<p>Thanks for the tip! HC had the best offer when we did the early estimator, but one can’t really go by that. All of my top choices use the Profile unfortunately.</p>
<p>Also, I recall that with my older son, one school put in a very high amount of income that they felt a student could contribute. I definitely thought it was very unrealistic.</p>
<p>We’re in the same boat (my H is self-employed) and really all you can do is wait and see…</p>
<p>Yep, that’s all I can do right now. I just got to hope I get a couple decent packages.</p>
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<p>You’ll hear by March 30…so you shouldn’t need to visit if you’re not accepted.</p>
<p>I was thinking April 2nd, since April 1st is on a Sunday. But thanks for the tip! :)</p>
<p>Woo hoo–I love college acceptances spring trips. They are a lot more fun than trips to check out assisted living places with an elderly relative…</p>
<p>Everyone at my school will be getting sun burned in Panama City Beach, while I get my pale on up north! :)</p>
<p>"Agree with Olymom–get the list down to 3 and visit them with an eye to attending. "</p>
<p>Agree with ellemenope, who agrees with Olymom.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you are but given that Holy Cross and Clark are a mile or so apart, both at the top of your list, and you’re into Clark, it might be worth making a March visit to those two, leaving just a couple for an April break visit.</p>
<p>My dad only has money to go on one big trip. We were suppose to go on a smaller trip this weekend, but did not because of financial reasons. I would have went on smaller trips if it was up to me. I also won’t find out if I’m admitted to HC until early April. Wheaton is only an hour from HC and Clark too.</p>
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Someone’s got to do it … but I do not agree with the need to limit visits to 3 in a week at all. With my oldest on a spring break trip we formally toured about 10 schools and including drive-bys and quick walking tours we looked at closer to 20 schools. With my second we made numerous weekend trip and ended up seeing even more schools. It is true some schools started to blend together … however the schools that blended together were the schools that didn’t make much of an impression either way. The schools that stood out either positively or negatively were easy to remember. In addition, given limited time and resources to spend on trips only visiting one school a day was not a strategy that seemed to make sense to either of my older kids for a couple reasons … first, if we spent 1/2 day on campus (formal tour, hang out in dining hall, and hang in town next to campus) for almost all schools my kids already had a strong impression of the school and visiting a different school with the other half of the day was much more time effective than continuing on at the first school … second, each kid has a few schools they disliked immediately and if were committed to a full day on that campus it would have been a huge waste of time.</p>
<p>One sample day … we toured Amherst in the morning and UMass in the afternoon and then on the drive to our next days visits we stopped by and quickly checked out Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire. We could have only visited Amherst … however there were 4 other schools within 5 miles of Amherst and in our opinion is was silly to not check them out while we were there.</p>
<p>Another sample day … we toured and hung out for 1/2 day at Ithaca College and University of Rochester … and on the way to next day visits checked out Colgate, Hamilton, and Union.</p>
<p>These were absolutely long days and challenging but the alternative is to not get any look at the school at all. The hectic multi-day multi-school trip is quite doable … have a plan … have extra schools in mind if any schools are immediate nos … make sure you have a GPS … and do take a few notes/pictures to help spur your memory.</p>
<p>It’s now almost exactly 4 years since I went on the week long trip with FirstToGo and I’m sure could still write a solid trip summary about the ~20 schools we saw … and I’m pretty my oldest could also especially about the schools that she liked.</p>
<p>Thanks! Was this before your kids were accepted? I haven’t visited any of the schools yet. We are waiting for each financial aid package. I will visit every school that gives me a good package and that’s affordable. I’ve been accepted to 13 schools (waiting on 2), but will probably only visit half of those. I feel like I will be able to tell immediately if it’s the school for me or not. I agree that if I get a bad feeling from the second I step foot on campus that I shouldn’t waste a whole day there. I already know these schools pretty well, but the campus visit will determine where I go (with the schools I get similar packages from). I will also try and take notes and pictures while on each campus. My father has strong opinions. I feel like if he hates a school, he wouldn’t let me go there.</p>
<p>early_college, even though you’re not signing up for tours yet, you may want to figure out for pairs of schools that are near one another, if it’s even possible to do formal tours and information sessions at both schools in one day. We found it often would not have been possible, even if we’d wanted to. The one day we toured two schools it was absolute insanity from start to finish rushing to get everywhere on time.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve said it before, but I’ll repeat myself now – for schools you are really interested in, you may want to try to attend <em>more than one</em> class. If you do a tour and an info session and a couple of classes and eat lunch in the cafeteria… most of a day will be gone. The classes are what you’re going for, ultimately. The reason I say more than one class (if possible) is to give you a broader sampling. You don’t want to make too many conclusions based on a single great or horrible prof, etc. But don’t just pay attention to the prof, pay attention to the kids and the prevailing attitudes (kids working hard or on facebook, etc.) Unlike tours and info sessions, some colleges will need more notice to get you into a class (need the prof’s permission, for example). So you might start calling some of your favorite schools saying “I’m not sure of the exact date of my visit yet, but when I come, I’d like to arrange to sit in on a couple of classes – what would I need to do to arrange that?” and go from there.</p>
<p>I would say to plan on only one serious visit per day, plus some drive-bys or quickly looking around. If you love what you see at one of your drive-by visits, adjust your schedule so you can spend the better part of a day checking it out more.</p>
<p>early_college, congrats on so many fine acceptances! </p>
<p>I just checked the Holy Cross forum–historically, acceptances have issued at the end of March (last year, people started receiving them in the mail around Mar 26). I suggest you check the Hobart forum for the same information. Point being, it’s likely you will have an admission answer on those last two before you leave on your trip, even if you don’t have all FA pkgs before you.</p>
<p>So…for yet another approach to your campus visit trip dilemma…here’s what I think!</p>
<p>IMO it’s unreasonable from a logistics standpoint to visit both your NE and Midwest lists in one trip. As six of the schools in your “Top 8” list are in the NE, I think you should plan that trip (including Holy Cross and Hobart–you can easily cancel those visits and re-organize in the unlikely event you are denied to either). I realize that means you are leaving two “Top 4” schools, Wooster and Lawrence, hanging out there; but you will make a far better final college decision if you focus on making six meaningful visits vs. mad dashes to six NE + two Midwest schools. In the unlikely event that a clear winner that also offers a workable FA package doesn’t emerge from the NE group of 6, then you have April to re-think your college search goals and make a more focused trip to the Midwest, if necessary.</p>
<p>[Caveat: If you get enough FA responses pre-trip that several of your NE top 6 are knocked out of the running for lack of sufficient FA, but the Midwest top 2 are still very much in the running because of workable FA, then you could do an effective split NE-Midwest trip. But as you are determined to create a plan NOW, then I think you should stick with the NE.]</p>
<p>So…6 schools in 5 school days is manageable (plus you’ll probably have one Sun and one Sat cushion). Working from your original post and current updates, here’s the list:</p>
<p>Hobart and William Smith (Geneva, NY) - WAITING - Top 8
Clark (Worcester, MA) - A - TOP 4
College of Holy Cross (Worcester, MA) - WAITING - TOP 4
Wheaton (Norton, MA) - A - Top 8
Juniata (Huntingdon, PA) - A - Top 8
Allegheny (Meadville, PA) - A - Top 8</p>
<p>Before you arbitrarily lay these out on the map and assign dates/times, you need to make a trip spreadsheet and create some handy columns for key data, e.g., when are info sessions offered? do you have to pre-register and how? when are campus tours? are there specialized tours or sessions based on major interest? are any schools on holiday during this time period? based on your major, what type of class(es) would be best to visit, when are they offered, etc.? any professor, student organization or other person/activity of unique interest to you that you want to be sure to make contact with during your visit? any alums from your HS attending these schools? </p>
<p>You get the idea! Once you’ve discovered key info, you will begin to see how best to structure your trip itinerary. I have no idea re: travel time between these schools, so once you factor that in, don’t forget, you can overcome “problem” distances by getting creative with your scheduling, e.g., if you have a long distance to cover between two schools, consider driving late to your next school town, but sleeping in the next AM and starting there at lunchtime. Of course, they would have to offer PM visit support to make that work! That’s why the spreadsheet of details is so important in putting the trip puzzle pieces together.</p>
<p>A separate exercise you need to undertake before you go is to learn these 6 schools inside and out as best you can from online research of their websites and other college review websites, CC college forums, etc. I’m pretty sure you already have a running spreadsheet–just create a new one from that one, reduce the data to these 6 schools and add more key data columns as you research to reflect information that will help you decide which college to select. I’m sure you already have a FA column (or two or more, depending on how you record the details). But what else is important to you? Is there a particular EC you would love to engage in? Is there something about residence life that is really critical to your comfort? Greek life, sports, fine arts, politics, religion, social life, etc.? How important or not is the off-campus locale? How close is the nearest airport you’d use? Obviously, a critical focus should be on academics–peruse the course catalog, major requirements, schedule of classes, any accessible professor ratings, etc. </p>
<p>(And if you have time, add your two Midwest top contendors to this in-depth research study. That will help you get a better feeling on how you view them as compared to the NE top 6.)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I would like to take a class or two at some of my top choices, so it will take a whole day. If I want to register for a class, I can be really off with when I’ll be visiting. Lets say all my northeast schools gave me really bad financial aid packages, well then I’d have to regroup. So lets say I signed up to take a class at Holy Cross, but then I end up going to mostly the Midwest. I may be going there a week later then planned. Even if I end up going to a college a day or two later, that class may not be offered. I may call and ask if I can take whatever class is available that day and hope that what I’m interested is offered. I am really undecided these days; however, any class in the social science/english/drama department will work. </p>
<p>Wheaton/Clark/Holy Cross are all pretty close to each other. The Ohio schools are also semi- close (including Earlham). The PA schools are all in different parts of the states. However, Allegheny isn’t that far from Ohio. </p>
<p>When should my <em>final</em> financial aid packages start coming? Should they come a week or two before I go? I ask because then it will be much easier organizing visits and what not. If they don’t come until a day or two before I go then it will be harder to plan. I’m going to have to cancel several visits. My dad should have my families taxes done by March 1st, which is when Holy Cross needs them by. </p>
<p>TXArtemis- Thanks so much for all the searching, you saved me a ton of time! I like your approach. Frankly, I rather go to college in the northeast but I really LOVE the College of Wooster and Lawrence. Wooster isn’t that far from Allegheny, so it could work if we visit Allegheny. We really have this ONE trip to visit all the colleges. My dad runs his own business (and cost is always an issue). So, it would be unlikely we would be able to do a Midwest trip. I have suggested this before. The Midwest trip was suppose to NOW (Presidents Day Weekend), but he didn’t have the money. So, we ended up just making it into one big huge trip. I can always take a day or two off school if we have to visit more schools. But if it was my choice, I would have done a Midwest and Northeast trip. However, there are some things you can’t do. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the ideas. I loved it when you asked if I have any alumni from my high school at these colleges. HAHA. NO ONE in my whole high school has heard of any of my schools, not even the counselors. Some of my knowledgeable teachers have though. I live in Georgia and most top students stay instate and the ones who go out of state usually go for football or top tier schools, not LACs. I only know one girl in my class who applied to Vassar and Roanoke and that’s it. </p>
<p>Based on some early estimators, Holy Cross/Juniata/Clark were the only affordable schools. Wooster, Earlham, Flagler, etc were too much. I didn’t do Lawrence and quite a few others though. I really liked Ohio Wesleyan, but they wait-listed me and I just got off the wait-list. So, I’m still a little iffy about going somewhere where they didn’t want me to begin with. The other 12 schools wanted me. But OWU and Lenoir are the only schools on my list which actually have a print journalism major. I really don’t plan on visiting Lenoir or Flagler unless they give me great packages, but that will be easier since they are not far away.</p>
<p>I also forgot to mention. Should I leave a campus visit if I really hate it or should I stick it out for the day. Maybe I’d change my mind?</p>
<p>one last suggestion … if you’re pressed for time on any campus the first thing I would punt is the information session … I’ve been to a bunch of them and only a couple were useful (most were very generic and talked about stuff that was either on the web-site or specific to a specific student). Tours, hanging out, classes, and checking out the town all were much-much valuable to my kids.</p>
<p>Why don’t you think Flagler will be affordable? It’s one of the cheapest private LACs in the US! Unless the others have offered you spectacular scholarships, I don’t know too much about your too choices. </p>
<p>In regards to leaving a visit: I would only leave if there was truly a better use of your time or it was absolutely awful, which is probably unlikely. If there is another school close by that you planned on going to, than maybe you could go get a feel earlier, you know? But otherwise I would probably stick it out since you are already there.</p>
<p>Flagler tuition is the cheapest, but when we did the estimator it costed a lot more then the other schools.</p>
<p>Visited lots of schools BEFORE application season, but once acceptances came in, Ds were able to narrow down the choices pretty well (D1 narrowed it down to 2; D2 narrowed it down to 3).</p>