I agree with all the above that visiting before applying makes sense for a lot of reasons, but it definitely isn’t necessary. I think a visit after acceptance is way more important, if there must be an either/or. And remember that not so long ago, and certainly during the pandemic, a lot of people didn’t set foot on campus until move in day.
I wish I knew with my first what I learned with my second.
My criteria was that wherever we visited, we would see some local sights too. I had no interest in seeing just two colleges a day if I could help it. So we did other fun things, but my big mistake with my first was starting out by visiting mostly reach schools. It’s too easy to have a big list of reaches.
With my second, we visited only safety and match schools. He did get a transfer offer for a reach, and we visited, long after he had deposited at his college of choice, because it was a school near family.
The schools that don’t give any kind of admissions boost for visiting tend to be the most selective schools in the country, and a lot of public universities that admit mostly on stats.
I think that kids and parents should visit some colleges of different types, so they get an idea of what terminology means. It is difficult to envision what a small rural liberal arts college is like without visiting one, it is difficult to understand what a very large university like OSU is actually like without visiting one, or an urban school like UCLA, etc.
While there is also variation among different types of college, a general understanding is helpful.
We also started out, with our oldest, by visiting an area that had a large public, a small LAC and an alternative type college. It was helpful.
Back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, my kids only applied to 4 schools (or less). Visits really decided the list before applying. No scattershot approach of apply to 20 to see what came up as a yes.
We did tours and info sessions but most important was visiting the dining hall, the bookstore and library, and hanging out on the green to get the “vibe.”
MWolf, I appreciate your comment about “learning the terminology.” It brings to mind a story.
A few years ago I stepped in for friends to take their daughter on a couple of college visits. The younger sister, also came along. We visited Amherst College in the morning and nearby UMass in the afternoon. During the UMass tour and after our guide pointed out the various ethnic cultural centers, the guide went on to address the question of Greek life on campus. Later that evening over dinner, the younger sister commented, “I never knew there were so many Greeks in Massachusetts that they need their own centers.”
D visited every school that she applied to. Honestly I don’t think she could have written a compelling “why us” essay without them (and yes, I know that many students do it, but for my D it wouldn’t have been as genuine).
There were also plenty of schools that sounded great on paper that she hated when visiting. Those would have been a waste of application fees.
She was also in the camp that it would have been impossible to make visits after the fact. As it was, she couldn’t make it to any of the accepted student days at the school where she committed because of major conflicts (stuff like her final theater performance, the sci oly state tournament, senior retreat, prom, etc…)
I had a field assistant (at UIUC) who was part of the Greek community of Chicago. She told me that once, after she told a person that she was attending UIUC.
The following conversation went like this:
Person: “so, are you Greek?”,
Field Assistant: “yes”
Person: “which sorority?”
FA: “none”.
P: “But you said that you are Greek?”
FA: “I am”
And on and on until it was finally cleared up…
She had not yet heard somebody ask “are you Greek?” meaning “are you in a sorority?”.
Same here. D21 actually came to loathe the formal tours, which to her covered the same tired, parent-centric topics every time, so for the last few colleges we did the visits on our own. Most important to her was the campus vibe and seeing the students interacting on campus (did they look happy? Depressed? Were they dressed casually? Preppy?) Our best tour was at the college she ultimately chose, with a student who graduated from her high school. The student was enthusiastic about the college, excited about the prospect of my daughter going there, and honest about the pros & cons. It was the most informative tour we had.
With my both my girls, we made a list of their favorites and visited those before/during the application process (all were within a 3-4 hour drive) and then we had a secondary list of those that we’d visit after being accepted, if continued interest warranted. Of course Covid threw a wrench into that plan with D21, but we did get most of the visits in prior to the shutdown.
I posted above about how clueless my oldest was about what he wanted in a college until he did a handful of visits. That being said, he ultimately didn’t visit every college to which he applied, and, in fact, ultimately applied early decision to a school that he hadn’t visited. (This was due to pandemic restrictions - in a non-pandemic year we would have definitely gotten him to the ED school prior to applying). However, the visits that he did make were what enabled him to have a great deal of confidence as to what he was seeking in a college, which in turn made him comfortable applying to his ED school sight unseen.
I will say that the supplemental essays were significantly easier to write for the schools that he visited. He struggled a lot more with the essays for schools that he hasn’t seen, and also felt like those essay weren’t as strong.
I do think that many families don’t plan visits to maximize their value. They spend their limited time visiting top reaches they won’t have the luxury of deciding between. The most valuable visits are those that help you locate a sure thing you can love.
This is really good advice. A lot of families do college tours during junior year or even over the summer after sophomore year. At that point, there are still a lot of unknowns regarding GPA, test scores, etc. and people may naturally tend to overshoot based on optimism. Particularly during those early visits, it’s important to cast a wide net both in terms of types of schools and in terms of competitiveness. Regarding college visits generally, we found them very helpful. We live overseas and, while we had sent our son to athletic summer camps in the US, those were all at large universities and he’d never seen a small LAC. The first one we visited was Occidental, and he knew right away that an LAC was what he wanted and, after looking at some other schools, he realized he preferred a fairly compact campus with the athletic facilities integrated with the campus, again like Occidental, rather than half a mile away or across a major street. He ended up not actually visiting the school he is attending until after he was accepted, but those early visits were key in narrowing down his preferences and building his list. It might be different for kids who already have a clear idea what kind of school they want or who live in the States and are able to do that initial sort by seeing different types of nearby colleges for school events, etc.
Not all that glitters is gold. College is one of the largest decisions you will make in your life.
Somethings look different on a website than in person. It is also great to see other students and teachers in their actual element.
Besides all that it is exciting and fun, have a blast visiting.
For our D, who had been experience incredible anxiety regarding everything college, a visit to three different campuses really helped: one small, one medium, and one large. We still would like to visit a one to two building conservatory so she can get a feel for that more specific environment. The visits opened the door to more conversations about college in general, as well as specifics that she liked (that we had NO idea she would be interested in). We had been considering very costly visits to campuses on the other side of the country, but now are going to hit a conservatory one state over and will be done with visits until auditions in January/February. For us, the visits were an essential step to overcoming anxiety.
For us the main reason to visit was to determine one out of a small handful of potential REA/SCEA/ED schools. It is not worth visiting the rest of the schools before admission because it is very expensive to visit, and much less expensive to just apply paying $75 in app fee.