<p>Are you and your children visiting every single college they apply to? If so, how do you find the time/money if they are all out of state?</p>
<p>Absolutely! The Thelma and Louise tour will be over a two week period in the summer, between the end of the summer college course and the beginning of XC practice. It will be hard to try and align the planets, but hopefully it will be doable. After that, she will pick one school to do an overnight at before the XC season starts, any other overnights would have to wait until after the season ends...as far as expense, sleeping in the car may just have to be an option!!</p>
<p>I'm going to have my son apply to a couple of state schools as safeties. If one of them asks him to be in a fantastic honors program, or throws a lot of money his way, then we'll visit. We'll visit all the matches.</p>
<p>We didn't. We didn't visit one of her reaches; it was more a "what the heck, why not" application. We didn't visit one of the schools that sent her a priority application, which she sent because she liked the area it was in. And we didn't visit one school that she applied to just because a lot of people she respected told her she'd love it and basically badgered her into it. </p>
<p>We did, however, visit all the schools post acceptance. And guess where she is? You got it - the third school that she had been badgered into applying to! And she loves it.</p>
<p>so far we have not visited any colleges that D applied to.
We will visit after acceptances- hopefully before she decides.</p>
<p>Ok, I know this is insane, but we visited 20, son applied to 10 and then we re-visited 6 for overnights. Overkill, but we had the time and really enjoyed it. The visits did inform his search, but most people can't (and probably wouldn't want to) do all that travelling around. We travelled during February break, April break and on 2 trips during the summer. We stayed with family members when we could, but yes, it was expensive. Some schools will help subsidize the trips for the students if they are low income, URM or otherwise highly desirable.</p>
<p>We found that the Fiske Guide gave really accurate descriptions of the colleges it covers. If you can't visit, read several guides and try to be in touch with current students. You could save far-away visiting for after the acceptances come. Even visiting close-by schools that aren't on the list may help your student figure out what he/she likes and dislikes.</p>
<p>When I applied many years ago, I applied to and visited only five schools. My kid is expected to apply to about ten...so it's very difficult. We're visiting the ones she's more enthusiastic about...I have the feeling that most of the state schools won't notice whether she visits or not. I do interviews for an Ivy and I do find it a little weird when the applicant hasn't visited, though (I'm in the Northeast)...like maybe they aren't that interested.</p>
<p>My experience with my daughter is similar to Chedva's. D applied to only seven schools in the end, and we visited at least 20! However, the first 17 schools we saw were promptly and definitely ruled out by D, for all different (sometimes absurd sounding) reasons. I finally asked her in frustration, "When are you going to start ruling colleges IN???!" Right after that, coincidentally, she saw three that she liked enough to pursue.</p>
<p>So, of the seven schools she applied to, she hadn't visited two of them: One was a reach (similar to Chedva's "why not?" philosophy) and the other was--you guessed it--the school she is currently, happily attending. We did make it to accepted students' day, however.</p>
<p>So, to make a long story short, it's not necessary to visit all the schools, but you should try to hit those that count "demonstrated interest."</p>
<p>(P.S. Like other posters, we also enjoyed the trips a lot, and made them into family vacations.)</p>
<p>Thank you for your posts! We will definitely visit her top two schools, which we will try to coordinate in a one week trip. We live about 2500 miles from each of them, so we will have to fly out for those. Is it better to visit during the school year?</p>
<p>I think we visited about 9 schools, all while they were in session. They were all within driving distance (~200 miles). We used MLK day, President's Day short break, and spring break and coordinated with when the college breaks were. It was important for S to see the schools in session, sit in on classes if humanly possible, take tour, info session. He only did overnights at two schools, though, the last two in the "race" for an ED application. The one he ended up attending he actually visited three times before application! I'm sure if we had to fly places, the actual visit list would be limited. We did not stay in the top end hotels, preferring places that might be a bit further away from the college/university, but as long as they were clean that was fine.
Edit: IMO, it is very important to visit while colleges are in session if this is humanly possible. I would always ask my S, "Could you see yourself here?" He needed to sit in on classes, check out library to help get that feel.</p>
<p>My daughter visited three of the six colleges she applied to.
We visited schools that she chose not to apply to.
We are visiting one of the three she has not seen this weekend , since she got accepted to it.
I still don't see her being there but feel that if she wants to check it out, why not ?
The other two are unlikely to see her because even if she got accepted , would not go ( unless they gave her an offer she couldn't refuse )
Since we know that the schools are not to generous with aid, even more unlikely to see us.
I enjoyed visiting the various schools.</p>
<p>VERY important to visit when students are there if at all possible. Sitting in on classes is great, but just hanging around on a campus with its students is the most instructive thing, imo. My son was looking for his "tribe" and for a place where he'd feel socially happy as well as academically challenged.</p>
<p>We felt finding a really exciting "safety" or two was a top priority, so 7 of the 20 we visited were "safe" for him and he found 2 that really stood out. Because they both did EA, he knew before the holiday break that he had a good place to go.</p>
<p>I think we visited 14 and she applied to 8. But they were all between northern PA and lower NC. We did the NC schools on a 3 day blitz in the summer. The rest were day trips on days her high school was off but colleges were in session. Nothing like 8-10 hours in the car for a 3-4 hour visit all in one day, but we did have fun.</p>
<p>Then the top 3 were looked at again. Either on scholarship weekends or Accepted Student day.</p>
<p>aashad, If at all possible, it is best to visit while school is in session so that your daughter will have the opportunity to meet students and see if they are "her kind of people" -- by which I mean, the kind of people that she would want as friends. That will help her decide if she wants to spend 4 years living with them. </p>
<p>My son has also found it helpful to meet with a faculty member from the specific departments he is interested in and sit in on a class or two when we visit. Obviously, you can only do that when school is in session.</p>
<p>But if you can't visit during the school year, it is still helpful (although less so) to see the campus and environs in the summer. My son ruled out one school because he hated the look of the campus (not enough green space!) and the surrounding area was entirely residential, necessitating a long bus ride to get to shopping, entertainment, etc.</p>
<p>My son applied to 8 schools last year. He visited 2 of them in the spring, and a 3rd school which he didn't apply to. After he was accepted at 4 schools in April (none of the ones we'd visited - wouldn't you know it!) he visited all of them during their accepted students activities. Luckily no overlap on their activities. My son was not very proactive about talking to students or professors, so the accepted students worked pretty well for him. There were opportunities to talk to kids over board games or club presentations. Some schools had very thorough departmental presentations. Even though all the schools are trying extra hard to look good for their prospective students there were clear differences that reflected the culture of the institutions. I felt the student presenters were pretty honest as well.</p>
<p>We are early in the process, however we have vistied college campus's all of our lives (as I did with my family). However, since last summer we began taking the tours and looking at them as potential schools for the boys. It has been eye opening to say the least. Schools we thought they would love they didn't, and visa versa. I can see that it would be tough to do but it is very important to me that they end up someplace that really does fit them and I don't think that can be done without seeing it first, at least for my kids. We'll save the overnights for the schools they happen to be accepted to.</p>
<p>We did lots of visiting with my D, but with my DS who is junior this year, I think we will do much less visiting. He just doesn't seem to want it, and the visiting is almost counter-productive.
We visited his top, top choice last year as a soph, in part to motivate him for better grades and test scores. Two weeks ago we visited 3 other possiblities that are far OOS, requiring plane trips. I want him to make another trip to top, top choice (it is not far away, and makes a nice weekend getaway) just to see the dorms - the dorm tour and the school tour were separate, the weather was lousy the day we visited, so we canned the dorms in favor of lunch.
Unless he gets more enthusiastic about visits, that may be it until acceptances come in. He is applying only to rolling admit schools and they are far separated geographically, so the visits just aren't too practical.</p>
<p>We don't live remotely near any of the schools my son applied to, so have only visited one. It was a good visit as he liked the school's programs, but had some concerns about the weather. Once on campus walking around, though, he said, "I could see myself here." I really, really wish we could have visited others, but finances precluded it. </p>
<p>I've been checking the schools' websites for admitted students days, and it is not boding well. To get anywhere on his list takes two full travel days round trip. I hate to have to fly him out before acceptances are released but might have to over his spring break because it currently looks like he will be missing a lot of school in April.</p>
<p>With Kid2, I think we will go to some schools near grandparents next summer. I don't foresee him applying to any of them, but realize the value now of the exposure to different types of campuses.</p>
<p>For my son, visiting when school wasn't in session was most informative. He appreciated being able to wander freely around dorm and dining areas without feeling awkward or intrusive. He could really investigate the maintenance of the physical plant, which indicates a school's priorities, and could explore academic buildings and spontaneously speak to professors who happened to be there without worrying about their time constraints. Schools are never really closed; there are always a few people around and they are often more relaxed and willing to talk when they don't have students competing for their time. Summer visits have worked best for us.</p>
<p>Like cangel, 2 kids and 2 different choices. Both had/have dreams of schools far from home, which makes it tough. DS chose a week at tennis camp over an extended college trip before applying and had only seen about half of the 6 schools to which he applied. We did do an accepted students trip to one that offered a substantial merit scholarship, but he ended up at a school that we had seen only between his sophomore and junior year when we happened to be in the area. I don't think another visit would have changed his mind.</p>
<p>DD still a senior but wanted to see schools before applying so we did a 2-part grand college tour over the summer because too far away for a school year trip (our college town's HS spring break hits same week as most colleges so that wouldn't help); she now will visit one private school accepted students day at a school near the top of her list because we have a concern about fit, but has to take an "F" in band for the quarter to do so because she will miss a concert (quarter grades don't go on transcript and can still pass for semester.) If she doesn't like it, she'll have to make a choice based on the summer because finding time in busy spring schedules for accepted students days is a challenge even when not so far away, but for any choices that are public, there's enough going on at most of them in summer to get a feel.</p>