My family is taking a vacation to NYC this summer, so I’m wondering if it would be a good idea to visit Columbia U or NYU in the summer. I’ve read that visiting in the summer won’t be as ideal since you won’t get the campus vibe and that admissions won’t know that you visited. So my question is, is it worth going to visit? If yes, then how do I make sure that the admissions office know that I visited so that they know I’m interested?
Looking forward to your replies 
If you’re already there you might as well visit. It’ll save you another trip in the long run.
The admission offices will be open and giving tours and info sessions most of the summer. You can see this on their websites, where you can sign up for a tour. They will know you were there because you will have signed up online and then checked in at the admissions office when you arrive for your tour. Both of those universities will have some stuff going on over the summer, but yes, it won’t be the full experience of going in the fall when all the students are there. Still, I think you do get a good sense of the college from the student-led tour.
I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to let the colleges know that you’ve visited as a sign of interest, but we’ve never visited nor have shown any sign of interest to seven colleges that my son was admitted to. We’ve never wasted our money just to demonstrate my son’s interest in certain colleges. What’s even more effective without costing you a dime is to demonstrate amply in the college essays that you know exactly why you’re a great fit to that particular college.
We have had “official” tours in the summer. I think that it is worth doing. There is very much a different feel when there are no students there, but it can give you a sense of what is there.
Contact the admissions office. Some universities give tours in the summer and some don’t.
If the college posts the common data set (Google to see), you can tell whether they consider student interest or not. Some colleges do, some don’t.
Regarding summer visits, they are better than no visit. You can get a good enough feeling for whether to apply or not. Most schools have summer tours, although they might have times when they don’t (often last couple weeks of summer).
If you can afford it, visiting gives you stronger fodder for your “Why X?” essays than a web site can. You might have visited a specific class, met a professor, seen displays in a department, or experienced something else specific.
We visited NYU and Columbia opportunistically one summer when we happened to be in the area for other reasons. Even though most of the students weren’t there, my daughter learned enough from the information sessions, campus tours, and strolling around the environs to decide that she wouldn’t be applying. So it was useful.
If you visit schools that offer interviews, it can be helpful to do that in the summer. Definitely agree that summer visits are better than no visits and also that you should sign up in advance.
Good info in these posts. Yes, schools typically offer info sessions/tours in the summer, though they may not offer them all weeks. We visited six schools last August. All were on the normal schedule, except the last. It offered info sessions but only self-guided tours. The issue was that it was between summer and fall terms, and students were not around to give the tours. Other schools we researched did have weeks without events.
Unless your family is very familiar with NYC, it seems like a good idea to visit NYU/Columbia while you are there. These are very urban schools–great for some, not for others. It’s more helpful with students around, but these are schools where the environment is pretty huge–either way–so just helpful to see the settings. And if student likes these, they might also like Penn and other urban schools. Good luck and have fun.
It’s very hit and miss as to which colleges offer tours during the summer. We visited several colleges one summer and I don’t recommend it, unless you will already be right there. Of five colleges visited, all of which are very well known, only one offered a tour. One was literally totally closed, not even the admissions office was open. We did eliminate a couple of colleges during the summer, but others had to be revisited when school was back in session. In short, it like visiting a zoo without animals, but it is better than not visiting at all. For colleges that don’t consider interest, no harm visiting in summer I guess, but again I wouldn’t go out of my way.