<p>After just a few visits to colleges–including those drive-thru visits to schools as varied as Williams and GW–it became clear to our D that she wanted to be in an urban or suburban setting with quick access to a city.</p>
<p>With just that one decision out of the way, it became much easier to eliminate schools that didn’t meet that criteria. Early on, we used an “elimination” approach as our starting point to formulating a list of 10 or so schools. Williams–out–too rural. Vassar and Tufts–out–no merit aid. </p>
<p>Then our approach changed as we narrowed things down to specific requirements as she was closer to senior year and had more of an idea of what she wanted to study. NYU–in–loved their vocal performance program. BU–out–voice program too classicaly based. GW–in–great talent scholarship.</p>
<p>In the end, her list of 7 schools was very well thought out and comfortable to her. She was accepted into all of them.</p>
<p>There was real value in exposing our younger D to colleges as we researched them for older D. She ended up applying ED this year and was accepted. So we were done by December 15. We had revisited some of the same schools older D had applied to, but since younger D had been to many of those campuses several times with older D, she was quite decisive early on in the process.</p>
<p>^same here- nice, narrowed, list where she could be happy and dig into her major in satisfying ways; but, equally important, where they’d want her. She was very relaxed in December of senior year. Acceptances at all but her reach and D2 was successful with ED.</p>
<p>Though this is important, I wouldn’t over think it. If he likes Howard, not necessarily to run off to every other well-known sister until he says the HBCU experience is a priority. See Howard, see American for the less urban (but still city) feel, see the distances at UMCP. Then look at 1-2 nearby LACs-then let it percolate for a while. In the very beginning, you’re just looking for general directions, not the love match. Let him see, without too much pressure.</p>
<p>There’s some great advice on here - thanks to the posters - & intparent, thanks for the checklist of sorts because that’s very useful. I’m bookmarking this thread!</p>
<p>We did some casual looking the summer before junior year with older because we were in D.C. for a week so we drove over to Georgetown to have a look around and then later had a family wedding near Boston Labor Day weekend so we did have an official tour of Brandeis, drove over to Tufts campus and did a drive-by of both Harvard, MIT and BU. Older d had spent part of that summer in program at Penn State so she knew what that kind of school was all about. Younger d was of course part of those trips too.</p>
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<p>Sounds like we did the same as a lot of people… we did a lot of road trips when our S was in HS and whenever a major college was on the way (or not too far out of the way), we would do a fly-by. Not formal planned visits, but stopping in, walking around campus on our own, checking into a classroom or two, checking out the surrounding town, etc. It was a way to get a feel for what kind of campus/town would work, not necessarily because he was interested in that particular school.</p>
<p>The summer before senior year, we did more formal visits, hearing the presentations and taking the tour. One by one schools were crossed off until we got to the one he eventually attended. From that moment on his mind was made up.</p>
<p>Okay, what’s a “PWI”?</p>
<p>londondad – P(redominantly) W(hite) I(nstitution)</p>
<p>PolarBearVsShark – more likely P(ro) W(restling) I(nstitution)</p>
<p>Did the OP make that one up? If a school is not a HBU, it most certainly is a PWI, right?</p>
<p>londondad – I think these terms and acronyms may have originally been derived from sociological / economic research studies, and they filtered into colloquial use by people who regulate the balance in college populations – but don’t quote me on that. I’m sure someone on CC knows resolutely. </p>
<p>And yeah, if its not predominantly white, and not historically black, I can’t think of any other major categories, not in the US at least.</p>
<p>OhioMom – (+3) folding metal chairs</p>
<p>With my kids, DS had gone to different programs and competitions at several schools by the beginning of junior year, but no official visits. He went to several other things junior year, and had friends at most of the schools he was interested in. Fall of junior year we went to one school for an official visit (I had to drag him.) We would have done a few more that spring, but DD was sick and visits went out the window. DS was not interested in visits. Through various things, DS was pretty familiar with our 2 top state schools, and applied to one as his safety. He applied in the fall for his first choice and we visited, and he applied to our state flagship (early deadline) He was admitted to his #1 so that was the end of the visits. </p>
<p>With DD, I wanted to wait until we had at least psat scores back because I wanted a better idea of where to look. We did our first visit in the winter and 3 more over spring break. She’s also very familiar with our state flagship and has been to some others for sporting events.
I didn’t want to start too early with her because it felt like too much pressure for her. On the other hand, I wish we’d been able to visit some other schools this year, but time didn’t permit. DD will have to do some summer visits and then re-visit down the road.</p>
<p>We took one very nearby trip Spring of Junior year just to tour a campus, and then planned a regional trip early summer of Jr. year and saw five or six schools in the Midwest while visiting relatives. In September of Senior year we did a week long trip to California (missing school) and saw a few more. That was enough - she stayed overnight at just one school (the one in CA).</p>
<p>Early Spring of Sr. Year we did a return trip to Midwest when school was in session for a required scholarship interview and visited a few other nearby schools on that trip. She stayed overnight at two of those schools. Wasn’t able to do the admitted student visits except for local schools.</p>
<p>When my daughter was very young I took her to see my college in MN… and when she later applied to it, she used that visit as part of her essay…</p>
<p>We researched all the schools before we visited them and eliminated quite a few. Also kept the regions to only a few… no East Coast.</p>
<p>We went on our first college tour last month and our oldest dd is currently a sophmore. We did DC area schools. I am so glad that we did. It gave us all a great perspective – particularly since she is our first. And it was HUGELY motivational for my daughter. She is a very good student, but sometimes a bit of a procrastinator and tends to put ECs first. In fact 3Q grades took a bit of a hit. But this college tour really solidified the concept of college in her mind and she saw places that she’d really like to go and has really applied herself this last quarter. Her grades have been fantastic. In fact, I’m thinking we’ll do a Boston tour end of August to put her in a good frame of mind to kick off Jr year.</p>
<p>I agree about pacing. We saw 4 schools in 2 days and it was alot. She ended up liking the two middle ones. By the last one, we were all pretty pooped. It was a bit ambitious and next time I’d space them out more. I was glad to do all the info sessions and official tours too. Learned alot, got to ask many questions, and DD even emailed tour guides when she got home with more questions.</p>
<p>We started pretty early. We had created a large list of potential colleges with a few criteria: have engineering programs, are in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic states, small or medium sized. I mapped this out into two family vacations. Summer after sophomore year we did upstate New York (RPI, Union, RIT, Syracuse, Cornell, Clarkson). It was a great vacation because we took our time and did lots of touristy things: we spent extra time in the Finger Lakes, saw Niagara Falls, and spent a few days in Toronto. Summer after junior year we did the Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. trip to see Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, GWU, Swarthmore, Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell.
Again it we treated it as a vacation since we had never been to some of these areas. I probably never would have made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame otherwise. We spent several days being tourists in Washington D.C. It was fun!
Each night in the hotel we spent a few minutes recording our impressions of whatever school we had just visited. Otherwise details get lost or you can’t remember which school had the “cool” this or that. Also, these details came in handy when he was writing applications because he could often explain in specific details why he was applying to that school.
Other than that, schools close to home (Brown, Tufts, Olin, WPI, UMass Amherst) were done on weekends or school vacation in Feb or April.
So we did visit a lot of schools, but I’m glad we did. I think he was really confident when it came down to eliminating schools from his list. Originally he didn’t want schools in cities, but he did make exceptions for CMU, and Case Western once he visited them.
If we had waited until junior year we wouldn’t have been able to visit so many interesting schools!
Of course, people have to do what works for their individual situation. This wouldn’t work for everyone!
I have talked to students that didn’t visit any schools until after they had been admitted!</p>
<p>DS (HS Junior) and DD (college Sophomore) attended different HS. Both counselors gave the same, and in my opinion, valid advice. Start Junior year and for the first round visit as many combinations of the following as possible:</p>
<p>urban/suburban/rural
large/small
research oriented (grad focused)/research oriented UG focused/LAC</p>
<p>Then decide what is appealing. So far it has worked for our family. We were able to do this instate (CA) and by driving. It kept the costs down and made for a fun trip. DD loved the first campus she set foot upon. DS was surprised (as were his parents) to discover an affinity for the smaller LAC environment.</p>
<p>For DS we are adding on a side trip to OOS LAC’s/UG focus research universities in the state where he has attended a summer program for the past 7 years.</p>
<p>I’m currently a junior in high school. I began dragging my dad around to college tours last April, my sophomore year. But, before that I had went to Columbia for a journalism for three days, so I got a taste of that. My first official visit was to Northeastern University. In the summer I visited Barnard. I went to see Barnard again for the open house in October. I visited it again in December. Over February break I went to go see Emerson College, Boston University, New York University, and Eugene Lang College at the New School University. April break I saw Emerson College again and Marymount Manhattan College. So far I still have to see Pace University in Manhattan, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, Quinnipiac University, UCONN, and officially visit Central CT State University (my absolute last choice, but hey, my whole family went there and I basically grew up on the campus). I’ve been to Yale for AAU tournaments, Journalism camp, and on a field trip. I’ve been to Trinity College for a field trip. I’ve had several AAU basketball tournaments at UCONN and have also been on field trips there also.</p>
<p>My reason for visiting so many schools is to see which ones I’d actually be willing to go to if I were to receive enough financial aid with my acceptance (which for most of those schools I’d be able to do). I also don’t want to waste the money I’ve saved up from my job to pay for college applications on CSS profiles and app fees if I don’t really like the college. I’m basically in charge of paying for my future since my dad does not have the means to do so. Thus far, I haven’t confused any colleges with one another. As much as I’ve enjoyed going to tour these places, I just want it to be over. It’s really exhausting!</p>
<p>Junior year seemed early enough to me. I took older son (who hates traveling) to four in April of junior year and he said no more visits, I only care about the computer science program. He did end up visiting the four school he got into in April senior year before making the final decision. He’d been on a few campuses via CTY and had taken summer and Saturday classes at Columbia. (The CTY experience convinced him all dorms are the same.)</p>
<p>Younger son was much more undecided. He’d seen older son’s colleges as an 8th grader, but none of them were appropriate for him. I took him to two colleges on February Break, two more in April and three in September Labor Day weekend of Senior year. I think he saw one with a friend in the summer as well. He visited four colleges in April of senior year including one he hadn’t visited yet at all. It seemed to work out well. By September he’d gotten an idea of what he might want to major in (International Relations) an idea that came out of those earlier junior year visits.</p>
<p>We figured out pretty quickly that oldest really meant it about academics being all he cared about. Youngest hated rural, and urban-no campus, and anything smaller than his large high school which helped with the culling a lot.</p>
<p>Swizzle, if you are counting on finaid, please be sure you are educated about that and just how much Dad can contribute. I keep referring folks to finaid.org becase, if you dig through, it offers so much in both overvew and details, but there are other resouces. Some of the schools on your list are just known for not always offering good aid and/or loading you up on loans. You might want to post your own thread, your own questions, after you get your bearings. Good luck.</p>
<p>Outlier here.</p>
<p>Just to present another point of view.</p>
<p>I never went on a college visit with either of my kids, with the exception of local college campuses, where we went to attend events, not for a formal tour. My son did not visit colleges before applying; narrowed down his choices & visited 3 in the spring of his senior year - his top 2 choices and a third campus very close to one of the other 2. </p>
<p>My daughter accompanied a friend to visit one campus during her junior year; adamantly rejected the idea of college visits over the summer, and insisted on two separate week-long trips during September & October of her senior year, to visit campuses, on her own. She scheduled her own visit, flew out & relied on public transit, arranged one campus overnight and otherwise stayed with friends. There was a DC/NY area visit, and a Boston/Providence visit. The Boston trip was mostly rained out so I think she ended up visiting only 3 schools. She visited again in the spring after admission.</p>
<p>I’d note that we needed significant financial aid, without which my kids would have been attending an in-state public, and that probably was a significant factor in planning. It would have been a waste of financial resources for me to travel with the kids, and the primary decision point for colleges was financial. Obviously every college they applied to fit each kid’s individual criteria – my son wanted a small LAC, my daughter wanted a mid-to-large urban campus setting.</p>
<p>I’m just throwing this out there because for some families, visiting a lot of colleges can be a financial hardship or simply emotionally very stressful… and I think it is important to keep in mind that the 10th & 11th grade visits are optional. When I visited my kid’s colleges after they were enrolled, their chosen campuses seemed exactly like I would have expected from looking at their web sites & view books, and reading reviews from the guidebooks or various web sites.</p>
<p>I think its great when parents have the time and resources to plan college tours with their kids … I’m just saying that no parent should feel pressured to do so if it is difficult for the family. Also, neither of my kids narrowed down their college lists until fall of their senior year, and that worked out fine. The problem with starting too early is that there can be a lot of growth and change in the teen years – what my kids thought they wanted at age 16 was not the same as what they decided they wanted at age 17.</p>
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<p>That is a true statement.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing above.</p>