<p>Okay, I am going to try one more time. You need to go on a college visit with an info session, a tour etc. and find out what it is like. Luckily GCSU offers Saturday tours this Saturday, December 3 and December 10. Go to this site <a href=“http://events.gcsu.edu/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1918[/url]”>http://events.gcsu.edu/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1918</a>. Register for one of these days, take your Dad even if it is part of his Christmas present to you. I promise this will help you in many, many ways. It will save you and your Dad much time and trouble. Please just do it-don’t post back with excuses.</p>
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<p>Most schools need very little lead time for a visit unless you want to do something special, i.e. have a one-on-one meeting with someone. </p>
<p>Usually you can change plans without difficulty as your priorities change over the course of your trip. We did that on my son’s accepted visits trip – we had a general plan but ended up making a few changes along the way based on things that happened or that we learned about during the trip. </p>
<p>I agree with Moreover, do one visit ASAP. You can’t plan a huge round of visits like this with no experience. You’ll set yourself up for failure and a useless trip.</p>
<p>OK - Can we go back to square one for a minute? 17 -18 schools is a lot, though not that unusual, but generally they are a mix of reaches, likelies, and safeties. I do not know much about many of the schools you have listed, but aren’t some of them more selective than others? I’m not saying that you should ultimately choose a school just because it’s more selective, but when you put together your list, did you in fact choose some which you would love to go to if you were admitted, and others that were less selective to which you’d also like to attend?</p>
<p>If so, then once you get your acceptances, if any of them are from your “love to go there list” and the $ is right, then you go visit there if there’s more than one, or if you just want to make sure. If none of them fit this description, then you go through the same thing with your likely schools, and ignore the safeties.</p>
<p>If you did not select your schools in this manner, then please tell us how you did develop this list. If there was a different underlying rationale, please share. If not, well, I’m not sure we can help you with your travel question until you develop one. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to be mean here, but it seems to me that this discussion is just going in circles right now. You do need to rank these schools, as other posters have suggested, and in order to do so you need some framework, and so far it sounds like you may not have one. It seems that you are unwilling or unable to commit to certain characteristics (size, location, courses, reputation, etc.) being more important to you than others. If you are having difficulty doing this, then you need to make a “prioritizing grid.” It’s hard to explain, but if you Google images with that term, you will see how it works. It is an simple (though not always easy) way to figure out what’s most important to you. (You’re not the first person to have had trouble doing this :-)) Once you’ve identified your priorities, you will find it easier to “rate” these schools for yourself. </p>
<p>Because you really have to. Other posters have already mentioned this but I will tell you again, flat out: there is no way you can visit this many schools in any meaningful way over a compressed period of time. You will be exhausted and it will affect your judgment, and they will blur together. Even if you had a private jet to take you everywhere you would still be burned out well before the end of your trip. (Though it would be a lot more fun than driving!) </p>
<p>Good luck. Now, get to work.</p>
<p>Best regards (really).</p>
<p>OP, you’re right, this is a very important choice for any student. But what is the purpose of the college visit? Isn’t it to spend some time, explore, talk to people, get a feel for the place? You cannot POSSIBLY do that in the hour or two that you’ll have at most of these colleges (3 schools in one day? Seriously??). I guarantee that at the end of this insane tour, you will be more confused than you are now. Because OneToughMommy is right; they will blur together.</p>
<p>Sit down and make some tough decisions NOW, so that you can make the best decision in the end.</p>
<p>I got deferred at GCSU, so I probably won’t waste my money driving down there until I get accepted. We may can always visit L-R before we go in February. Like I have said before, I already have my schools ranked and I have top choices (previously mentioned in this thread several times). I ranked them in tiers meaning tier 1 are my top choices and so on.</p>
<p>1st tier: Clark University, Hobart, College of Wooster, Lawrence, and Juniata
2nd tier: Knox, Ohio Wesleyan, Wheaton, Ursinus, Cornell, and Holy Cross,
3rd tier: Allegheny College, Earlham, and Hiram College
4th tier: Flagler
5th tier: GCSU and Lenior-Rhyne</p>
<p>I chose each school for specific reasons. It is just going to depend on money and where I’m accepted to. I already know my priorities, I have had this ranked list for a while now. I am obviously not going to visit all 17 colleges, but I will visit the affordable ones. As you can see, Lenior-Rhyne and GCSU aren’t top choices so I haven’t been wanting to visit as much. Up until the 4th tier, I would love to attend any of them. GCSU was just an instate financial safety (not an academic safety though) and Lenior-Rhyne let me apply in July so I can hear a decision before senior year even started. </p>
<p>I know it may blur together, but that’s why one poster said to write about each college after each visit and take pics to prevent this from happening.</p>
<p>With the deferral at GCSU, have you now lost your financial safety? Do you need to apply somewhere else in state?</p>
<p>ec, is there a school local to you that you could visit now just for the experience of “how to visit a school” without any expense?</p>
<p>I also think you need to do 1 or 2 more rankings of your schools. Those are rankings of how much you like them, but now rank how likely you are to get into them with a viable package. You can do this all at once or in 2 passes. admission safety/low match/high match/reach and similar for finaid. I know the latter is harder to guess. Use the time you are spending right now trying to plan a route to research financial aid. Are there any schools you can definitely afford right now, based on how much aid you’ve already been offered, their sticker price, or aid you are guaranteed based on income or stats?</p>
<p>again, good luck!</p>
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<p>It’s not just that. How long do you think it takes to get a “feel” for a college? You should take time to have lunch in the dining hall (and look around at your possible future fellow-students), browse the bulletin board in the Student Union, explore whatever dorms, academic buildings, and recreational facilities strike your fancy – and you may not know that until you get there. You need to just sit on a bench on the quad for a while, sit in the library for a while, and watch the people go by. Your college visit should be more than just ticking off items on a to-do list, which is all you’re going to have time for.</p>
<p>I have already done some early estimators and they are fine financially. So, I don’t need to apply anywhere else in Georgia. I would honestly hate any other public college in Georgia. Lets say, I end up getting really bad financial aid, which I’m sure won’t happen based on the facts of some early estimators. I would just apply to West Georgia or Valdosta in April, they have admission deadlines of June. That would be the worst case scenario. </p>
<p>The summer before freshman year, I visited Johnson and Wales in Miami with my older brother. So, I have already been on a college visit. Yes, it was some time ago but I’ve still been on an official visit. I really don’t believe in the safety, match, reach stuff. I use to, believe me, but I honestly think I will get into most of these schools. Even the schools which aren’t SAT Optional, the admissions officers told me not to worry. I would say I’m only worried about Holy Cross. </p>
<p>And for the record, the schools I’ve already been accepted to our way better then GCSU. GCSU just puts heavier weight on SAT scores, since it is a state school. I’ve already been accepted to 4 colleges, so I know I will be heading somewhere come fall. The sticker price for all these colleges are too expensive, so it will come down to financial aid. I could afford GCSU without any, but I really do not want to go there even if I get accepted. Flagler College’s tuition is also much cheaper then all the other private schools. </p>
<p>I honestly do not think by staying at a college all day, will make me change my opinion. A couple hours should do. I have a good sense of intuition, so I know right away if that is the place for me or not. I really don’t think sitting on a bench will help me make my decision, but touring the school and asking students questions will. I already have my top 5, so it will just come down to financial aid.</p>
<p>I still think you should plan on only visiting one school per day. You should be thinking of the schools on the same date on your list as possible alternatives for that day, and you will visit one of them based on which one gives you the best offer. If you have a day where there are two “favorite” schools scheduled, please re-think. If you want to do formal information sessions and/or tours, the scheduling usually will not work out to do 2 in a day, and definitely not 3. It’s not worth driving all that distance to spend an hour or two on a campus. What will that tell you that you don’t already know now? We found sitting in on <em>more than one</em> class at a school to be one of the best things to do on a visit. Attend a couple of first year classes that you would likely be taking. From there you can assess the style, level and pace of instruction. You can also gauge the engagement of the other students. Are the student participating in class or texting their friends? Arranging to attend classes usually requires setting things up in advance, so go to each school’s visit page or call the admissions offices and find out what you need to do and start setting these things up. (Yes, you can set up more than one plan for a given day and then call and cancel the one you end up not needing, but do be courteous and make the call to cancel.) </p>
<p>If you want to talk to students, you can always do that by phone before or after the visits. You can do a virtual tour of campus from your computer. But you can’t really replace the visiting a class experience, and really that’s a big part of what your college experience is going to be about.</p>
<p>I understand what your saying. The schools that I were going to visit two a day were usually close by. Clark/Holy Cross for instance were in the same city and Wheaton was only one hour away. The schools in Ohio are also not far either from each other. I could always make one full day for my top choices and if I have to see multiple schools, it can just be the schools I like less. But if it comes down to area, a lot of my top choices are close to other schools. I honestly do not think I will have this problem once I have all my financial aid packages. The only problem I would see by taking a class, is that I don’t think I should cross a school off my list if I don’t like the professor. It may just be that day or that particular person.</p>
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<p>That’s why I said to try to sit in on more than one class at each college, and that’s why you need a full day. That said, my S did more-or-less cross one school off his list based on what he experienced sitting in on a single class. It was a core class for his program and even though he liked the prof and she spent a lot of time talking him about the concerns he raised, ultimately it was a good indicator that the pace and level of instruction in the core courses in his area were not a good fit for him. This really wasn’t apparent from looking at the course syllabus online or from other information he had at his disposal prior to visiting. </p>
<p>Ask your self one question: what insights do you hope to gain by visiting a campus, and what will you do on your visits to help you achieve those insights? It’s very rare for a student to look around for an hour or take a tour and have a sudden burst of “this is (or isn’t) the place for me”. </p>
<p>Also, plan to be flexible. We ended up extending our visit at the school that wound up being where my son chose to attend, and canceling another visit (would have been a re-visit in his case). Once he started feeling like it might be the place, he wanted to “be sure” and spend more time both in classes, and interacting socially with students.</p>
<p>We only have one visit to each school, so it will be valuable. I will not have the opportunity to visit the school I go to again before fall. I feel like the campus visit will help me cross out some schools, but in the end, it will be about overall fit and my financial aid package. I’m really just wanting to know where these schools are located and what’s like there. I’ve never been to Mass, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, or Illinois. A rural school may be fine or I may just end up hating it. The area where the college is located will also play a big part.</p>
<p>mathmomvt, has given very good advice. I do hope that you reread her posts and take them to heart.</p>
<p>Also, since you have ordered your schools by some personal preferences, you might not NEED to visit many more than your 1st tier of schools with perhaps a couple more from your 2nd tier of choices. I think that visiting 5 schools that you like already might give you more information to work with than squeezing them all into a week.</p>
<p>Check to see which schools have ‘accepted student’ events. They are often scheduled in the time frame you have free and may be better at helping than the usual tour. If you can, try to reach out now as well. See if you can find some candid student blogs, for example.</p>
<p>So, I don’t mean to be a pain, but how are you going to figure out if you’ll enjoy or hate attending a rural school, for example? </p>
<p>So, what kind of information do you want to gather about a school and its surrounding area when you get there? And how do you plan to do that?</p>
<p>“I want to set foot on campus before I commit to attending” is a fine sentiment. But really, just driving to and looking around a campus tells you very little. You have to take the time to experience it. Sit in on a class, eat in the dining halls, in some cases you can pre-arrange to sleep over with a student ambassador and get to experience a bit of the social and dorm scene first hand. </p>
<p>Perhaps you should at the very least pare you list down into “drive-bys” and “real visits” – at most one “real visit” per day, and then tack on a drive-by during the early morning or late afternoon if you must.</p>
<p>If it helps at all, my sons were able to take some schools off their lists when they looked more closely at religious groups, Greek life (or lack there of), class sizing, number of dining hall options, housing configurations/options, required classes for graduation and/or majors, lack of a major etc. Thses things can be looked at on paper, if you have not revisited this type of information for some time.</p>
<p>I appreciate mathmomvt’s advice along with everyone else. </p>
<p>I have grown up in South Florida/Metro Atlanta, basically the suburbs. I have been to Wyoming and in a small village of 99 people in France, so that’s way too rural but I’m really going to have to see the area for myself. If it’s in the middle of no where which some of these schools are, I have no idea how I’ll react to that. That’s why I’m visiting because a lot of these schools will be culture shocks. I just want to see the actual area it’s located in and see if I can see myself living there. Location can be a big part of this, but if I love a school, I will not cut it just because it’s in the middle of no where. A lot of the schools are, but I’m sure Iowa rural won’t be the same as Upstate NY rural. </p>
<p>I could always spend more time on some campuses and others. I could spend the whole day at some and then only spend an hour tour at others. I will see.</p>
<p>Northeastmom- I have looked at a lot of those things, but maybe it may come down to that. I love Juniata because of the open curriculum.</p>
<p>OK, Early College, to be fair, your original question was: “I just wanted some ideas about the different college trips I would have to make? How would you split up the visits?” A few posters have given you some suggestions, and the rest of us have tried to explain that we believe that your premise is faulty. You don’t agree, but at the end of the day, it’s your choice. </p>
<p>I wish you luck, and I hope you will come back to this thread/board in May and let us know how your plans worked out.</p>
<p>^^ I agree! early_college, more than most kids who post here, I now really want to know how this all turns out for you – both the trip, and the decision. Please come back and let us know. Good luck, and don’t forget to have fun!</p>