<p>We have vacationed in the Southeast for years and are headed down to Florida over Spring Break. We will be passing very close to Tuscaloosa on our way.</p>
<p>S is a sophomore who isn’t serious about college searching yet. He has well over a 4.0 and historically tests well. I anticipate he will qualify for Alabama’s honors college. </p>
<p>He has heard about and is interested in visiting. One problem is that UA’s Spring Break is identical to ours. We could get to Tuscaloosa before everything shuts down on Friday and do our own informal tour and see the town - or wait. It seems too early to try to get there earlier and do a formal tour? I almost hate not to stop at all since we will be so close. We live a good 12 hours away. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Try to do the Friday before and just check out Tuscaloosa and the campus. It won’t hurt to just stop by, even if you won’t be doing an official tour.</p>
<p>Also, make sure he takes the PSAT next year as a junior. If he does well enough on it, he could qualify as NMF and receive the (almost) full ride from Alabama.</p>
<p>Seems early for an official visit. Even Friday is going to be half-dead - a lot of people don’t have class on Friday so they will already have left. Best to wait to make an official next year, IMO.</p>
<p>But you should still stop into town to get a feel for the place.</p>
<p>You all confirm my feeling that it is too early for a formal visit. But I think we will try to get there by Friday early afternoon before the union, etc. close for break. We will definitely check out the town too.</p>
<p>Just some food for thought…Personally I think it depends on how widespread your college search will be and how motivated your child is, or if you want to provide some added motivation. We made our first visits during the summer between sophomore and junior year. Alabama was not even on our radar when we started looking. We visited many schools once, visited several twice for a personalized visit, and made a third to the few remaining on our list. Although our D didn’t need the motivation to keep her grades up and work for a good SAT/ACT score, the visits to our in state schools provided the motivation some kids do need as our D was not impressed with them.</p>
<p>We really thought we were beginning our search too early. Because we began our search early, we were able to minimize the time she missed from school and when it came time for making a decision she was prepared and confident. She fell in love with Alabama when she first stepped on campus. Visiting this early isn’t necessary, but it worked well for our busy family and allowed for more productive and in-depth visits as an OOS student.</p>
<p>I wish that Alabama had been on our radar earlier. I would take a look at what kind of summer programs that they have for high school students. I wish we would have looked into one for my D. I also wish we would have arranged a visit her junior year after learning what her PSAT score was. D’s score was only a few points above the cut off score for NMSF the previous year in our state. I thought I’d jinx her and she wouldn’t make the cut off if we visited before the announcement in September of her senior year LOL!</p>