<p>When should one start visiting colleges? End of sophmore summer? Spring break junior year? Summer of junior year? Is there a general consensus?</p>
<p>All of your options are good. How far away are the schools you are considering, how many schools are you considering, how confident are you of the schools you are capable of gaining admission to? Always look at some schools that are safety. Always. Find a safety you love.</p>
<p>I suggest visiting when college is in session. Its not the pretty buildings or manicured grounds that make a school, its the kids who go there.</p>
<p>As a strategy I suggest visiting schools in your local area of various types (large public, LAC, rural, urban, etc) to get a feel for what TYPE(s) are right for you. Once you've settled that and also gotten over some of the initial rush/awe of being on a college campus you are a more informed applicant and are ready to begin refining what you want and making more focused visits. Doing the initial visits start of junior year gives you plenty of time without turning HS into a marathon of college visits and selection.</p>
<p>Soccer gave me many opportunities to get my daughters feet on campus. So we visited: PSU, UP, OSU, Oregon, ASU, UCSD, Boise State, Albertson's, WSU, Whitman, UW, Seattle U, UPS, Westrern Washington, Gonzaga, Pepperdine, Willamette, U,Lewis & Clark, Reed and PLU before her college search began. No pressure just grab a coffee or a snack after a game. Maybe watch a game. Serious looking started during her sophmore year. Visits to her short list of schools happened during her junior year.</p>
<p>I did my college visiting during spring break of junior year (did not coincide with college spring breaks, so got a good feel for the campuses) and in the late August/early September of senior year.</p>
<p>Whenever you want to start.</p>
<p>Definitely visit when school is in session. Spring break junior year is a great time. But yeah, I guess it's never really too early. You really need to get a feel for what a school is like when the students are around...you can tell what a campus is like from the website, but the overall environment is what matters. I've found at different campuses it's vastly different. I went from being uncomfortable just walking around, to being like, "I /have/ to go here!" and both campuses were pretty. It was the students that made the difference.</p>