Visiting a college before or after you're accepted

Parents Forum
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<p>You should visit any college you are seriously thinking about attending. Whether before or after getting accepted probably depends more on your situation. If it is too far away to visit before you go there, what will you do on Holiday’s and how often will you be able to return home? If you wait until after you are accepted, now you have the issue of still needing to make a decision since you obviously can only attend one.</p>

<p>It would be a huge mistake to see your college for the first time the day you are moving in. Some things have to be experienced in person and reading a website or looking at a brochure isn’t the same thing.</p>

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<p>My D had to visit colleges before she applied because she went on exchange her senior year. She really wanted to go to school in/near Atlanta so she focused on ones in that area along with a couple others. After visiting, she knocked what was her first choice off the list along with another one that had a similar feel, both of which are top schools. Funny thing is, she ended up choosing to go to a school she had never visited (I went to admitted students’ day to get a feel for it for her) which was similar to the two she chose not to apply to and she loves it there. The first time she saw it was the night before move-in.</p>

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<p>I prefer after you’re accepted because if you visit a school before the college decision and get rejected, then that was a waste of your time. I visited my school after I was accepted and sent my SIR and loved the campus and spirit of the school! </p>

<p>P.S. I don’t recommend you send your SIR before you visit the campus because looking at the pictures online and actually being on campus are two different things. lol I got lucky! XD</p>

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<p>Well, it depends. It costs just $50 a pop (or used to) to apply to each school but would cost considerably more to visit them, especially if you have to train or plane it and also stay overnight. So visiting after acceptance definitely has its advantages. However, if it’s a selective school your son is definitely excited about, it might be advantageous to visit prior to acceptance, or even applying and schedule an interview before he officially has to. That way they know he’s really serious about the place and it might give him a slight edge in the application process. Plus he can see if all the excitement was warranted. So my advice is go visit pre-acceptance if your son deems it a top contender or it’s close enough to make it up and back in one day (or there is some sightseeing to be done in the environs to make it worth your while as a mini-vacation) and save the rest until after acceptance if he still is trying to make up his mind.</p>

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<p>I am a fan of visiting before whenever possible. One reason is of course demonstrated interest, if needed but also for fit. Many schools look great on paper and seem to be the perfect match on paper. We have found visits invaluable! Some “perfect schools” ended up being less than perfect after a visit. I would not have really embraced this philosophy until we visited a number of schools.</p>

<p>That said, it can also depend on your student. If you have a student that is super adaptable and really easy going then you may not need to visit before. If you are looking at smaller schools or have a student that really needs connections at school and relies on social groups for grounding then I would say visit before. For us some schools affirmed our thoughts some others went low on the list or completely off the list based on visits. We did not visit every school she applied to, due to financial and time constraints.</p>

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<p>The first school we visited we did because I had gone to school there and not been back for quite a few years. S1 was about 7 and wasn’t particularly impressed by “The Swamp.” On the same trip, by sheer serendipity, we visited UV because we had to make a “pit” stop on our way from Monticello and we learned something very valuable years later: S said he liked it a lot and when we told him that he would have to leave Mom and Dad in order to attend he said “that’s OK.” He did not attend UV, but he did go away, graduated ('12) and is fully independent working where he went to school. As for actual schools that he visited during his Jr year of high school (6), he ended up attending the only one that he didn’t visit before he applied. It did accept him (EA) about two weeks after his first visit around November of his Sr year. He ended applying to only 3 of the ones he visited (at our insistence, not his interest).</p>

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<p>I only applied to 3 schools because I had narrowed my list down a ton by visiting schools ahead of time. I probably visited about a dozen schools in my state and its neighbor. I’m glad I did, because I ended up liking the neighboring state school much better than the in-state flagship, where both my parents went. I also applied to 1 school all the way out in Boston, sight unseen but after a lot of online research. I knew I would get into all of these schools and receive good scholarships, so my concern was much more finding the best fit.
I booked my trip to Boston before I was accepted but visited after my acceptance and fell in love with the school. The difficult part was convincing my mom to let me go so far away, especially since she hadn’t been able to come on the visit and see how good of a fit it was.
My recommendation is definitely to visit a lot of schools relatively close by before application season. Summer before my senior year our family vacation was college visits! Also, I think it was really beneficial for me to tag along when my older brother was visiting colleges. Even though we weren’t in the same field, it gave me a good sense of the type of university environment I liked.</p>

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<p>Scholarship money was an important factor for my kids and where they went. They applied to 6(D) and 10 (S) schools. Both were accepted to all they applied to. After the financial aid and scholarship awards came in, we narrowed the choices according to the money they got and visited schools 4(D) and 4 (S). I did not want them falling in love with a college that might not be an economic fit. D was accepted to a top 10 LAC but not offered much money. I know she would have loved it had she seen it. It made it so much easier to simply cross it off the list when the awards came in. I saw too many kids that were heartbroken when their parents told them no to a school they had visited, bought t-shirts to and then did not have a good financial package. It was also fun going to the accepted student events-free food and a lot of good attention-visiting classes, eating in the d-hall, being an overnight guest in the dorms as part of the acceptance visit, etc.</p>

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<p>Thought it might be helpful to re-post a review I wrote recently the advantages of touring schools BEFORE applying.</p>

<p>Was it worth it to D? – UNQUESTIONABLY!</p>

<p>We recently returned from a six-college road trip purposely planned to visit schools that were in session while my D hadn’t started her senior year of HS yet. Previously, our formal and informal college visits were done in the summer and winter breaks when it was convenient for our family to go, but few students were on campus. What a difference!</p>

<p>Indiana U. was without a doubt the most welcoming, friendly, beautiful campus we’ve ever visited. Directions to park in the empty football stadium were easy and a shuttle bus was waiting to take us right to the admission bldg. This gave us another opportunity to see some of the huge campus (greek row, stadiums, etc.) while on the bus. Admissions was well-marked and the check-in was easy and they were genuinely happy to greet us.</p>

<p>The slide show wasn’t working (aaarrrrrgh! MS Powerpoint fails again…) but the ad com did a great job winging it. After the slide show they introduced some students who would be leading the tours and then they offered us snacks and bottled water! D was quite impressed. Mind you, it was 96 degrees outside and neither of the schools we had visited in similar temps the previous two days offered any refreshments or water before their walking tours–including a 90-min outdoor walk at Purdue in the blazing sun. Ugh! (Ed. comment: For all the incredible amounts of $$$ schools spend on fancy brochures and marketing pieces to woo students, you can’t believe how cheap and effective it was to offer a $0.25 bottle of water with IU logos on them to hot parents and prospective students!)</p>

<p>Our student tour was lead by the most bubby and fun guide we’ve had at any school. She threw in lots of anecdotes and witty banter, instead of just spouting a rehearsed script. She was also not a male engineering student and that was refreshing for my creative, non-STEM D. Nothing against male STEM students, it’s just my fashionista was able to connect with someone more like her.</p>

<p>The campus is gorgeous with it’s stately trees, streams, grassy knolls (who knew you could find that in S. Indiana?) and D felt right at home with the student body population (something you can’t gauge during a summer or winter break visit). D noticed that everyone was wearing IU clothing. Kids were friendly and the student union where we ate was bustling. It probably helped that we sat right next to a 6’ 10" guy who was getting a whole lot of attention (I’m guessing he’s the star center on the basketball team?!)–IU’s obviously love their Hoosiers!</p>

<p>Greek row was impressive and I found my sorority house (different school) and was dying to go in and say hi, but time didn’t allow for a visit.</p>

<p>D left impressed and excited. As a result–this is a no-brainer–she’ll be applying to IU this fall.</p>

<p>Bottom line: If you can afford a visit to a far-away school either before acceptance or afterwards, I highly recommend it. There are so many small factors that can make a huge difference to a 17-year old. I had to keep reminding myself that selecting a college is really about where my D feels comfortable and will thrive, because, in the end, that’s all that matters.</p>

<p>Cheers!</p>

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<p>I’d much rather visit colleges after getting in for two reasons. One because of the cost factor of visiting colleges across the country. And two, because if I really love a campus and then don’t get in, I’ll feel even worse. If/when I get in, I’ll got visit. This is with the caveat that I visited two colleges beforehand just so I could see what a campus was like.</p>

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<p>After! You can get a feel for the college online beforehand then apply! If you get in, then compare with visits! You’d be wasting money to visit and getting rejected. I think it’s hilarious when kids tour big, top-tier schools then get rejected. Save your money.</p>

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<p>^^ I generally agree. DS visited far-away schools after acceptances came in (one had offered full-tuition and another a fly-in to accepted student days). He ended up at a nearby school that he had visited several times; he didn’t think it necessary to attend accepted student events there, so he had more time to visit the schools he hadn’t seen. DD applied to too many schools and had more acceptances than time to visit in the end. We visited two rolling admits in Feb and March and planned to visit three more during her spring break, but ran out of steam after two. She had already fallen in love with the one we’d visited in Feb, so we called it quits and she deposited there. Visiting might have helped to pare down her list before she applied to so many, but it would have been more expensive than the application fees. She just had to do more research about the schools and eliminate some of them sight unseen.</p>