Visiting colleges, yes or no

[Anonymous]

We have a rising junior, and we've casually seen some campuses during trips but not anything intentional. Now that we're entering junior year, I don't see when we're going to find time to do actual college visits before application. I don't see it happening during junior year, winter break, or spring break. Summers are filled with jobs, family visits, and summer programs. I'm also thinking better not to visit some schools and gets hopes up... isn't it better to apply to colleges and visit the ones you get into?

Between my spouse and I, we have experience at a suburban school, mid-size Ivy, a LAC, and an Ivy in a big city. And knowing our kid, I think we can describe some of the types of colleges as they make their list.

What are we missing that we can't learn online or talking about our experiences?

[Anonymous]

I think it's helpful to visit a few schools to get an idea of the kid of school your kid likes (city/suburban/big/small). If your kid has an idea on that or just wants to cast a wide net, then you are for the most part fine. My kid did not visit many schools.

Note that there are some lower tier-schools private schools like Case Western that value demonstrated interest (check the CDS). If you don't visit, make sure to show interest other ways (especially if high stats) or expect to get waitlisted.

Unless doing ED, there is really no reason to visit any Ivies. Glad we skipped that and only planned to visit if admitted. I see so many people wasting time showing their kids these schools where odds of admission are super low almost no matter who you are.

[Anonymous]

We enjoy visiting campuses and don’t have much time during the school year, so it’s a no brainer for us.
Of course don’t visit Ivies, I think that goes without saying lol. Visit schools that are a match & safeties.

[Anonymous]

we are not connected to the mainland US so visiting was cost prohibitive for us. We waited for acceptances and then chose from there.
We hit up the midwest first and thankfully that visit confirmed his thoughts about his first choice school.
Otherwise, we would have had to travel farther east.

[Anonymous]

Talk to your kid. Usually they have some idea about what they want (in general - big or small, urban or rural etc). If they seriously have no idea, go to a couple in your area in late Aug/Sept that represent those categories, so they can have some idea on what they’d prefer.
Then apply & visit where your DC gets in.

[Anonymous]

I have read that most people visit after getting accepted (not true on DCUM).

I like the idea someone on here had of using local schools as proxies for types of schools.

So...UMD, UVA, GW, Georgetown, GMU, JMU could stand in for other types of further away schools.

I took my teens to about 10 campuses over about a year:

Pitt, CMU (Thanksgiving jr year)
Georgetown, GW, AU (Christmas jr year)
Indiana Binghamton, Illinois UC (summer trip)
Michigan (live near)
Cornell (summer trip)
MSU (admitted students day, live near)

My kids felt unable to differentiate much between the campuses. Because they were too young and the visits were short. And there are just a few types of school my larger family likes (we have ties to a few of these). One thing my senior said was that all the tour guides had similar remarks to make about the campuses - e.g., here is the ritual lucky landmark object we don't step on, we have 1,000 quirky clubs, etc.

In retrospect, I'm not sure it mattered much at all. That's why I'm recommending trying someone else's approach of looking at local types of institutions. To save your time and money while allowing your kid to begin to frame priorities.

[Anonymous]

^Indiana Bloomington

We also passed through Binghamton but I did not see the SUNY campus. I have been reading about it though for Kid #2.

[Anonymous]

Great, thank you for all the replies. I think I am good now with not officially visiting any schools unless we happen to be in there. And I like the idea of visiting schools nearby, a large state school, a mid size private, and a liberal arts college.

[Anonymous]

I have a junior, so we are in the midst of this now.

We also did not have any time over winter break or spring break. We did squeeze in a few visits on 3-day weekends, or some colleges hold an open house or two on weekends. The main goal was for DC to start getting a sense of the broad range of schools out there, and start thinking about what is important to him. I think it helped - he is putting his list together now, 2 of the schools we visited are on his list and one is not, and he has definitely used some of his experience on those visits to narrow down his selection range. We have not visited every school he is considering applying to - just enough to give him a feel for a liberal arts school vs a tech school, small vs large, urban vs rural.

[Anonymous]

You may have experience but your experience is what - 20 years old? Also, your kid may keep saying "I want to go to school in a city" and then they go visit the campus and realize it's an old cement building and nothing else but a bunch of those and decide green grass is actually important to them. Or they realize once on campus that all the current students are nerdy and they are a jock. Or they pick up on the vibe that the school is more greek than they realized.

There are a thousand reasons to visit the schools. MAKE the time.

[Anonymous]

You can’t find ANY time in the next year to visit colleges? Wow. Considering the expense, I would urge you to find the time. If not, your student can transfer if they are unhappy.

[Anonymous]

You haven’t mentioned DC’s GPA or test scores or their interests, only about you and DH and your busy schedules. If your DC will ED or REA, I absolutely would visit the school and 2 others for comparison before applying. I’d also visit demonstrated interest schools unless it’s a financial hardship. For my oldest, they changed their mind about schools after visiting. For example, on paper and Zoom informational sessions thought they really liked one SLAC. They visited and couldn’t stand it. Your call on how much effort you are willing to put in but I’d place visiting higher on the list than random vacation plans.

[Anonymous]

I would definitely visit the schools especially if you get accepted and are debating which one to choose when the time comes to pick. I thought for sure my DD would have picked a large school in a city that had everything. But after taking her, she did not like it at all. My idea of what I thought she was looking for suddenly changed and I am very glad we visited. Things that mattered to her that changed upon arrival were the distaste for way older buildings, the overall vibe of students, the layout of the campus, and the area around the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a rising junior, and we've casually seen some campuses during trips but not anything intentional. Now that we're entering junior year, I don't see when we're going to find time to do actual college visits before application. I don't see it happening during junior year, winter break, or spring break. Summers are filled with jobs, family visits, and summer programs. I'm also thinking better not to visit some schools and gets hopes up... isn't it better to apply to colleges and visit the ones you get into?

Between my spouse and I, we have experience at a suburban school,
mid-size Ivy, a LAC, and an Ivy in a big cit. And knowing our kid, I think we can describe some of the types of colleges as they make their list.

What are we missing that we can't learn online or talking about our experiences?

If these are the places you think your DC is applying to then no, I would not visit. Those are the places everyone applies to and seem to want to go to even if they know nothing about them. Just because they are prestigious.

Our tours have been only targets and matches so far, to see which of those DC gets excited about. We will visit one or two reaches in the fall (currently a junior) after his junior year grades are done and after the Aug SAT is that we will know what is a realistic reach vs pipe dream. But my advice is build from bottom up. Get them excited about targets and matches. Then find some reaches later after they’ve found some in the first categories they can see themselves being happy at. The worst way to do it is to start with “dream schools” and go down the rankings from there.

[Anonymous]

You certainly don’t have to visit all schools of interest junior year. But stopping by in a few can be useful for everyone. Both of my kids had a very strong reactions to a type of school that in each (different) case I thought would be a good fit for them and wasn’t. so we just took that entire category of School off the list based on a visit at one of them. It’s not an exact science but it gives you some info.