<p>I would love to hear your take on whether or not to visit a college before you're accepted or during the application process or do you go after you're accepted? It's 50/50 in my book. I don't feel like wasting money traveling to different campuses unless my DS is accepted there. I know if you visit and you don't like it you can scratch them off the list but it's really kinda late for that, being in the thick of the application process now. </p>
<p>I just wanted to hear from other parents and what you are doing/did in regards to campus visits. Thanks.</p>
<p>I think it’s a good idea, if at all possible before the apps are out, to visit as many different “types” as possible that are on the list. Like, at least one large, metropolitan school…one rural, one city, one small LAC etc.</p>
<p>I think D14 is 50/50 on her visits. She’s seen enough schools to get a feel for the different environments, so she knows where she wants to apply. But she’ll definitely want to visit (or re-visit) before making the final decision.</p>
<p>Visiting before has been invaluable. We crossed many schools off the list which greatly cuts down on the number of essays and also increases the focus on schools she liked. We’ve narrowed the list to 8. I don’t know how we would have gotten to that manageable number without eliminating schools we thought she’d like.</p>
<p>We still visited a few during fall semester, senior year. All but one were day trips. Our story is that the last visit, in late Oct or early Nov (an overnight,) turned out to be her #1 choice. The visit helped her formulate her supp answers.</p>
<p>Visiting before applying allowed DS to identify a clear favorite. He applied early, saving money on application fees, but more importantly, reducing the angst of application season.</p>
<p>Both our kids have fallen in love with schools with seriously cold winters. I’ve insisted on visits in mid-February junior year so they get a real feel for what that means before taking warmer climate schools off the list.</p>
<p>Lots of viewpoints on this one. The one east coast trip we made was a business trip to DC and I was able to take DD along with me. I was only adding her airfare and some meals, which made it affordable. Although I’d really like to take her to Boston, I’m not sure it’s worth the expense without knowing where she will be accepted. At this point, she knows where she wants to apply. So we’re probably going to wait and see where she is accepted and then make a trip or two to help finalize her decision.</p>
<p>If you can afford it, visiting a selective school before you are writing applications may make it easier for you to write a really target “Why ___ college essay”. Since my older son’s essay answer was always “Because I want to study computer science and the department is great” he ditched the visits until he was accepted. (I dragged him to four schools junior year, and he’d been on several campuses due to summer programs, so he wasn’t completely ignorant.) When he actually went to accepted students weekend he was actually surprised how much he liked a college I made him apply to, though he did ultimately go somewhere else. My younger son felt visits beforehand were very important, both for the essays and because he had a lot of opinions about the general feel of the campus and location.</p>
<p>Regarding the “seriously cold winters” younger son insisted on not visiting Chicago in the winter - he got in EA, but had never seen it. He wanted to see it at it’s best and not be deterred by the weather. I have to say, in mid-April that campus is gorgeous!</p>
<p>We’ve done both, and if I could only do one, I’d go with pre-application visits. D crossed off so many schools after visiting - including ones we thought were sure things. She thought BC would be her dream school, but after visiting decided not to apply. She’s interested in political science, but American just didn’t excite her, even though on paper it met all her criteria. We only did two post-acceptance visits, and that was more for me to feel confident in the decision - she knew what she wanted based on the earlier visits.</p>
<p>My son did not visit the school that he is attending before he was admitted. He did, however visit several that were the similar. Logistically, we were not able to fit anymore trips in during the fall because of an activity that demanded full participation. This school came to our attention later in the process but still early enough that he was able to apply early action. Knowing that he was already admitted probably gave him a biased view though. It is a good fit in a different culture and climate and he is very happy.</p>
<p>Some of it depends on how far away the campus is. If you live in Philadelphia, own a car, and don’t visit Haverford before applying, then you have issues. However, it might make sense to not visit St. Olaf’s or Whitman before acceptance.</p>
<p>I will also point out that if visiting the school is a huge burden, it is probably the wrong school to attend: your kid has to get himself to and from there several times a year.</p>
<p>We have visited almost every school, for the others we have gone to local presentations done by the admissions department… Thankfully we started this process late sophomore year, so that it has been done in stages. Schools have eliminated and added. The process with my D is a great deal different than the one I had with my son six years ago. So I think it also depends on the student, their interest etc. good luck.</p>
<p>^^ We had something similar. A bit further, but doable. The kid wrote the trip wasn’t possible- but he was maybe 3 hours away and had visited other local schools. </p>
<p>You can show interest by knowing the school and its programs, if there are questions that give that opportunity. Can’t tell you how many times a kid just says, you’re the best in xxx (not; we may not even offer that) or misses that we are super strong in just what he wants. Or mixes up the environments.</p>
<p>My two S’s visited after acceptance. Both applied early and had their acceptances before Thanksgiving of senior year. They were applying to instate public u’s so were somewhat familiar w/ them and were certain that those schools were the ones they wanted to attend.</p>
<p>I recommend pre-acceptance visits to get a feel for different types of schools (these can even be done in sophomore year) and to check out the school/department if you are looking at visual/performing arts programs or other majors with a very specific focus. Otherwise you run the risk of spending time and energy on a school that looks great on paper or online, but does not fit your student. However, my S is not applying to any school more than 3 hours away.</p>
<p>One drawback to waiting until acceptance letters come out: if your child is applying to multiple schools RD (with decisions sent out in late March/early April), and if she gets lucky and is accepted to a bunch of them, that leaves just a few weeks to visit them all. And if the visits will require a flight, hotel, rental car, etc., that’s a lot of dough to fork out all at once. Plus, Prom usually falls during this time frame, as well as other pre-grad activities that your child won’t want to miss. It may be logistically impossible to visit all her choices in such a short span of time. That happened to us. We held off on the visits to see if she was accepted, and wound up with 5 schools to visit in 3 weeks. There were two wonderful schools she never got to see, and I still feel awful about that!</p>
<p>Another plus to visiting on the early side if you have a child who is not set on applying to a very specific set of schools is that these visits can help your student narrow down what he or she wants in a school. For instance, my son thought he wanted a large school until he visited one and felt overwhelmed by the size. Had he waited he might have spent a lot of time and effort applying to large schools instead of the small schools that eventually turned out to be better fits. He also made some discoveries about himself that changed his focus in terms of possible majors.</p>
<p>I’ll be taking DD15 on her first visit to a school within driving distance tomorrow. I don’t know that this school will be on her eventual list, but I hope the visit will help her to hone in on features that are important to her in a college and make her on line research more efficient.</p>
<p>My unofficial take on admissions is those students who can afford to visit seem to have more success gaining admission if they visit early. Perhaps they write a more compelling “Why …” essay or possibly they are better organized and focused on the process. Especially at schools that gauge student interest (mine does not), it very well may be held against you not to visit a school in a reasonably close (? 150 miles) distance from your home. All of that aside, I had my kids visit before application since there were definite insights gained walking the campus while in session and attending a class. At one top 35 USNWR ranked school, my DD felt that she and another prospective applicant were contributing more to a classroom discussion than the dozen kids taking the class. Albeit that is a small sample but she promptly crossed that school off the list. Since I think that summer visits are much less valuable and there is a limited amount of time in the fall and spring to do the visits, I encourage parents to start the college visits in 10th grade and do a few a year.</p>