<p>Well, take this advice for what it’s worth, but there was someone I knew on CC whom I also knew from another context (so I knew she really wasn’t a pervert named Fred who lived in his father’s basement and surfed the internet in his undershirt), and it so happened she had a D at a college that was one of the “humor-me” choices. She kindly offered to have her D take my D around before our visit, and it made all the difference – my D was sold and it opened the door to some other similar schools that until then were just the “humor mom” schools. So I would not hesitate to leverage people you know who might have a kid in school who might be willing / able to show your kid around. It’s different when it’s another kid, IMO.</p>
<p>During college visits with my S, i took a few pictures at each school, in order to remember which school was which. If you visit a lot of schools in a row, like we did over spring break, they can run into each other.</p>
<p>At each school, I also took some notes on my Blackberry during the info session, and immediately after the visit. It would have been better if S had done so himself, but he wouldn’t, so I did. Nothing too extensive, but just a bit of the noteworthy items where a school differed from other schools, or things that seemed to resonate in a positive or negative way with S. </p>
<p>Months later when he was deciding which schools he would apply to, those notes came in handy. (However, S made fun of what I considered worthy of noting, in several cases.)</p>
<p>My warning is that if your kid isn’t ready to start visiting, a visit now may turn off your kid to that school for no really good reason. I also like the idea of a “practice” visit to a school that will probably not be on the list, or that would most likely be a safe school. For my kids, we didn’t start until junior year. Also…
90% percent of the questions asked at the info session will be stupid questions–either basic stuff that ten minutes on the website would reveal, or a question that is so specific to the questioner’s kid that it’s really rude to ask it in a session of a hundred people. The questions asked on the tour are a bit better. As a frequenter of CC, you will be able to smugly exchange glances with your kid when these clueless questions are asked.</p>
<p>I deliberately took my son to two schools that didn’t fit his criteria “bigger than my high school”. Bard and Vassar are sort of similar on paper, near NY, artsy-liberal, good academics, but one is in the woods and the other is in a small city (but very much has it’s own campus). He hated Bard’s location, but realized that a big LAC might be big enough even if it was smaller than his high school - Vassar stayed on the list. That first visit (a day drive from our house during Feb. break) helped him think more concretely about what he was looking for. The next visits were more targeted to his specific interests and we were able to cross all rural colleges off the list.</p>
<p>I also have a soph. S. I’m curious when most of your kids will be taking the ACT/SAT? It would sure be nice to have those done for Spring Junior year visits. Aside from the PSAT, my oldest didn’t take his first test until April of Junior year.</p>
<p>We were lucky in that DD’s sports held meets at universities in a 5 state region, so they both got to see some schools early on without the pressure of a formal campus visit. We have also made a point of visiting universities on vacations, adding many T14 schools to our list of visits. </p>
<p>These trips made both realize early what they DID NOT want before they started to think about their specific school lists. D1 was intimidated by all the large campuses we visited, and seemed to gravitate to smaller LAC style campuses (this included some state uni’s that were more LAC based). Once she started researching schools for her area of interest, COA, sports, extracurriculars and the “intangibles” (dorms, campus life, the food, access to local area, etc.), her top schools all ended up being smaller (5,000 - 15,000) and LAC based. So her first instinct on these visits seems to have been a decent reflection of her idea of best fit.</p>
<p>D2 fell in love with Notre Dame, Stanford, and MIT/Harvard but was also intrigued by some of the urban and flagship state schools we visited. The idea of college is less intimidating to her as a result of being on so many campuses. She is a Sophomore and is already aware of what it will take to get into a Tier 1 school. She wants a very different experience than her sister’s. As she researches schools, I can see that her list is going to be very different, too. It will be interesting to see where she ends up.</p>
<p>Most Test Prep services advise students to take SAT/ACT in May or June of Junior year because material covered on the tests is usually being studied in classes Junior year. It all depends on how much they’ve prepped for the test. Consult the schedules for conflicts with Subject tests or end of the year events, too. (Prom or sport tourneys can be a big conflict-) I don’t advise my students to take AP tests on Friday then SAT or ACT the next day. For most, it’s too much - total brain drain!</p>
<p>My husband is dragging my high school junior son to his first college visit this weekend. DD started the search much sooner; she would have liked to head off to college shortly after finishing her first year of high school. Kids are so different. Take them as soon as they show some interest or–as in the case of my son–when you get the feeling they want to live in the basement indefinitely.</p>
<p>Spring Break Junior year is a good time to go, i think.</p>
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<p>Yes. This. Don’t be one of those parents. For the most part, let your kid ask the questions, not you. Though D, who loves her sleep, did have a question about quiet hours in dorms and she let H be the “bad cop” who asked the question so she didn’t look like the nerd. Ha ha.</p>
<p>Like Pizzagirl and the person she quoted, we found the “info sessions” to be not very. But they are good for getting a look at some of the students --the ones who will be leading the tour—and you can ask ques yourself that are not on the website. </p>
<p>We started visiting colleges with current D right after freshman yr. But that was because we happened to be vacationing in Williamsburg, so we stopped in at W&M. Then DH had a May frat reunion at Gettysburg, so we added the info session & tour to our schedule. </p>
<p>The good thing about these early visits was that DD heard from someone other than Mom & Dad that grades, etc are very important. And she began to develop the skills of evaluating colleges when she was visiting them “for real.” </p>
<p>We are astounded that many of her classmates still have not visited a lot of the schools to which they have applied—this is 12th grade. What are they basing their decision to apply on? Only courses offered, or pretty online photos of campuses? If they get a lot of acceptances, I don’t want to see their calendar in April!</p>
<p>More on what questions to ask–when I toured with my son a few years ago, I made up this list of questions that I told him I would ask:
I’m working on some modified questions for my upcoming tour with my daughter.</p>
<p>Oh, Hunt, you really should start another thread for those dandy questions we could tell our children we will ask. I have been in the sessions where the parent asked something very similar to the last one on your list.</p>
<p>I started with DD fall of sophomore year for the reason someone else posted – just so someone besides me could tell her that grades matter. Living in the NE, there are a lot of colleges within driving distance -and within distance of camp friends - so we were always combining college visits with other kinds of trips. She saw several schools before figuring out what she liked, in general, and what she didn’t.</p>
<p>With DS, now a soph, we took him on his first college visit after dropping DD off at college last August. We were going to spend the day in Philly anyway, so figured we’d see Penn. Then I took him to Lehigh in November. This was useful because he decided he definitely does not want to be in a city. For me, it’s easy with DS because he is super-motivated and his best friend (from camp) is also motivated; they talk about colleges and I think they are going to try to coordinate. I’m taking DS to two colleges in April and may offer for the friend to come too. DS has already asked me if colleges allow you to pick your roommate for freshman year. Now, DD was NOT this into it, that’s for sure. As they say, YMMV.</p>
<p>Starting early enables us to see one or two colleges at a time (driving distance) and combine college tours with other visits (toured at Miami when visiting the grandparents last month). If there are a couple of colleges we want to seriously travel to, then we can plan ahead and squeeze those in, if feasible (pizzagirl, that’s how I’m finagling my trip to you-know-where in the fall! will let you know bc I’d love to see you!).</p>
<p>Because of DS’ schedule and mine, I can’t just take a whole week and visit colleges (spring break, summer, etc.). Plus, I think we’d hate them all after the first two days. I do know other people who wait till junior year then see 10 schools in 6 days. That just doesn’t work for us!</p>
<p>Hunt, I love your sense of humor. You and my H must be twins.</p>
<p>LOL!!! Thanks Hunt!!! I have been nagging my S for over a week to develop some questions to ask when go to a local college fair in a week or so. I will tell him he is off the hook now. </p>
<p>I agree with MD Mom, you really need to start a new thread. I will need additional questions when the search begins in earnest.</p>
<p>Visit only after acceptance; it’s cheaper.</p>
<p>Dear Cool Running, how can you decide which colleges to apply to, if you haven’t visited them? You can’t just rely on your HS guidance counselor, as most of them are over-worked.</p>
<p>Although of course its best to visit colleges before applying, sometimes circumstances conspire to prevent the optimum. We are UK-based, like Jack, and were unable to do the sorts of college tours you read about on CC. And D was at a London school with absolutely no history of students applying to the US so the counselor had zero advice . D applied to a mix of schools some shed visited, some she had researched thoroughly on the internet. The internet is a wonderful thing you can do virtual tours, sit in on a lecture, use google maps/images etc etc. Obviously there are limitations. She did get to visit all schools after acceptances she got out of the car at Williams and said wow, this really is in the middle of nowhere which of course is what wed been telling her for months. (She ended up at Oxford.) Her brother, now a senior, did not visit ANY of the colleges he applied to we are doing visits next month - tricky logistics planning a trip when we wont know exactly where were going until less than two weeks beforehand but it is possible. He has four acceptances in hand and is registered at two Admitted Students Welcome Days. Maybe not the CC preferred approach but it seems to be working for this particular student.</p>
<p>FWIW, Jay Mathews offers an opposing opinion in his column in today’s WashPost, ["Little</a> Need for Parents to Rush College Search](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/parents-too-impatient-in-college-search/2011/03/23/ABaFF4KB_blog.html]"Little”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/parents-too-impatient-in-college-search/2011/03/23/ABaFF4KB_blog.html).</p>