<p>Re: #55</p>
<p>Yes, it makes sense to make the most out of a visit by doing the things mention, rather than just doing the superficial tour that gives little information other than how nice looking the campus is.</p>
<p>Would you take a job without even visiting the company and meeting your supervisor and potential co-workers?</p>
<p>A college visit provides a snapshot of the student body, the academic picture, and almost everything else not found on a website or in a brochure. My son decided to turn down two large scholarships from one school. We took him to visit the school first so he would never wonder if this was where he belonged. </p>
<p>One other visit revealed a school that didn’t put their best foot forward all day long. A visit to a research-focused university convinced my son that this wasn’t for him. During another visit, the students walked to classes like they were going to work. One presentation was memorable to me due to it’s unique way of presenting the school. Why are students happier at one school than another school?</p>
<p>Phone contacts were important to me. Did someone answer your call? Did they provide information or steer you to the right person? Did they follow through? There is one Ivy school that never followed through or sent us what they promised. I would give them an F in Customer Service. They acted like they couldn’t be bothered speaking to potential students who paid the application fee and wanted to know more about the school. And that happened both times we called. So I ordered a brochure online and it was never sent to us.</p>
<p>DS (a junior) and I just finished visiting 3 universities. I had preconceived ideas of which my favorite would be before we arrived. I was totally wrong! And he had no idea about any of them before visiting. His thought process is “I’ll know it when I see it”.</p>
<p>He wants to major in Mech Eng with an emphasis in automotive. We learned a lot about that with our in person visits that I don’t think we would have known otherwise.</p>
<p>I echo that visits can be both helpful and misleading. Frankly they are most helpful in eliminating schools by category ( I guess I really don’t want a large place or small place or an urban place or a rural place).
I have a very selfish reason for enjoying the visits. I am going to miss my daughter next year. I value the time we have spent this past summer and school year visiting colleges. Also I enjoyed just the time spent one on one traveling there. I especially value the time I witnessed her interviewing (after the admissions counselor called the parent(s) into the previously private interview). Seeing her there made me realize just how mature she can be – I get (and enjoy) the goofy kid she is also, but she can rise to the occasion, and I might not really have witnessed that otehrwise.</p>
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<p>Normally, being hired involves an interview process as the selection method, so meeting the potential supervisor and co-workers is almost automatic.</p>
<p>Perhaps a more accurate statement of the question would be, would you take a job after a visit where you only got a superficial tour of the workplace, and maybe got to talk to a random employee there?</p>
<p>To get value out of a visit, one has to do some homework first (the stuff in #55 is a good example). Otherwise, it seems to be not worth the travel cost if all one is going to do is see how nice the campus buildings look (especially if the day you visit is not representative of a typical school day).</p>
<p>“However, if you let your kids visit some schools – I did, and I went on some of the visits with them, and had a great time – you are going to have to deal with the issue that it’s really hard to pick a college they haven’t visited over one they visited and liked.”</p>
<p>I agree with this JHS. If they love a school they see, and are admitted, but receive a much better fin aid package at another school, unseen, it would be very hard indeed. Of course even if you go see numerous schools, you simply can’t see them all.</p>
<p>Also agree that if considering ED visits are vital. We’ll be visiting a few reach schools to determine if one might really qualify for an ED selection. </p>
<p>sheilamil–I feel the same way, visits are also about spending some bonding time together, important to keep it somewhat fun so you can talk and laugh and enjoy the journey. I can’t believe I’m leaving in a few days to visit colleges with my third kid. It really does fly. As my oldest remarked, (he graduated college last May) when you’re applying you feel like it’s such a critical decision, then you realize it’s also only 4 years.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus,</p>
<p>Not sure if you missed my point or not. I have been interviewed and hired on a few occasions without seeing my workstation, meeting my immediate supervisor, or meeting any of my co-workers. No superficial tour was given as I wasn’t even on the premises. Some people have job interviews at restaurants or eating establishments or in airports.</p>
<p>I imagine tens of thousands of college students get out of their parent’s vehicles and take their first look at their new campuses during moving-in weekend.</p>
<p>Can you buy a house sight unseen? Of course. Is it optimal? No.</p>
<p>I am starting the search with my younger child next week. She is only a sophomore, and we JUST got done with my son last year (he’s a college freshman now). She is not at all focused on college yet but her dad and I both think we need to start giving her a framework for making a decision. Several people have commented to us that it’s “too early.” But summer won’t work for the reasons stated above, and fall of junior year will be packed for her. On top of not wanting her to miss school and having to take the ACT and SAT, because she is a serious dancer we have to work around her studio schedule. They do not like the kids to miss rehearsals, especially in the fall when they are setting pieces. And then in the winter and spring they are performing more, so that’s not great either.</p>
<p>We are starting with an OOS public several hours from our house, just to give her an idea of what a flagship other than our own might be like. We will visit the dance department so she can get an idea of the caliber of the students and just generally see what college dance is like. I should add that this OOS public is known to make tuition competitive for kids from our state–many do not. Next we will probably “make” her look at a small LAC or two (her brother attends one that she hasn’t visited yet, but in theory she is opposed to all small schools). Then we might look at a couple of larger regional schools that are relatively affordable. Because she is less likely to get merit aid than her brother was, we are going to do our best to set reasonable expectations for what kinds of schools she might be able to put into the consideration set before she falls in love with any one place. So, yeah–visiting is pretty important, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Sally- my daughter is also a sophomore and we visited 4 schools during the winter break. We are visiting 3 more schools next week. There are about 8-10 more schools on the list that we will visit junior year. People also commented to us that we are visiting too early, but I disagree. Junior year will be difficult due to fall sports, SAT/ACT, and a very rigorous schedule. My daughter will not leave the house during a 3 day weekend to visit a school- too much work. This leave winter and spring break to get the rest of our visits in. There is no way we can visit all or even most of these schools junior year. Enrolling in a school " sight unseen" is not an option for us. There will probably be 2 or 3 schools that she applies to without visiting first, but if she gets in and that school becomes an affordable option we will be taking a visit. In the meantime she will set up local interviews for the schools that were not visited.</p>
<p>I took my son to one local college at the end of his sophomore college - so he could start to understand the process, and get even more motivated in his school work. My younger daughter came along on a couple of his college visits, which served the same purpose.</p>
<p>Thanks, twogirls. I feel better knowing I am not the only one doing this. I recall meeting a few sophomores on the visits we made with our son junior year, but not many. This next week is her spring break and we are just going to make a long day of it–she won’t be missing anything (school, dance or her part-time job, which I forgot to mention before). As busy as she is, we don’t spend that much time together lately and even having the hours in the car together will be nice. (For me, anyway:)).</p>
<p>Although my sophomore daughter does not mind these visits, she was a bit embarrassed to tell her friends about them because of their possible reaction. Again, every family is different and visiting all of these schools junior year is just not an option. We can’t visit during the fall of senior year due to school work and sports. I am very comfortable with this decision and found that my daughter was not the only sophomore on the tours. I think it’s starting to become more common.</p>
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<p>I would not be surprised if a lot of first time community college students step onto the campus the first time the day they have to be there for registration or the first day of classes.</p>
<p>But also, I would not be surprised if international students generally do not see the campus until they arrive to start school. The same probably applies to students doing study-abroad semesters.</p>
<p>We started going on campus visits when the kids were sophomores. Their school schedules were such that we would not have enough time to visit schools that were farther away if we didn’t spend some time sophomore year (well summer between soph and jr year).</p>
<p>I think the idea that one MUST visit colleges and it would be unusual if one DOESN’T is a construct of this board. Most of the lower income students I know have not and will not visit the colleges to which they’ve applied (or will be applying to). Unless they go to the state flagship, chances are they aren’t going to see their school until the day they arrive. Most don’t apply to 15, 20 or 25 schools either. Their searches are much more targeted.</p>
<p>D’s school has one kid across the country back east and he’s doing very well. But he didn’t go on college tours around the country to choose it. And the one who was at Bard for dual enrollment last year didn’t either. A relative will be applying in many locations next year and he won’t have the money to tour-his parents literally have no money. But he’s brilliant and driven and knows that getting out and getting an education is more important that if the trees look nice or the tour guide walks backwards or not.</p>
<p>D has seen three schools already and is in the 8th grade-our state flagship, because it’s in our city and H is an alum and we’ve gone to events there. Her school took the kids on a tour. She’s seen her older sister’s tiny/small town directional back east and an HBCU in the town we were vacationing in. She already has an idea of what she’s looking for, and we’re lucky enough to be able to take her on some tours. But not dozens. And not more than once each.</p>
<p>What works for one family isn’t necessarily what works for others.</p>
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LOL, my son decided not to apply to William & Mary because there were too many popped collars and crew cuts and chinos on the kids pictured on the website! To be fair to him, by that point he’d gotten into a higher ranked school EA and I didn’t mind him paring down his list when there were other colleges he’d visited that he thought he’d like better.</p>
<p>I thought about this a little more since the last topic. In some respects, I think college visits can actually mislead because the experience of visiting an area for 1-2 days is dramatically different from living there full-time. </p>
<p>On the other hand, visits can be a fun family experience.</p>
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<p>Even the state flagship might not be close enough to be a convenient affordable visit for a lower income student who does not live in its local area. Visits (if done at all) might be limited to just the local colleges.</p>
<p>I think; if you don’t already have an idea what the value of visiting is or would be? then you shouldn’t do it. Like everything else, you get out of it what you put into it.</p>
<p>It was an invaluable part of the process for us. Saved us much money and aggravation.</p>