Yes, music admissions process could be overwhelming for students and their families. How many schools does your kid consider? Is your kid’s private teacher supportive and experienced with admissions process? Planning is important, D23 and her private teacher worked on consolidating her prescreen and audition repertoire and it worked out in the end.
There are wonderful annual threads here for music admissions - I would recommend reading through a couple of those threads - you will get a good feel for the cycle.
Visits are great, if you have time and opportunity, try to schedule them during school semester and attend concerts/showcases/ talk to students, don’t just do tours.
What do you or your kid dislike about virtual lessons? Does your kid have virtual lessons experience?
Not all teachers charge for sample lessons, or offer 30 minute free online sessions, and many only offer virtual sample lessons, not in-person. D23 ended up doing one virtual live audition, and submitted several recorded ones.
I would say summer after Junior year and early fall of Senior year are the best for sample lessons, two years in advance is way too early, there is a good amount of growth happening that summer before senior year, especially if your student is attending summer festivals/workshops. Another thing to consider as an argument against very early sample lessons - possible changes in faculty/turnover. This happened at two conservatories/SOMs my D23 was applying to.