<p>Given how many kids will want to see multiple colleges that are not close to home on school days, would it not make sense for schools to set aside a week in the Fall and a week after acceptances for seniors to visit schools? Parents and kids making what could be a $200,000 4 year decision should be able to see multiple out of state schools when classes are in session without the expense and burden of multiple trips and missed classes.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard of an HS which does this?</p>
<p>Oh how this topic pains me. My son’s high school gives a lousy two days in junior and senior year total for college visits. And where we live, it takes two days just to visit one college due to transportation difficulties. Insane.</p>
<p>In MN there is a fall weekend where we don’t have school thursday, friday and thru the weekend. It used to be a conference week for teachers, and it might still be, but it works as a good time to see schools EXCEPT if you play football - which my son did. He also played lacrosse and so those visit weekends after acceptance wouldnt have worked because he would have missed games…and while a few took the time… he didn’t. But missing school as a second semester senior is fairly easily done around here… especially if you’re talking a friday or a monday. </p>
<p>The summer before junior year he attended a number of lax camps that also allowed him to have tours of campuses etc, and we visited some others on our way around. Spring break junior year we took a week of the two he had for some visiting. Let’s just say he never saw the school he’s actually attending until the weekend BEFORE accepted student weekend. </p>
<p>The only down side of the second semester visits is you could only have five absences in order to qualify for senior program, which is essentially an out of school project that could be all of the semester but for those taking AP usually started the week after AP exams.</p>
<p>My s’s’ school set “college visitation days” to coincide with the jewish holidays in the fall. Great plan… except for all the jewish kids.</p>
<p>I agree with you, but I think there would be an uproar. Frankly, mainly out of jealousy. Most kids in our hs stay within 2 hours of home and so many go to one of our state schools.</p>
<p>Giving more days makes sense also bc many schools ask kids to come to campus to compete for scholarships. If one is looking in another area of the country it is not even a day bc of travel time. Kids need a certain number of days to compete for awards, and to make a very important decision.</p>
<p>At our hs if a junior wants to meet an admission’s counselor who comes to our hs, some teachers really get quite upset. I am sure that there are students who will take advantage of the situation to “get out of class”, but frankly I see it as their loss. My son met with a counselor who came during a time when my son was in a core class. He met with his teacher in advance to explain. His teacher was fine with it, but many just aren’t.</p>
<p>Boy, I wish we did. It’s very frustrating to have to schedule all our visits in the summer when none of the schools are actually in session.</p>
<p>We’re fortunate, since Juniors and Seniors can have unlimited college visit days any time except during the first or last months of school, as long as their each of their teachers sign off on it (I’ve never heard of them refusing, although one English teacher does require the student to write a description of the things that the student liked and disliked about the school as an assignment). </p>
<p>There are also some days where the school is closed for teacher-planning days, usually on Mondays. Those days have been convenient for scheduling school visits especially when travel is involved. We’ve done a lot of Saturday tours.</p>
<p>Except for our school district, two days seems like the general practice here for other districts. My coworkers have called their kids in “sick” to try to squeeze in a few additional college visits.</p>
<p>In our school, it was called spring break. :)</p>
<p>There are plenty of long weekends in the fall…Columbus Day, Veterans Day. And our school also schedules professional development for the teachers around these days so the students actually have an additional day off on those weekends. Most colleges are in session one of those time.</p>
<p>Agreed with Marite…spring break is a full week in April. That was when we visited schools after acceptances for both kids. College spring breaks are typically in March (and yes…I know some public schools and private schools have a March break). Also…the President’s day weekend is another time when students can visit colleges.</p>
<p>Spring break is good, but there are some colleges we wanted to visit that had Spring break the same week as my son’s high school. Then what?</p>
<p>Likewise- spring break for juniors is a good time to travel. Forever there has been the 4 day weekend in October for teacher’s convention. Adding weeks off would only extend the school year.</p>
<p>costs too much money</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts, pro and con. Although my child fortunately is interested in schools which are not far away, I have heard many complaints this Summer from parents who returned from trips to distant schools saying the campus looked lovely but their child could not get a feel for it because it was empty.</p>
<p>Spring strikes me as less of an issue, given both Spring break (although at some high schools it will either be before acceptances are in or conflict with collegiate breaks) and the more relaxed views many high schools take of second semester senior attendance.</p>
<p>For many kids, I think neither Spring break nor the 3 day weekends in the Fall suffice. Spring break is after you must have applied to schools, so it is no help with that crucial aspect, unless you visited them all during junior Spring break (but that is before many kids have SAT/ACT scores, much less junior grades, and know where they might gain admission).</p>
<p>If you want to see colleges on days they have classes, weekends are no help and, if you want to see schools spread across a wide geographic area, whether New England or the South, you save a lot of money and effort by not traveling home inbetween. Perhaps the Wednesday through Friday prior to a holiday or convention weekend?</p>
<p>I am not suggesting extending the school year (teachers unions and seniors would riot!). Rather, I am suggesting excusing seniors from class attendance–with the work to be made up afterwards.</p>
<p>It is interesting to see the very different school policies, from no excused absences, to 2 to 4. I know many parents simply call their children in sick as needed, with schools winking at the practice, but I would prefer an overt practice to a covert practice which could be seen as teaching kids it is ok to lie.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Take a few days off, make sure you know what materials will be covered, talk to teachers about assignments and due dates. Schools usually allow students a number of excused absences.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t visit.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If high schools tried to accommodate the calendars of all the colleges their students might be interested in, there would be an extraordinarily short spring semester or a very very long one.</p>
<p>Some private schools around here have “ski week” in Feb. A public school dist. here has a “fall week” in Oct. For the public schools, a larger percentage of students stay close to home for college or don’t go at all. So, in our area, it would be catering to a small minority. It will be a challenge but we plan to make weekend trips to the schools dring the fall. My S doesn’t want to venture farther than a 2-3 hour drive so that will be easy but my D, a rising soph, is interested in schools all the way to the east coast.</p>
<p>I don’t think most state Depts of Education would approve giving Seniors a week off unless you extended how long they are there in the spring. There are mandated numbers of days school has to be open.</p>
<p>Plus, what week would you pick? No matter when it is, somebody would want to go to an Open House or special program at a college on a different day.</p>
<p>We get a week off in Feb and a week in April. We used those weeks junior year for college visits. We didn’t have SAT, ACT or class rank, but I know D’s GPA and it’s not that hard to figure out if a school is sort of a match or a huge reach. If D comes across a school this fall that interests her, we’ll look at it online and apply, and if she gets accepted we’ll visit then.</p>
<p>D plays a fall sport. School rule is if you aren’t in school, you don’t practice. Athletic dept (and maybe League) rule is if you don’t practice, you can’t play. </p>
<p>We have several Professional Development days in the fall, and D can’t even use those to visit because she either has practice or a game on those days. </p>
<p>Our school gives up to 4 excused absences for documented college visits. I think that’s the fairest way to do it. That said, we used zero days for S and I don’t anticipate using any for D either.</p>
<p>What I see is that the people who seem to hve the biggest problems with college visits are those that have kids play sports. Is a whole school supposed to change there schedule because of sports practices.</p>
<p>I don’t think so. Instead why not adjust the sports pracitces and talk to the coaches? They are the ones who seem to be causing alot of stress, why can’t the jr and sr parents go after the coaches instead of a whole school, If you can’t visit schools because of a tournement or practices, that is a chose your family had made, to pick an EC that has those restrictions, too bad. Talk to the coaches and the athletic department,that is where the problem lies.</p>
<p>Kid plays sports here, but we didn’t have any problems in visiting, we just made adjustments as suggested above. Did a lot of visits over the first week of spring break during junior year and then used a weekend almost immediately after decisions were released to visit two schools who were very much at the top of his list.</p>
<p>But he also took advantage of every time a school representative came to his HS. There is no problem in going to those and the only time it was a conflict for him was if the meeting was at the same time as AP Bio. It’s not that he couldn’t have gotten the info from anyone else, he just loved the class.</p>
<p>And I don’t recall anyone having issue with athletics in this particular thread, only that there were other things competing for time on the schedule. I am sure the same applies with dancers, musicians (choir, etc) and even debaters! Kids in general are very busy these days and there are lots of things competing for their time.</p>
<p>At my school, college visits are considered legal absences, so you can go on as many as you want without any trouble, as long as you make up the work you miss.</p>
<p>In CA, college visits are considered unexcused absences, per the State Ed Code. Further, our HS spring break is in late March this year. So, we visited four CA schools during spring break this year, and the NE schools during the summer. Plus, my S is an athlete (water polo/swim) so this was really the only way to, sort of, make it work.</p>