What time of the year would be the best to visit boarding schools? Is visiting in January better than October?
As long as you book that interview early, you should be perfectly fine application wise. It doesn’t hurt your application or anything (and I know that because I scheduled more interviews in January than in October).
The best, in my opinion, is early November. Before Thanksgiving break, so you still catch the students, but still settled in enough that everyone’s had time to get used to the school year.
If you are using the visit to decide where to apply, visiting in October will be better simply because most applications are due in January. If you are writing a response to why you want to attend xyz school, it often helps to have been there and gotten a feel for it.
Most campus tours involve quite a bit of walking, so visiting when the weather is milder (if you are in the Northeast) could be helpful. What is important, though, is that you get an interview scheduled. Do that as soon as possible. If you can’t get an interview until January, take it! But if you have a choice, I think October is better. (Only the freshmen will be getting used to the school year. Everyone else will be back “home”.
We went in early fall. It was the right choice for us because we hadn’t been planning on private school so we all needed to see what the options were and decide if applying was best for our family. January seems very late to me.
On top of the reasons listed above, earlier is better for schools (if they are in New England) because of weather. Weather is very snowy and unpredictable, and often you can’t even see a campus when it is covered in snow! Fall is a good time to visit because the weather shouldn’t take away from your experience.
New Englander…it is often hot as heck late August/early Sept. As many have said, October is prime time here. December/Jan could be frigid for a walking tour. We went as early as possible and that was an error. It was 90s and humid for our first tour.