whole life, this is why I’m applying to so many schools. I’ve know at least two CTCL schools that they will pay for traveling expenses (Allegheny and Hiram). I was not a tippy top student at Hiram. I’ve already applied to 12 schools and have already sent my test scores/transcripts to the other schools and I’m in the process in finishing the pieces to those supplement essays, so it is really too late to cut any schools off. Also, I’m off a whole week in the end of March/April. This is the only time without missing school that I can visit these schools. So, I don’t have all April to visit schools.</p>

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<p>"… for my family it’s going to depend mostly on the financial aid."</p>

<p>What kind of financial aid? If need-based, you can get a pretty good idea of what FA packages to expect from each college. If merit-based, you’ll probably have to wait until the end of March.</p>

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<p>Both. I’ve already gotten $10,000 per year from 3/4 colleges I’ve been accepted to.</p>

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<p>Agree with Olymom–get the list down to 3 and visit them with an eye to attending.</p>

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<p>what major are you intending to get? Because i live in Florida and flagler is not as amazing as some people seem to think it is</p>

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<p>If a college is willing to give you $300 for airfare, I’d think they’d reimburse you $300 for gas money. Most colleges are not open on MLK day, but do hold big open houses on Presidents’ Day.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone! I have no idea how I would narrow my list to only 3 without visiting all the affordable schools. A lot of them are very similar CTCL type of schools, so visiting will probably be the deciding factor. My top choices are: Clark, Wooster, Hobart and William Smith, and Lawrence which all in different states, lol. </p>

<p>GRaynor- I’d be majoring in communications/journalism at Flagler, but I’m mostly undecided at a lot of these schools. I’m interested in certain majors at certain colleges, but I’ve tried to search more for overall fit then for a specific major.</p>

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<p>I agree with others who said visit 3 at most to choose your first choice. Before visiting, you should be able to narrow it down by reading what students have said on this site, U N I G O, and other college review sites and books. You can also speak or email professors and/or students in a college. Admissions or a specific department often can get you in touch with students. You can also find out more about the college by looking at the events calendar and the student newspaper. </p>

<p>Recognize that visits give you an impression of a school but that impression may have a lot to do with which classes you decide to visit, which students you happen to speak to, whether it’s sunny or raining etc!</p>

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<p>I don’t know much about these schools but I am a big planner/organizer. What you have here is an essay that is over 1000 words but you need to get it under 500. Be brutal and edit so you only have the best choices left. </p>

<p>You have 3 groups and since the Florida group is the smallest, I would not visit those but do as much research as you can. Decide if those 3 are in or out period and pretend you are an international student who cannot visit any and must decide based on what they read and see.</p>

<p>Then you can focus on the 2 other groups. You need to then rank the schools based on your own personal list of what it most important to you eg. Academics, estimated financial aid/merit aid/ size of the school, variety of majors you are interested in, rural or city etc, male/female ratio, how difficult is it to get home etc. Score each school in each category and come up with a number. </p>

<p>Then order them based on your research so you have top 2-3 in each column and the bottom 3-4 in each column.</p>

<p>Now you have 4-6 schools in the top to decide about seeing in 2 regions. You will not visit the bottom schools unless they are literally next to each other. </p>

<p>Pull out a map and determine what is possible drivewise. Watch all the video tours of the schools on those Unversity TV clips so you an see if just by watching those you feel you want to remove any. You can an example of a grid like rating system at College Rowler, add a P before the R of Rowler. </p>

<p>There is also Presidents Weekend which give you 4 days to take off.</p>

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<p>Ok, well i haven’t heard anything about that degree in particular, but i know a lot of people that feel like a degree from flagler isn’t worth the money it costs</p>

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<p>I sent 2 PMs to you.</p>

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<p>Most of these schools seem to be a real hike for someone from Georgia who has financial need. Just be sure to not underestimate the cost of applications, cost of visiting, cost of getting back and forth if attending for you and your family if the location is not easy to get to,etc. As others have said, finding a financial safety seems key.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone! I got your PM northeast mom and will respond to you after I post this. I think it will be easier once I get each schools individual financial aid package. I can then take those which are in no way affordable off the list. Some of the more rural schools like Allegheny due worry me because there a couple hours away from a major airport. I have a car, but I don’t think I will be driving from Western PA to Georgia. When in March do the financial aid packages come? My spring break starts right before I should be getting all my final acceptances/rejections and financial aid packages, so I may be on the road before I receive them. What do I do about that? How am I suppose to narrow down where I’ll visit if I don’t even know if I’m accepted? Spring Break is the only week besides presidents weekend to do it. I would also have to make appointments a couple weeks ahead of time, but how will I do that if I don’t know if I’m admitted and what my financial aid package is? Also, if I went to the midwest (lets say) for Presidents Day weekend, are they open on the weekend? </p>

<p>Also, even the schools in the midwest are no where near each other. Wooster and Lawrence are my top two choices for the midwest. Well, it would take 11 hours to get to Wooster and then another 10 hours to get to Lawrence and both are in the same “region”. Clark is 5 hours from Hobart another top choice and then another 5 hours to Juniata, so it doesn’t even seem that these top schools in the same region are near by.</p>

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<p>I would not save all of my college visits for after the packages come in. It might be a waste of money to visit, but saving all of the visits for March might be too much to be doable for you! If you are serious about Clark, will they pay anything toward airfare? It might be easier to just fly from Atlanta to Boston and see if someone from the school can pick you up, or find out about transportation from the airport to their school.</p>

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<p>My father wanted to go with me and he said he wanted to drive because he would have to rent a car once we got there anyways. Then my mother said today that she wanted to come along. I don’t think they should make this into a family vacation, lol. I have no more days off after spring break to visit schools. Yes, I can miss up to 3 days but then after that I cannot exempt finals. And we were planning on doing the two trips, so maybe we can have the northeast trip during spring break and the midwest trip during the presidents day? But would that even work if there not open on the weekend.</p>

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<p>If you have certain dates in mind, and ideas about what you would like to see, contact the admissions office and ask if there is a tour, if classes are held, if the dining halls are open, etc. We visited a lot over the summer. Even though this is not ideal, we were able to come to some conclusions, took tours of empty campuses (still saw dorms, some dining halls were open for staff, surrounding areas, etc.).</p>

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<p>I will do that. It’s just hard to prepare the trip when I won’t even know my financial aid packages until March and I’m planning on going then.</p>