<p>I think, both professionally and personally, that college visits are very important to the decision process. Is a visit going to outweigh significantly lower rankings or a school not having a degree program you’re considering? No, probably not. But, it can give you a pretty good view into the daily feel of the campus, what kind of students attend there, what the facilities are actually like (instead of the best-of-the-best pictures they’ll have on their website), and more often than not, you’ll learn something new about a degree program, honors program, or residence hall by visiting that you’d never thought to look for online, or wouldn’t find online. And, as Schmaltz mentioned, it does let you see how close or far your classes would be from your dorms, lets you see if the campus is primarily pedestrian focused or car focused, and allows you to get a feel for what kind of activities occur on campus on a daily basis. I always caution the students I work with about making decisions based off of “open house” days since those are often not an accurate look into a “typical” day at a college. Sometimes an open house will provide enough information/atmosphere for you to decide whether or not to continue considering a university, but is not enough to make a truly informed decision. Personal visits to campus during a week when classes are in session was a must on my list back in the day, and I recommend it to all prospective students now that I’m in a position to do so.</p>
<p>A typical day visit has so many variables it is outside the control of an admissions office, unlike an open house. Yes, there are things that might not have anything to do with the university that could have an unrealistically positive or negative effect on your view of the school (tour guide, random incident on campus that day, bad parking due to a lot of visitors that day… the possibilities are endless, and something admissions offices stress about daily), but that’s just part of the package. </p>
<p>The better question to ask yourself, is why wouldn’t you visit colleges before you decide to attend there? I’ve compared that situation to buying a new car. On paper and websites, I can see that a Lexus, a Mercedes, and an Audi are all very comparable in price, features, reviews, quality, and availability. However, I don’t know of a single person who is going to make an investment in a high end luxury car based purely off of information available from others. They’re going to take a test drive and make sure it’s the car for them. College is the same kind of thing- it’s a huge investment (financially and otherwise), and unlike the car, it may affect the rest of your life. Not visiting just doesn’t make much sense if you’re serious about going to the best school for you, not the best school other people have told you about. </p>
<p>So, to summarize, I can’t say that a single visit is all to consider when making your decision, but it should definitely be a factor.</p>