<p>We just visited three schools in two days. Right now it all feels clear, but I'm wondering how others kept it all straight after seeing several colleges. Naturally, we had a debrief in the car afterward. Pros/cons, etc. What are your methods for assessing all these places after the fact?</p>
<p>To help remember them we took pics of each school (dorms, quad, dining hall etc.). H put them on a DVD. Each of us jotted down pros/cons, observations, impressions within 24 of the visit. I told my son that the most important thing is to remember if he can visualize himself on that campus, and if he thinks he could be happy there for 4 years. We tried to sample the food where possible too. We saved catologs, brochures etc. We just got back from a 7 school trip.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if assess is the right word to use. My objective was to get goaliegirl to say "this place reminds me of X", which allows her to form a reference to a place she is more familiar with and has stronger memories of. I guess it helps that we've lived in 3 states and she has played hockey at rinks in 23 states.</p>
<p>This allows her to digest a visit more slowly. We did our drive-by tour through VT, NY, etc. seeing 12 campuses on 3 days on our way home from boarding school in May. With that many places in that little time, it was all about forming a single image of a school. Yes, all the campuses were empty, but actually as a first impression, I think it was better - less confusion and there will be times when things are quiet at a school.</p>
<p>And by the time a real decision has to be made, a revisit with students present (preferably) will be necessary. So if a simple overall feel is all that comes out and the single idea remains, you've gotten what you need.</p>
<p>We did 5 schools in 8 days and the only way I knew we would not get things mixed up was to make a copy of our school's "to do" list BEFORE we went. We have a great college counselling office at our private school and had tons of questions already typed up for tour guides, info sessions,etc. We also took small notebooks and jam wrote our impressions of what we saw later the same day. I can't help you after the fact, but if you are planning on seeing any more schools, get your list ready before you go.
I think I typed our list of tour guide questions on an earlier thread where the OP was a tour guide and wanted suggestions on how to make his tours better. It was several months ago so I dont remember which forum it was in.</p>
<p>I saw a girl on one tour snapping pics. Seemed like a good idea, but my son and I are "live in the moment" kind of people, figuring if we spend too much time trying to document everything then we aren't really having the experience, ya know? But maybe we can get my dh to take the pics next time.</p>
<p>But, yeah, we really need to write this stuff down. We'll do that tomorrow.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>What are your methods for assessing all these places after the fact?<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>I had a very simple method of assessing whether the school passed muster with my daughter: whether or not she bought a t-shirt at the book store at the end of the visit. Every school from which we came home with a shirt later got an app.</p>
<p>I think pics could be useful, but without words I am not sure they mean much. There are beds in every dorm, books in every library, desks in every classroom, and 99% of campuses have a quad with a lawn where students hang out. I brought a laptop on the trip and each evening asked D to write a 1+ page summary of what she saw while things were fresh in her mind, what she liked, did not like, gut reaction, etc. We did our college hunting in two waves, first one during spring break of junior year, second one during the summer. When it came time to apply 3 months later, we had forgotten most of our impressions and the notes were REALLY handy. They were even more handy when it came time to make choices between several similar colleges. This worked well for us, but D types at what feels like 200 wpm and writes well, so this came naturally for her.</p>
<p>We used the digital camcorder at each school - mostly me so D wouldn't be distracted with it. We played it back when we got home and discussed our impressions, thoughts, preferences, etc. It's amazing how much more you notice when you see it all on personal video. Best of all, it was fun - we can be pretty silly at times. We had a lot of laughs while making some serious choices.</p>
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I had a very simple method of assessing whether the school passed muster with my daughter: whether or not she bought a t-shirt at the book store at the end of the visit. Every school from which we came home with a shirt later got an app.
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<p>Do the words "been there, done that" go along with that?</p>
<p>We, too, went with the "sweatshirt" worthy approach also. "I" didnt' assess the schols, my son did and we knew which he liked via the purchase. I did tell him which were my favorites and why but that's about it. If he wanted a t-shirt or sweatshirt I knew he rather liked the place. My husband and I tried to take a pretty hands off approach other than asking him to apply to the state flagship. At my personal favorite he didn't buy any clothing and I knew that was the end of that.</p>
<p>I guess we're "live in the moment" kind of people too, so rather than come in with a list of questions, it was better for us to just absorb what they were saying and ask questions as they occurred to us on the tour or in the info session. After the morning/afternoon at a campus, my D and I would debrief each other over lunch/dinner and write down our impressions. We'd just keep the sheet of paper on the table during the meal and jot things down as they popped in our minds. This was how we did our in-state visit tour last month. We have our out-of-state one coming up in a couple of weeks, so I'll be interested in following this thread.</p>
<p>Gosh, we never considered buying T-shirts. Feels too early to do that. Also, who had time to stroll on the campus bookstores? We finished one, grabbed lunch and then drove 90 minutes to the next place. Maybe we're doing this wrong! :(</p>
<p>We never bought t-shirts either, but the campus bookstore was still an important stop for my son. He always checked out what books they used for their computer courses and whether they carried any of his favorite fiction. We didn't take notes, but we didn't do the marathon visits either. He saw three places in a week spring break junior year and four places over a week and a half for accepted students days/weekends.</p>
<p>We never bought anything. (Heck, taking the trips to visit was a big financial sacrifice to begin with!) And we didn't take pictures, and didn't write things down. We did talk a lot in the car and afterward in motels, airports, at home, and picked up whatever printed materials were available in the admission office that was pertinant in any way -- especially a campus map. The maps became a good reference later on, because we could retrace our tour and any other wanderings we did.</p>
<p>I found my son had pretty great recall about the schools he'd seen and sometimes we would fill in gaps for each other a bit when we were trying to remember one detail or another.</p>
<p>However, we never saw more than 2 schools in a day, and saw only about 10 total.</p>
<p>When my daughter and I toured eleven colleges in 5 days, I had her write down three things she liked about each college we visited as soon as we got back to the car. A few colleges she rejected immediately, and we just crossed those off the list--no point in writing down what she liked.</p>
<p>OK, CCers on other boards tease me about this, but we kept files on schools. The files went on the trips, and we (mainly she) wrote notes on the outside of the file folders. Later when she was talking with reps from the schools she could pull the file, look at the notes, or the brochures, letters, etc. inside. Old-fashioned and Type A, yes, but also effective, especially if your child is considering more than about 5 schools.</p>
<p>I like dmd's idea about writing down three things they like. Also, I'm now touring with D2, and always encourage her to ask (if no one else does) "What do you dislike about going here?" We've had some interesting answers to this question. Some tour guides are smooth and turn it into a positive, but others just blurt out, "The weather is terrible here!" for example. </p>
<p>Never bought a shirt until the acceptance letter came! We're way too practical for that, as she would never wear a shirt from a school she wasn't going to go to. Different strokes.</p>
<p>We bought the t-shirts on both of my kids' tours. I figure they will be good publicity for the colleges at the high school where UT and A&M reign supreme.</p>
<p>As we've been leaving each college, I've been asking my son what he didn't like about that particular college. Of the seven he visited, I'm pretty sure two are eliminated, neither of which surprises me.</p>
<p>The T shirt rule worked here. Sarah Lawrence - hopped in the car and never looked back......Cornell (the other D) we hit the bookstore immediately. Vassar - did the tour, skipped the info session..........no T shirt, no interest, no nothing. T shirts (or the like) at many others and thats where the apps went..............</p>
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<p>Eleven in 5 days? Are you serious? That must be some kind of record. I've been shy about admitting that D & I are planning nine colleges in 7 days (including four in the same town), lest people think I'd gone bonkers. However did you manage?</p>
<p>BClintonK: Yes, 11 colleges in 5 days. And before that, she'd done 10 colleges in 6 days as part of her school's junior trip (in which they saw ten colleges from Seattle to Palo Alto!)--that trip let her narrow down what kind of colleges she was interested in. </p>
<p>We only had a week to look at colleges on the east coast--her father (my husband) was in chemo and forbidden to fly (too much risk of infection)--my son was home for the week to be with him. So not much choice, we had to make it work.</p>
<p>So each day, we arrived first thing--9 AM, when the office opened--got the campus maps, and ate breakfast in the coffee shop on campus, shamelessly eavesdropping and asking questions of students at the next tables. Then we went to the library and read the bulletin boards there. Then we wandered around a bit. If my daughter was still interested, we went to the information session. At four schools, we left after reading the bulletin boards; at one school, she didn't even get out of the car. (A lot of people here on CC are horrified by that, and feel I should have made her get out of the car. Why? The point was to let her see colleges. If it didn't feel good, time to move on.)</p>
<p>Then we drove to another college for the afternoon, had lunch there, and repeated the process.</p>
<p>At three schools she stayed and asked if someone was available for an interview. She did those interviews. </p>
<p>Logistics: she saw four of the Five Colleges in western Massachusetts, she saw Bard and Wesleyan, she saw Haverford, Swarthmore, and Bryn Mawr. She walked out of an information session at Vassar. And we cruised the Harvard and MIT campuses, although she wasn't in the least interested in either of them. I know we went somewhere else in there, maybe Sarah Lawrence? but I'm not sure.</p>
<p>I did a lot of driving while she slept. </p>
<p>In the end, she applied to Swarthmore, Bard, Wesleyan, Lewis and Clark, and Reed. She interviewed at Hampshire and Haverford and didn't bother applying to either. In the end, she went to Reed--and has settled in Portland.</p>
<p>Note that she didn't bother looking at dorms: "I've seen a lot of college dorms and frankly I don't really care about the room as much as what happens out of it." We'd screened the colleges fairly carefully before we visited (I do regret not visiting Williams and Middlebury, but we couldn't manage it).</p>