Thoughts on college visits

Parents Forum
1

<p>Meant to post this here but have posted in College Search as well.</p>

<p>Just wanted to share some of my thoughts from our recent college visit trip D, H and me. I'm sure for many none of this will be new but maybe it will help someone.</p>

<p>Things that worked well:
We had prearranged to meet with a member of the biology department at each school which was the best use of our time at each campus. We never had a science major as our tour guide and for the most part the tours didn't address anything having to do with science. D is interested in Bio but not premed so it was particularly important to find out what research is available at the colleges. In several cases the faculty we met with offered to contact admissions to help should D decide to apply. The faculty were all extremely open and helpful in the decision process.</p>

<p>We never scheduled more than one college on a single day. We did 7 colleges in 8 days (starting and ending on Thursday). One college had a program on Saturday which helped with the scheduling. Sunday we took off exhausted. The best days we did not have anything until around 10am. This gave us plenty of time to pack suitcases, repack the car, check out of the hotel and eat breakfast. We never ate lunch throughout this period because once we got to the campus we were busy but having a real breakfast was critical. At the end of the day's visit we drove to the next hotel location. We drove my Prius and put 1400 miles on it over the 8 days. Gas costs were not too bad.</p>

<p>It was clear from two colleges after their presentations that they were not a good fit. We did not hesitate to cancel the rest of the day at the college. </p>

<p>We carried a portable cooler in the car and a case of water bottles. We always stocked the cooler with ice from the hotel in the morning and had cold water to take with us either during the tours or to have immediately afterwards while we were driving to the next location. It was 100 degrees for several days of our trip and the cold water really helped.</p>

<p>We booked all the hotels through Priceline. With the exception of one, we didn't pay more than $60 including tax for the hotel. Sometimes we stayed 15 mins or so from the college but that didn't really bother us. Except for small towns we were able to get 3* hotels (Sheraton, Holiday Inn select etc) for that amount. We avoided paying for parking in all but one case which also saved a lot of money. It was very nice to have a nice hotel room with amenities which worked to settle in for the few hours before we had to pack up and do it all again.</p>

<p>We took digital pictures of the colleges including the dorm rooms. Given how hard it is to keep campuses straight these pictures really have been a help.</p>

<p>We did an evening recap over dinner each night. I took notes while D and H helped provide the content. I have typed up the notes since the trip (since D wouldn't be able to read my scratch). The highlights and lowlights of the days sessions were written down. After dinner, D read through the papers for the next day's college visits and sometimes she went online (H carried laptop and each hotel had free wireless).</p>

<p>Used chowhound and roadfood to get suggestions for reasonably priced food. Used recommendations most of the time. </p>

<p>Biggest joke:</p>

<p>Every college told us what was unique about them and many times it was the exact same thing we were told the day before by another college.</p>

<p>Pitfalls:
Didn't get to see a dorm at one college because that is a separate tour which is not listed on any of their materials and the dorm tour conflicted with the meeting with the professor. If D is admitted, we promised to go back.</p>

<p>End result:
Found 2 more colleges to put on D's top tier list and 3 to add to second tier. We all felt that this was a productive trip.</p>

2

<p>Thank you for this! We're scheduling some back-to-back visits for August in order to save on gas expenses and your great ideas could not have come at a better time! Did you feel that visiting in the summer gave her a good "feel" for the campus? I wanted to wait til September when classes are in session but my D doesn't want to miss any school time.</p>

3

<p>I think summer visits are fine for a rising junior -- S2 is still at the "what do I want?" stage -- but once he has a solid list, he probably will go back to sit in on classes, etc. Due to a heavy schedule and athletics, getting out during the school year will be tough, even though the school allows a few days for college visits.</p>

4

<p>Wow. What a great trip you set up! You are way, WAY more organized than I was, not to mention that you seem to have a lot more stamina than me, and apparently a more easy-going child than mine! Great suggestions for a college road trip.</p>

5

<p>While summer visits aren't ideal D is taking 6 AP courses this coming year and she just won't have time to do anything during the school year. I think we got a late start but compared to what we did with her brother 4 years ago, this is a lot more (I've learned a lot in the meantime). Admissions office and tours are the same I think summer or school year. I think the faculty probably had more time for the one on one meetings we set up. Without those meetings, it might not have been worth it.</p>

<p>So the tradeoff is faculty meetings versus meeting the other students. Because of D and her interest in research, I think this was the better choice.</p>

6

<p>You seem to have this down to a science! </p>

<p>We've made one trip so far, to CA last spring. My D started by putting up a CA map on her wall and marking the possible visit sites with different colors of post-it flags--the Definitely Visit schools in one color, the Maybe Visits in another, the If Time Permits in a third. Then we checked driving times in Mapquest and also which days each school had info sessions and tours. That helped us figure out whether it was best to start from the southmost school and work north, or vice versa. </p>

<p>We had 4 days, and got in visits to Pitzer, Pomona, Chapman, UC Santa Barbara, USF, and UC Berkeley (Berkeley was just a quick walk around the campus, though, because by then she was positive she didn't want to go anyplace that big). We flew into the airport nearest to Claremont, got a rental car with GPS, and flew out of the airport closest to Berkeley. </p>

<p>It was definitely a whirlwind tour, but we had a lot of fun! And thank heavens for the GPS, because I would've been lost 10 times and stressed 100 times.</p>

7

<p>I'd ditto the advice on meeting w/depts in which your student is interested. Son had several, extensive conversations w/dept advisors which made the visits to those colleges worthwhile. </p>

<p>Water/drinks in a cooler--another invaluable tip! We had fruit & power bars too, for the easily fatigued among us. :-)</p>