<p>Thought I'd start a separate thread more generally on this topic than CollegiateDreams' Northeastern Tour thread. For those of us with rising seniors, we won't have another big chunk of time to visit faraway schools before applications are due. So the choices are, visit in the summer and not get a thoroughly realistic look at the school, or save the money and narrow the list based on impressions from websites, videos, college fairs, etc. If still undecided they can visit if/when accepted. What would you do?</p>
<p>My kids did some summer visits and some school year visits.</p>
<p>I don’t think they gained anything less from the summer visits.</p>
<p>But neither of them was inclined to sit in on classes or strike up conversations with random students, and neither had interests so specialized that there was a need to make appointments with professors or coaches. They simply wanted to see the schools and the areas where they were located and get (or not get) an impression of “Yes, I could see myself here.”</p>
<p>So to some extent I think it depends on your student’s style. If your student prefers a more personalized sort of visit, it may make sense to apply first and visit later. But if your student is satisfied with gaining a general impression, like mine were, a summer visit may be fine.</p>
<p>We had no choice, with D’s sport. And Spring Break isn’t necessarily great either, since the school may be on break as well AND then you’ve wasted your chance to go somewhere warm in horrible March, lol. </p>
<p>My D (and my S I suspect) was like Marian’s kids. They want to see the campus and buildings, facilities, get a feel for its vibe, the surrounding town. And often there were camps/conferences/summer programs going on, so they could see a bit of hustle and bustle.</p>
<p>We’ve done both summer and school year visits with our kids. The summer ones definitely don’t give you the total feel of the school, but can still be helpful in narrowing down where to apply. We tried to do some summer visits while traveling on vacation-that way we weren’t making a huge investment in time or money just for the college visit. In fact, somewhat on a whim we stopped at a school on vacation just hoping to pick up a few brochures and walk around on our own, but the admissions office found us a student still on campus and we had a great tour. Two of my girls now go there. I also liked doing a few in the summer because trying to find time once senior year starts can be nearly impossible.</p>
<p>I think that finding time to visit schools is very hard, so if you have some free time in the summer you might as well take advantage of it. You might not have the same experience as if you went during the school year, but you will still have an opportunity to see the surrounding area etc.</p>
<p>My daughter and I visited something like 15 schools and I think only 2 were not summer The summer visits was not very different from ones during the school year. Visit to narrow down the list before school starts - so that you can do applications as early in the senior year as possible (and all the EAs you can) and then after acceptances do accepted student days in the spring to make your final decision.</p>
<p>I’m not a parent-but summer visits help. There isn’t really much of a difference between a summer visit or a weekend visit. Looking at the campus regardless of how many students are walking around is just something that can help eliminate where to apply to-after you get accepted there are “accepted student dates” those are usually the things that help people pick which school that they go to</p>
<p>Our boys visited a total of 28 schools… all times of the year. There was only one visit that was completely a bust because of timing. It was summer and the campus was literally dead. We saw one person on campus. One! We were visiting several schools on that trip, so it wasn’t a big deal to move on. Our boys went back to that school during a busier time… but neither ended up applying. Other schools were ok during summer. We also found that the information sessions were virtually identical from school to school, so we started just doing the tours,a few class sit-ins(when that worked out), and checking out the town/surrounding area.</p>
<p>I say take advantage of the time you have and visit.</p>
<p>Visiting post-acceptance may be fine if your child applies only to a small number of schools close to home that do not require an interview or track demonstrated interest. Spring sports, choir tours, prom, AP review sessions, etc. can make it tough to get any college visits done in the window between admission and decision day (especially if the colleges are ones that don’t release admission decisions until April 1). So while summer visits aren’t as good as visits when school is in session, we found they were still worthwhile.</p>
<p>You can get some very unpleasant surprises if you don’t visit at all, IMHO. When you think your kid has a good list together, applied to 8 or 9 schools, then on scrambling to visit in April (you really only have that month at many schools) you find out the hard way that the campus/student body/vibe is not to your kid’s liking. Go visit in the summer if that is the only time you have.</p>
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<p>This has been discussed here many, many times.</p>
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<p>Visits during the summer are just as “realistic” as any other time of the year.
I have visited during every season.
There is no exact direct correlation.</p>
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<p>Exactly!</p>
<p>As I’ve always recommended: visit when you can!</p>