I think this depends on the kid. My youngest (at age 13) got dragged along once on a college visit VERY unhappily but unavoidable due to circumstances…and ended up loving it, even asking questions. Jumped at every chance to accompany sibling visits over the next few years, and eagerly accepted invites from older friends in college to visit for the weekend. He had a healthy, really targeted list of colleges when his turn for applications came around, and he is the only one of my kids who literally started on his apps over the summer immediately when the common app opened up.
I do think, in his case, such early exposure enhanced his overall college application experience. BUT his interest was organic; it was not forced on him.
In no way do I think this is necessary or even desirable in most cases. Junior year is optimal.
Many colleges prefer that you interview on campus, yet they don’t want to interview students before spring of junior year, so unless you want to make a career of visiting colleges, that’s another reason to wait.
Yes, there are kids who know what they like early on, but for many, that idea continues to evolve even through senior year. This includes not only academic interests, but social ones. I’ve watched a number of kids from boarding schools start out wanting that experience again (rural LACs), yet by decision time senior year, they’re DYING to be in a city where they can pick and choose their activities rather than be “trapped” on an isolated campus.
And while I know that everyone here at CC is very forward thinking when it comes to college and planning, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the high school experience has value of its own and not simply as a 4 year extension of the college application process. More than enough time and mental energy is devoted to this when one waits until junior year . No need to rush it!
I don’t see the point of dragging a middle schooler on tours, other than for reasons of practicality–if the family is traveling anyhow in a distant area where returning in the next few years would be impractical, or if an older sibling is touring and bringing the younger child along is unavoidable. Kids change a lot and probably aren’t focusing on what will be important to them as high school juniors/seniors when they are 11 years old and being dragged on a tour. I can say from personal experience that my daughter just added to her list a school that she visited in middle school (in tow with her sister), didn’t like at the time and never mentioned in the intervening years.
Not only is it a waste of time to take a 7-8th grader to tour colleges (we dragged ours along when older brother was looking, but typically found other things for DH to take him to do nearby) but the colleges will not waste much time on a 7-8th grader. Maybe they should get a job instead :-*
My son loved visiting colleges. On trips we would always check out the State Capitol and any local colleges. The only actually tour we did was at Stanford years ago. We have a picture of him in front of the MIT seal when he was 12 and he said this would be his school. Fast forward and he was EA for the MIT class of 2020. So it all depends on your child.
My kids had zero (zilch, no) interest in visiting colleges early. My son never visited colleges for purposes of determining whether he might be interested in attending. The exceptions are the state flagships, which he spent time at in debate camps, and my alma mater to which he accompanied me to my reunion one summer when he was in 10th grade. Otherwise, no college touring; no interviewing on campus.
My daughter had no interest in visiting colleges until the summer between junior and senior years. Then we made one grand tour of 11 colleges in 10 days, from here in the midwest all the way to Maine. That was IT.
They had other priorities and activities. Touring colleges wasn’t really on their agenda.
Our family started doing college tours when my oldest was 8th grade and I feel it was instrumental in D’s success in both hschool and the just concluded college app season. Hubby and I are both foreign-educated and were clueless about the whole college application process and started the tours , not so much to find a fit as to educate ourselves on what colleges were looking for , etc. Our reasoning was, it was a way to help our kids navigate choices in high school classes, ECs, etc. It was eye-opening and a relief to find out that our definition of “well-rounded” was different from what the adcoms talked about in the schools we visited early on, and made a difference in how our D approached which activities to engage or not. For example, most of our family/friend circle insisted on getting their kids to various sports, fancy summer/leadership programs, etc, while telling us that my d’s lack of those activities would hinder her .However, because most if not all College tours we’ve been on emphasized the need for intensive focus.commitment on just a few activities is what they value more, we did not push our kids to try sports, or any other activities just to look “well-rounded”, but encouraged them to do more community service ( volunteering) and music which they both enjoy.
My younger son got dragged along on a spring break tour with his older brother. He was in 8th grade and was a trooper. The only school he really loved was Caltech, mostly because of the wood fired pizza made to order, but he also like the nerdy atmosphere and the stories about Ditche Day and all the pranks. (At the time a cannon was making it’s way back across the country because MIT had stolen it.) Unfortunately he was not a STEM kid so not a single school we looked at for his brother was appropriate for him. And no, seeing colleges early did not stem his tendencies towards slackerdom!
I took my older son on his first college visits just after his freshman year. Not to get him interested in a college, but to give him the opportunity to see what colleges offer. He was a mature kid who asked to see a few schools. One school that he liked he kept on his list all the way to the end of selection time – it gave him a full tuition scholarship. My younger son waited until his junior year to look at schools. Not because he was disinterested, but he really did not know what he wanted in a college until that time. He also went on some of the tours with his older brother … and he only liked one of the schools we visited.
