<p>Are campus visits worth it?<br>
I planed to drive him for some campus visits, now, I am not sure. Can he apply for colleges, after the admissions, he pick one or two to visit? If he gets in his dream school, we don’t even need the campus visit?</p>
<p>Some kids get a real feeling for a school when they visit. My daughter never fell in love with a school, but definitely got some ideas for what she did not like with the campus visits.</p>
<p>Visits do help with deciding what type of campus a student wants (size, location, etc.), and sometimes, something learned on a visit can pique interest or ideas of something a student would like to have in a campus. If you do a lot of Internet research and read the many brochures that flow into your house, you will learn a lot about campuses.</p>
<p>We probably visited more than ten schools before DD did her applications. She had been on the campus of every school she applied to–except the school she ended up attending, which she visited after she was admitted.</p>
<p>Case Western, RPI, Harvard, MIT, Columbia, WPI (not quite top 50), Carnegie Mellon, Olin, Cooper Union, Cornell, Yale and Princeton.</p>
<p>That should keep you busy!</p>
<p>Remember, that the top 50 is easy, it’s the safeties you really like that are more difficult to nail down.</p>
<p>My oldest, who is not much of a traveler, did not visit very many schools ahead of time. (Basically four as college visits and he’d seen several small LACs as part of CTY and had taken classes at Columbia so he knew that campus as well.) He put his foot down and said he only cared about top computer science departments. When he ended up getting into four colleges he hadn’t visited, we had a pretty whirlwind April, but he was much more focused on what he wanted. It came down to deciding between one which he didn’t visit till he’d accepted and one which he had already seen. He felt it was much easier to write those “Why ___ College” essays and figure out how to tailor the application to the college if he’d seen the campus. </p>
<p>My younger son (not an engineering type) wanted to see campuses. We saw some before applying and some after being accepted.</p>
<p>One option is to visit campuses near your house, so your son can decide whether he wants urban or rural, big or small, defined campus, core or open curriculum, etc. Even if he doesn’t apply to any of the nearby schools, that will help narrow down his list of where to apply.</p>
<p>Some people swear by visits, other kids would rather wait to visit once they are accepted. Many kids can’t visit because of money and distance issues. At minimum, he needs to visit at least a few campuses. It would be a shame if his “dream school” on paper is a small school in the rural boonies and he gets there and realizes he really wants a large, urban campus.</p>
<p>Also – it can be easier to write the “why x school” essay if he has visited the campus. Many of the top schools ask that question.</p>
<p>A student should definitiely visit a college before accepting in April, so he/she won’t says “hmmm… this was not what I was expecting” come August. I think a variety of visits before that are good too. You only have time for a few Spring visits, especially if the student has a lot of EC and IB projects.</p>
<p>“Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Lafayette, Lehigh, Villanova. Not top 50 I don’t think but have good engineering and math programs.”</p>
<p>all but villanova rank above 50 in the USNWR national universities list (Lafayette I think they rank with the LAC’s, its also right up there and has strong engineering)</p>
<p>U Rochester is strong in some areas of engineering, esp EE, has strong music and liberal arts, and has many other interesting things (5th year free to top students). And its on your way from Boston to Cleveland, and could be combined with a visit to RIT.</p>
<p>"Can he apply for colleges, after the admissions, he pick one or two to visit? If he gets in his dream school, we don’t even need the campus visit? "</p>
<p>There are two purposes of visits. A. To decide where you want to go B To improve your odds of admission. </p>
<p>A. Can be done AFTER you know where you were admitted (we looked at Case AFTER DD got in), though if you are having trouble narrowing down the list to apply to, then that does not help so much
B. A visit shows interest, which is important to some schools, and can help you refine your supplemental essay to show why you are a good match. For those, you need to go before you are admitted.</p>
<p>Case for sure. Great for engineering. I love it.</p>
<p>He will be in Case for a week. I hope he will enjoy it.</p>
<p>I second U Rochester. And if driving from Boston to Cleveland, you don’t even have to go out of your way to get there.</p>
<p>We looked at a variety of schools, not necessarily to decide whether it would be a choice or not, but to get an idea of what KIND of a school to narrow the choices down to. We looked at Brown, Harvard, MIT (great experience there, but didn’t interest him in terms of applying), CMU (I had worked in the Comp Sci Dept there), Notre Dame, Purdue (disappointed), and many others. But when we arrived on the campus of where he eventually attended, his body language changed, and I knew that he had found a home.</p>
<p>But here is my sincere advice: If a student has no initial strong preference, then investigate financial safeties. If you go from “Top 50” to “Top 100” you can find many schools willing to give great financial incentives, depending on test scores and GPA.</p>
<p>The place to start that investigation is here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html?highlight=gateway[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html?highlight=gateway</a></p>
<p>My older son went to U. of Rochester (Math) with a small (read: itsy, bitsy, teeney tiny) B&L Scholarship and the four years cost us a fortune. My younger son went to Ohio University (Film/Video Production) with most of his tuition paid for via merit scholarships - much cheaper than the state flagship here. Both kids equally smart. Guess which one is employed in his chosen line of work?</p>
<p>Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh, U. Rochester, Cornell, Tufts, Vassar (no engineering, but admission advantages for males)</p>
<p>Some smaller schools with engineering: Bucknell, Lafayette</p>
<p>If you are looking at Carnegie Mellon, you should stroll down the street and look at Pitt. Pitt students can take classes at CMU.</p>
<p>mathmom mentioned Columbia. Remember to look at both SEAS and Columbia College. Two separate schools in the university. The first appropriate for engineering, the second for math.</p>
<p>Recommend an eye to Swarthmore if itinerary allows.</p>
<p>Visiting colleges definitely can help winnow down the number of schools to which your S will apply. Sometimes the vision presented by a website or within a prospective student’s mind differs sharply from the reality gleaned from an actual visit, e.g., campus setting in relationship to large city/small town, vibe gotten from meeting students.</p>
<p>Having just driven from Boston to Cleveland, I would recommend driving Boston to upstate NY (RPI, Cornell, RIT) and then on to Cleveland. It’s a good 12 hours from Boston to Cleveland.</p>
<p>Good luck, and have fun!</p>