I’m planning to take DD on a road trip to see 4-5 schools in DC and Virginia. I had been planning to do so next year during Spring Break. But, I realized that our spring break coincides with the last week of class before finals at most of these schools. I would normally say spring tours are preferable to summer so she can get more of the student vibe, but now I wonder if everyone will just seem stressed. Are we better off right before finals or during the summer when fewer students are around? Any thoughts? Thanks!
I’d still vote for spring, just letting her know it’s a busy week at the school, and the students will be particularly focused. For our youngest, her schedule really prevented us from visiting during the school year. We made lots of great visits and had a fun time on the road visiting places we’d never traveled before. But at the end of it, we had not really gotten a great sense of the vibe at the schools. We ended up running back to 4 schools in the fall of her senior year to see how the schools felt with students. Some she liked better, one, at least, she crossed off her list.
Sometimes you have to go in the summer, but I’d recommend going with students around if possible. And it can be revealing what things look like when the heat is on. Good luck!
My son loved his spring break tours. He saw lots of students around, ate in the dining hall, etc. Some schools also start in late August, at least for orientations, so that can be a good time, too. Rosh Hashanah weekend, Columbus Day weekend, or February break work well, too.
Yeah, I want to avoid the need to visit the schools twice. I want to be able to get some sense of the vibe while we are there These schools are a little too far for the one day holidays. Hoping to get in a bunch over spring break. Thanks!
About not visiting twice— be sure you check which ones offer evaluative interviews and within which months those are allowed to take place. That was a major factor in our planning the order in which we visited colleges. We used August 16, February 17, April 17, early June 17, late August 17, and Rosh Hashanah 17 for our visits. Some did not allow juniors to interview, so they were saved for June or later.
We visited one school last year just before finals. I did notice that among the students nobody seemed to be smiling and nobody seemed very happy. Later I made the connection to finals and wondered if that was the cause. I am still glad we visited though because that was when we had time and we did get a good sense of the campus and what the school had to offer. I did talk to families of current students about the vibe to get their perspective. I think if the school had seemed more like a fit, a second visit would have been in order.
@Musicmom2015 You didn’t say what area of the country you live in. If your daughter is used to a warm climate, visiting DC and Virginia during Spring break will likely provide her an opportunity to see if cold weather is tolerable. The east coast had another bomb cyclone just last week, so the cold weather can easily extend into March next year. I did a Spring Break tour of the east coast with my son when he was a junior. He’s a Southern CA kid, and got to experience snow in NY and Boston during Spring Break.
@whatisyourquest We are in the northeast so she knows all about winter - we had over a foot of snow this week! But good point. Our break next year isn’t until mid April which is why the schools will be approaching finals. I guess I’m hearing that it still might be preferable to summer. I suppose it would have been a bigger issue if we didn’t realize this. Also I’ve heard now that this is actually the time of year of accepted students days at some schools. We ended up at one unknowingly when touring with my son. That would be fine as long as they still run regular tours for prospective.
An added plus is you might get to see the therapy dogs in the library and free coffee and cookies to help reduce stress. It was a highlight on one of our tours.
@Musicmom2015 We are hitting some schools this spring break with our S19 and, indeed, both of them have accepted student days while we are there. Just beware that sitting in on classes for non-admitted students may not be allowed during that time since the school will already be having the accepted students in classes. Originally, the option to sit in on classes looked like it was not available for S19 because of that. He emailed our regional AOs for the two schools and they made an exception for him and found classes for him to see.
April is not that close to finals at many colleges. Many terms end in mid-May.
Yes, there are many already-accepted students touring during April break. For us, that did not affect our plans and sort of enhanced the experience, because we got to hear some students’ thought process, choosing between various schools we liked, over breakfast at a bed-and-breakfast, which was fun.