I’m reading with great interest the thread on colleges kids have changed their minds on based on tours (either increased or decreased interest).
We have toured 4 schools so far, and have many more we would like to visit (he has about 12 schools on his list). My son is a junior and its been great getting to know what appeals to him not only on paper but once we get on campus. Unfortunately the rest of our visits quite likely will happen over the summer. Just no time to fit in before the end of this year. We can hold off until the fall but it would be much easier to at least do some over the summer.
I know universites/colleges are active during the summer, but it isn’t that same buzz of activity from current college students alone. Would we be better off waiting till fall? Have you found summer visits to be as good as school year ones? Or close to it?
I also know he can apply without visiting until if/when he is accepted at the schools. But for myself I know visiting my alma mater made a huge difference in my desire to apply there, and changed my mind on other schools I thought I would love.
Do them over the summer…the fall will be busy with tough classes, applying to colleges, leadership in ECs.
Is it ideal? No, but he can re-visit at accepted students days.
Have him do a draft of his essay over the summer.
We have visited a few large State Flagships during the summer and found that there is no way to accurately judge what the student vibe is. It’s just quieter. Sometimes you luck out and get a great tour guide (we had those) and sometimes you don’t. So it wouldn’t be fair to judge all students on that one tour guide.
Since there are fewer enrolled students on campus, you don’t get an accurate picture of the activity that happens during the school year. Even the surrounding town could have less activity. I have seen more students studying alone than in groups of friends, which I imagine must be gone for the summer. There could also be outside groups of students and adults staying in the dorms for various summer programs which could also skew the vibe.
Is it still worth going? If you can’t make it any other time, sure. There is still something to be gleaned from any college visit. You never know who you might run into that will give you a bit more time, or a tour of their department which may not have otherwise happened during the school year.
If summer is the only time you can go, then there is nothing wrong with going during summer. If you can do it when school is session, then it would be better. We had luck going during my kids winter and spring breaks…the colleges we toured were in session then, since their spring breaks were at different times and they didn’t do winter breaks
I agree with your plan. Just would advise spending time visiting schools where he has a very good chance of being accepted, and where you’re unsure of whether to submit applications. For very reachy (single digit acceptance rate) schools, there is plenty of time to visit the “winners” at accepted student events next spring.
I am in the “something is better than nothing” camp. Do the summer visits, if that works best for your schedule. We toured one college during final exams weeks, and there is something to be said for seeing a college at it’s worst. There is valuable information to be gathered at any visit.
We have found school year visits more helpful, but also harder to schedule. Thus, we have done some schools in summer (where there is still some benefit) and some during school year.
We were at one school during the week a dance festival was held there and again during a science conference. The two visits (to the same school) gave very different impressions.
We found summer tours pretty useless. All you are seeing is buildings, brick and mortar, not the campus environment with actual full-time students in attendance, the energy, etc.
Not sure when your child’s academic year starts up but we found at the end of our summer we could see some schools that were already in session again before our children’s high school started for the year.
I think summer visits to LACs are not good – there’s just too few people. With bigger colleges and universities it’s not the same but it’s lively enough to get a general feel.
We will do both – making it to top of list colleges during the school year but visiting some others in summer.
I believe that although well intentioned, summer visits are not useful as you certainly do not get a feel for the school. Given that its a very important decision, I’d recommend carving out a couple of Monday’s / Friday’s for your child to go. If you can do this, have your spouse or students grandparents do it.
Re post 8, though not as useful as during the school year, we saw two tippy top LACs the same day in the summer, and the contrast in how the info session was handled between the two highly similar schools was stark. The schools are peers and quite similar in all aspects, but my kid had a strong preference based on the way the admissions office handled things. Agree that it would have been nice to talk to more students randomly (I like to do that), as opposed to judging a school based on the people skills (or lack thereof) of an admin officer. These were schools that were a plane flight away, so we could not just drive 2-3 hours on a random off day from school. Concur that should see during school year if accepted and considering attending, or applying ED. But can rack up a lot of visits in the summer that cannot be done during academic year. Plus, some of the visits are to demonstrate interest and summer visits should count just the same.
" Agree that it would have been nice to talk to more students randomly (I like to do that), as opposed to judging a school based on the people skills (or lack thereof) of an admin officer."
Not that the student will be spending time with admissions after being accepted.
We did both. At least one LAC we went to in the summer made a point to have the tour drop by to visit with a popular and personable professor (he came out of his office to chat), and talk to some kids working on a summer robotics research project (it appeared that they were living on Pop Tarts). It wasn’t the same as the school year, but it did help my kid get a feeling for it. In general, we still found those summer visits to still be worthwhile.
I think it is always better to visit when school is in session but we’ve had to tour in the summer as well. With my younger D we did visit two schools this past summer just for something to do but they were both about an 1 1/2 drive away. We did official tours of both just a few weeks ago. They are both larger schools so even though school was out in the summer we did get a good feel for the town and surrounding area but going when more students are on campus was more beneficial. We are considering touring two schools this summer but only because they are far away and we wouldn’t be able to see them easily in the Fall.
@doschicos you make a good point. A lot of colleges start earlier then high schools…darn, we should’ve toured schools then, but never thought to do it! That is a great way to fit in a summer visit and see colleges in session.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the school year at colleges ends earlier then those of high schools. My D was out of college in May each year, while S (who was in middle and high school) still had school until June…
If he already has a list, and it is 12 schools, you could put some work in to planning and strategizing visits. For example, will he ED anywhere? If so, that buys you some time until later fall for additional visits depending on that decision. Same with EA…if you can figure out if he can/will EA to any schools, then you can put some other schools off for a while. Also, you can look at how schools on his list consider demonstrated interest (via CDS for each school) to try to prioritize.
Fall of senior year is busy, especially if your child is in a fall sport, and if you’re doing any ED/EA apps. So you are wise to think ahead about this, and remember that you can always revisit/visit when decisions are in and the list naturally narrows.
Thanks all! I appreciate all the insight. I hadn’t even thought about some of the colleges going back before his school starts. Senior year starts 8/27 so maybe we could get some in the week or so prior if they have started up? Although is the beginning of school a good time for tours? Will they even be conducting them then? A few of the schools he is interested in do not do EA, only ED. I do think he will try EA for a few that do allow it though.
I’m just trying to stay ahead of this process but feel like I am several steps behind. We had originally planned to do some tours over Feb vacation but had to cancel, which left april vacation as our only time. I should have started this last fall.
Well, we can always tour as we apply in the fall but yes activities get busy. but we have a few random days off of school that might help, or take him out for a couple. Most we can do day trips from where we live. Glad we got the DC ones done already. Although there are one or 2 far ones that we may just have to do over the summer.
My son found his dream school on a sunny day in July.
My daughter found hers on a cold February night-- their first ever night tour.
My youngest is finishing her sophomore year in high school. I think we’ll hit a few of the far-flung SUNYs this summer, hoping to do day trips to some of the closer ones next year.
We did 9 of our 15 college tours in the summer because of scheduling. D wasn’t looking at LACs - big flagships or research universities. They were fairly busy over the summer and some quarter based schools were still in session when we visited in early June.
We did re-tour two schools during the school year but for the most part, D felt that she got a good enough sense of the school to know whether or not to apply.
FWIW, I found it easier to meet with professors over the summer.
