To be clear: the point of the early visits is not to choose colleges but rather get a feel for what a college is like: an urban college, a residential college, a smaller private, a very large university (UC), perhaps college town v. city v. rural or coastal…
It’s easy to have a “dream college”, ie., a top school everyone’s heard of, it’s much harder to find good fits. 
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Some people do not need visits to find “fit”:
- Their definition of “fit” is based on highly limiting financial constraints.
- Their definition of “fit” is prestige / ranking / selectivity. Of course, this tends to preclude safeties or large merit scholarships.
- Their definition of “fit” involves a rare major or other rare characteristic.
Applicable in theory but not in this case, since the CSUs, UCs, and couple privates listed shouldn’t be related to prestige or cost differentials. Seeing Sac State, Sonoma, Chico, and Humboldt would expose a 15 year old to a wide variety of choices he reasonably has, as would seeing UCD and UCSC present him with possible UCs that aren’t UCLA yet are very reputable.
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Taking my kids to see college campuses early before they knew anything about prestige or “fit” was really eye opening for them. One of our first stops was Merced and both kids really liked how new and modern it was. There wasn’t much happening on campus and there isn’t really a community around the campus but they didn’t realize that until our next stop which was Davis. My eldest liked friendly social vibe and the adjacent college town at Davis. Next was Berkeley (my alma mater) which he thought was too dirty, old and stodgy.
Financially and academically we knew that the kids would be fine at any UC. Our intention was to let them see a variety of campuses and possibly find a social fit. As they got older, we delved more into potential majors and which schools offered what they thought they wanted to study.
Without talking about prestige, it would be good for a freshman to look at the urban Berkeley campus and compare it to UCSC in the redwoods with a unique college system and compare those schools to the sprawling bicycling campus of Davis.
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Free advice….don’t take your kids to the most expensive and lovely college campuses first!
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Where is that!
And for clarification…I want both…costly AND lovely.
Look around the photo to find the name of the college.
(Hint: lower left.)
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I love visiting college campuses and did it even before I had a child. More often than not a vacation would include at least a drive through or by a campus. My D22 has seen a LOT of campuses, and that has turned out to be invaluable because of COVID. My D likes big cities and has always preferred urban, contained campuses. Because she knows what she wants it has relieved some anxiety from the process because she is very confident about her list and that the schools are a great fit.
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Well…look at the town it’s in! Would there be anything less than a beautiful campus!
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I have never met a campus I didn’t like.
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@MYOS1634 thanks for the details help. Goal of UCLA with 9 AP/DE is doable as his school is offering 1-2 AP for10 grade, his counselor mapped him into 2 maths for summer of 10th (Pre-calculus) and 11th(Statistic), so the other 6 are spreading out, giving him time to study PSAT or pursuing Eagle Scout. He got to keep Band all the ways as well for his hobby.
I don’t think he can take Spring class in his school. Freshman class is also cap with 6 classes. And since he wanted Band, he lost his history/social class. Other class like Math, PE, Science, English is not flexible, it is pre-picked by the school.
Viet is for our root, we didn’t do a good job teaching my kids Viet, ( my native language) English is 1st language at home 
This is his 1st chance studying foreign language, I want to honor our culture So I gently guided him, he didn’t mind. He plans to go to level 4, his idea after discussing with the teacher, for a certificate. He is having fun with the class, bonding with the teacher, and doing well. There is no Honor/AP for Viet 4 but I don’t mind, if he is eager to learn, it is more important.
For this summer, my previous thought is math 3, as he is always strong in math. If he self study now, math 3 in CC is just a ‘repeat’ for him. But I’ll wait out to see what the counselor has to say… With your advice, I might look into the category and asking him if he want to explore any other subject, something fun for the summer. I remembered taking ‘music appreciation’ and ‘psychology’ and it wss fun. And make sure he can handle it
For the visiting colleges trip, we went to UCLA last summer while visiting relatives in San Diego. Probably a bad move but it is too late. We also visited Stanford (driving distance), UC Santa Cruz (driving distance), Harvard (travel tour), MIT (travel tour), SJSU (driving distance), UC Davis (driving distance), … Next year his scouting troop will do all UC colleges visit, I’ll sign him up. We’ll try a couple states with his school too. I see his school sometimes offering that.
Thanks for all the advices, can’t thanks enough for your guidance !
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@youcee thank you. I usually combine them with vacation and day trip. I has family member who graduated from Davis, Santa Cruz, and someone is still at Berkeley (now I recall ! I should ask her, she is a 4.67 GPA). I won’t be rushing kid but will let him join with his school/ other organizations. I think just driving by as I always did might not ‘deep’ enough. Possibly meet with someone or a tour would be nicer.
UC Riverside is on the visiting list for scouting next summer, I’ll definitely join. Thanks for the info.
@thumper1 hahaha, you’re right ! too bad, the tour guide took us to Harvard !
Math is the worst subject to take in abbreviated form over the summer. In addition he’s already accelerated in math (he will be takng calculus senior year) and so there’s no need to have him take math over the summer.
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@MYOS1634 His counselor plans 3 math AP for him including 2 calculus and 1 Statistic for summer 11th grade. For him to finish them all, he has to finish both Math3 and PreCal before 11th grade. She has him do PreCal at CC, summer 10th grade. We have an appointment coming up and I’ll ask her to confirm that.
Thanks for all the advices.
That sounds so overwhelming. Can’t believe a counselor would actually recommend that.
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I agree entirely. Math is an area where students should be very cautious about jumping ahead. Having a solid basis in math is IMHO very valuable when you get to upper level math classes.
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I’m guessing taking AP stats is to “up” his number of AP’s (and that the GC doesnt have a math background) . However from a math progression point of view, it would be FAR more beneficial to take Elementary statistics DE over the summer (equivalent to AP stats) and Precalculus honors during the year (even if that “honors” doesn’t count for UCs). AP stats is either a strong math class for Humanities students who aren’t good at math or an elective for stem students. It’s just basic, algebra based elementary stats typically taken by nonstem majors for their gen eds - stem majors may have to take calculus based statistics but not Elementary stats/AP stats. Precalculus honors on the other hand is the foundation for calculus and any major that requires math (such as business or economics). Accelerzting it is a very bad idea.
What APs are offered at your school?
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Regardless of which math courses your son takes, make sure that he also masters the language arts throughout high school, so that he might be able to distinguish himself with exceptionally well-written essays in his college applications.
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