No one has to go on an official tour. I assumed OP would stay overnight somewhere.
Yes, essays will reflect interest. Bates has no supplemental essay now, so visiting is definitely a good idea if the student is very interested.
“If anyone has suggestions of good safety schools”
I will admit that I am slightly confused by this thread. There are three things that I have not picked up to this point:
Do you have any budget limit? Are you fine with spending $320,000 over four years? If you do and things go to five years (and $400,000) are you still okay? If not, have you run the NPCs?
Do you already have safety schools lined up? Are they sure to be affordable, and will your son be happy attending them?
What majors are your son considering?
I do agree with the answer to the original question that visiting two schools in one day only makes sense if the schools are very close together. We did visit both McGill and Concordia in one day, but we did not even need to move the car to get from one to the other. They are within a relatively short walk of each other.
Are Bates and Wesleyan comparable in terms of acceptance rate? Yes! DS our a great deal of time into his essays and, part of why we really wanted to visit some of the New England schools and visit is due to lack of supplements with the applications. Haverford is the exception. DS just really wants to visit there even though there were 2 written supplements for the Haverford application.
He really liked Skidmore, and we did get a chance to see the music building. We were both really impressed.
We are most definitely not fine with spending $320,000. Yes, we have run the NPC, but it is difficult to tell what the final cost will be with two household incomes. DS will not qualify for any federal or state grants, but we do qualify for some need. I am aware that not all schools are need blind (probably none truly are). I know ability to pay may factor into an admissions decision, but how much I have no idea?
He has applied to many state (SUNY) schools, so those will be our safeties.
DS is considering Music & Computer Science, and possibly English.
I have visited 14 schools so far. I know its a lot but I’ve learned a ton. Visiting two schools in one day is usually not the best option - if its between seinge two schools in one day or not seeing one at all then obviously see both. But, if you are seriously considering a school it is best to spend an entire day there - do a specific college info session, sit in on a class, eat lunch in the student center, walk around town, etc. I’ve found the things not shown on the tour are just as, if not more, important!
I’m still a bit confused. You say your son wants to be in a place that doesn’t feel competitive. Many of the reaches on the list will be stressful. If that’s a priority, I think you’d better start looking closely at the vibe of each school. If possible, talk to kids you know who are students at the schools in consideration. I would think most LACs will feel less competitive and more collaborative. Our S at Bowdoin says the rigor is REAL but they all feel it and no one seems to have the attitude that they are competing against each other. That type of environment was one of the top must-haves for him. If it is for your son as well, I think you can narrow down this list. From what I know from the kids at Dartmouth (just to pick one school on your list), the vibe isn’t what your son is looking for.
Plus, I’m now wondering if his apps are suffering because there are just too many schools on the list and you’re still adding. I wouldn’t add a school at this point unless it’s a match or a safety and seems like a really good fit.
I totally understand the last minute adding of schools. S19 didn’t apply anywhere ED but, when his friends got their pretty bad ED results early Dec, S19 freaked out and added three more schools to his RD list because he was worried that he needed more chances of acceptances. It was a mistake. His list had already been well thought out and he didn’t need to add those schools.
Please just take a breath. If you really need to add schools, make sure they make sense to add.
He spent a lot of time on his supplements over the summer. In fact, doing some of the supplements helped him with which ones he could eliminate. He finished all of his applications before school even started, and I don’t feel that the applications suffered because he applied so many. Some of the schools didn’t even have supplements, which is the ones were trying to visit. He is definitely interested in a less competitive vibe. His Father really pushed him to apply to all the Ivies. He didn’t want to stand up to him. Sure, he’d be thrilled if he got in, but he knows a small LAC is the better fit for him. The frustrating thing is applying for so many reach schools limited how many safeties and matches he had time to pursue. At this point, he is only even considering 2 other colleges. One is definitely a safety and he will likely apply (Ursinus), but plans to visit first. The other is Vanderbilt and he is waiting until after he visits there to decide about that one. All his other applications are submitted and complete (including Counselor and teacher recommendations). He visited Oberlin yesterday and really liked it. My biggest concern right now is he has liked nearly every college he’s visited. I was hoping the visits would help him with his decision on where he wants to go.
One tiny warning about the Ivy thing. Those decisions come out on the same day at the very end of March. We felt like we couldn’t make plans to re-visit any schools until after Ivy Day decisions and that was a royal pain. In mid-March, he had most of his decisions and a ranked list of where he wanted to re-visit for admitted students days. BUT, he wanted to wait until he found out from Dartmouth before making any travel arrangements. So we were sitting on our hands until March 25th. After he was denied, we scrambled to get him out to his top three admits. It was very stressful with him flying around the country during the first two weeks of April. He had to miss school and track and the looming May 1 deadline was approaching quickly.
Since your S has applied to so many schools, I would highly recommend having him list them in order of preference if possible so you can be ready to make a quick decision come April. S19 found admitted student days to be very important in his decision making process, even for schools we had visited already and where he sat in on class.
"The frustrating thing is applying for so many reach schools limited how many safeties and matches he had time to pursue. At this point, he is only even considering 2 other colleges. One is definitely a safety and he will likely apply (Ursinus), but plans to visit first. The other is Vanderbilt and he is waiting until after he visits there to decide about that one. "
I hope you are not considering Vanderbilt anything but a reach.
@doschicos yep. At our high school, kids only got into Vandy ED or ED2 and they were all legacies. Every other student (20 of them!) was waitlisted in RD. We know six who got off of the waitlist but all of them showed a ton of interest after receiving the waitlist decision, most of whom flew down there to say they would enroll if admitted. They also sent additional recs and updated grades. Vanderbilt is kind of a pain RD at least from our high school…obviously!
Plus, the OP’s son already has a bazillion schools on the list. Why would Vandy be a better fit than any of the dozen-plus schools where he already applied?
Thank you. This is a good suggestion. This was our concern as well. I just know the month of April was not going to be enough time for him to make a decision, which is why we are trying to take him to visit the schools now.
Vanderbilt is definitely a reach, and one I’m not sure makes sense for him to apply to at this point. My suggestion was visiting Ursinus and seeing if he liked that one.
@nextstepcollege what does your S’s final list of applications look like? He applied to all Ivies or just a few? What are HIS favorites?
Be sure he takes good notes at each of the campus is its. Otherwise they will all begin to run together (especially when doing several visits in a short period of time). Good luck!
Aside from SUNY schools:
All Ivy except Columbia. He doesn’t want to be in NY City. He put his foot down at least for this.
Ithaca College
Skidmore
Bard
Vassar
Hamilton
Connecticut College
Wesleyan
Oberlin
Haverford
Tufts
Bates
Williams College
Colgate
His favorites so far are in order are: Oberlin, Hamilton, Skidmore, Cornell, Vassar, then Colgate but honestly, he really liked all of them. I just hope he is better able to rank them after we visit more schools.
Typo above. Visits. Not is its. BTW Collegeboard has a downloadable/printable simple form for taking notes on campus visits.
I think you’d better stop sending apps. That list is insanely long. What will he do if he’s admitted to a number of these? S19 applied to 13 and got into nine and that was very confusing come April. Eight of the nine were schools we considered high matches or reaches so all had to be considered seriously in the spring. All but one had under 30% acceptance rate and five of them under 15%. We cast a wide net because these acceptance rates were so low but, in the end, I do believe that S19 applied to too many schools.
As long as you think Ithaca is a safety, I say be done. Don’t add any more matches or reaches.
I’m with homerdog…too many schools, some very very different…Bates and Princeton? Yale and Skidmore?
Will be a lot of supplements, and may be difficult to write compelling why us essays for schools that he doesn’t see as a fit, or that are very different from each other.
Is he applying ED anywhere? EA?
Is there perhaps a way to winnow the list based on a school’s gen ed requirements, e.g., Tufts language/culture requirement?
Or for the schools that have EA with notification before RD apps are due, would an acceptance result in certain schools coming off the list for RD?
@Mwfan1921 sounds like he’s already finished apps for most of them? @nextstepcollege I think it’s great that you seem to be looking for fit now. Maybe your S currently likes them all because he’s not digging very deep. He should start reading as much as he can about his matches and low reaches so he can find the differences. You say he would prefer a LAC so I would start with those. Colgate and Oberlin? I’d have a hard time finding two schools more different from each other than those two.
Applying to all Ivies doesn’t make any sense. They aren’t the same as each other. I sure hope your S won’t be bummed out by a slew of denials from the Ivies and, if he’s accepted to one, I hope your husband won’t make him go if it’s not the best fit.
Thank you for the suggestion. He thought Colgate was a beautiful campus, and could see himself being happy there, but it wasn’t at the top of list, and it was clear it is very athletic. Right now, I think Oberlin, Skidmore and Hamilton are at the top, and all are fairly equal for different reasons. He wanted to like Cornell. He again thought the campus was beautiful, but he agreed with me that, due to its sheer size, it likely isn’t the best fit for him. I think he knows they are all great campuses and wants to reassure himself that any of them would be fine colleges to attend. It’s a way of being okay with getting into one of them and not the other. That said, he does need to identify a preference.
He will not be disappointed with Ivy rejections. He knows how competitive they are. His Father and I are no longer married, but we co-parent and are on very good terms. He is financially willing to do whatever he can to help his son through college, and even gave me all of the stuff to do the CSS profile for the noncustodial parent. His Step-Father and I took him to most of the colleges this summer that we knew would be a good fit for him. We are just trying to keep the peace with dad since he is a willing participant in this process, financially and otherwise. That said, it may be his Dad that will be shocked and disappointed in the spring.