My D is a junior. We have started some college visits but definitely have a long way to go to narrow down her list. We had planned on a PA LAC tour over April break as well as some weekend trips in April and May. Unfortunately, I had emergency surgery and can’t drive or walk much until May.
Wanted to get some thoughts on summer visits. How much can you really get out of them? Are there usually students there to give tours or is it an admission’s person? She is targeting smaller schools, most are a long drive or flight from home.
Also, what are your thoughts on bringing along siblings? Thinking we could combine summer tours with some fun activities. Siblings are 11 and 15 so one will be a sophomore next year so thinking that it would be helpful for him to start seeing some schools. Do AO’s mind if your bring siblings?
The alternative would be to wait till the fall but that seems like a lot with school starting up and her needing to start working on her apps. I know she doesn’t have to see every school before she applies but she definitely wants to see some more before then. Also anyone know once colleges start up, how soon they start tours? Thinking we could maybe do some tours in late August if the schools start them right at the beginning of the year.
I have dragged my 9 year old on way too many college visits and it has never been noticed other than a laugh at being the youngest freshman in the room.
No worries on bringing siblings. My younger DD tagged along on several visits for her older sister. At one school, the admissions office had a lovely space with tables, chairs, couches AND a snack bar (a genius idea!) At that school, she got a snack and sat down and read a book while we did the presentation and tour.
I did enjoy the school-year tours a bit more. We could see more of what campus life was like (and read bulletin boards for events, etc.) During the summer, many dining halls are closed, so we were not able to eat on campus as we could when school was in session.
I do think that any visit is better than no visit, though. For one school, just driving through the surrounding area was enough to decide her against applying (it was literally in the middle of nowhere, and the closest somewhere was a pretty run-down area) Seeing the beauty of another campus on a summer tour was enough to sway her to apply there, so the visits do matter. You can check admission tour dates on most college’s websites. Almost all of them have a calendar with them. And if they do not, you can contact them and ask. Most are very understanding and helpful about these issues (and if they are not, I think that is good info to have before deciding to apply)
There were siblings on every tour we took. That’s definitely a non issue.
In terms of summer visits - some schools were very lively in the summer, others not so much. All tours were still conducted by students though, even at the smallest schools.
The only thing that was difficult was sitting in on classes. DD circled back to a few schools to sit in on classes but they were easily accessible for us.
I also agree that a summer visit is better than no visit. We still felt we got a lot out of those visits. Professors seemed more accessible for meetings too.
There are 7 years between our oldest and our youngest. The youngest went on most of the tours with both older sisters. 7 years later, she’s now doing her own tours. There were never any issues with her tagging along, and she remembers several of the tours. It has served as a good starting point for her list of tours. Her choice of major is very different from his older sister, but she had a better sense going in regarding school sizes.
The only sibling issue I ever heard of was a sister a few years younger than the applicant with a sparking personality that kind over overwhelmed her older sib when the admissions officers came out to get he kid for interviews. The parents started taking the younger sib to the campus coffee shop at that juncture after it happened a couple of times. ?
We have done both summer and school year tours and both are fine. Tour when you can. We are circling back over spring break to visit a couple of larger schools to get a better feel for the pace of campus when it is full of students. There are almost always siblings on tours and it was only a problem once. A much younger sibling touring an historic college was asking too many irrelevant questions about flowers and bricks, got bored and started baiting her touring brother by holding the doors closed so he couldn’t walk through, thereby holding up the entire tour. I hate to discourage curiosity, but let the oldest be the focus of the visits. Your younger sibs will definitely absorb what they need. I would check college websites for late summer schedules. There is sometimes a lull in tours as they get their academic year started. It’s hard to tour during the school year with busy schedules, so we also check in on colleges toured over the summer by reading the student newspaper and following their social media to see what’s going on during the year. Good luck and have fun!
We combined summer school visits with local historical attractions, which gave a light at the end of the tunnel for the younger sibling. Some examples:
William & Mary-Colonial Williamsburg
UVA-Monticello
Wake Forest-Old Salem
Rhodes-National Civil Rights Museum
We also made a point of visiting schools when on vacation to cities, for example, Berkeley, UCLA, WUSTL and Columbia.