The time between acceptance (typically sometime in March unless you are accepted in ED) and the time you have to commit (typically May 1) is so short. You think you will have time to do all the visits during that short period, but not at all during the whole 1.5 years from now until fall of your kid's senior year? |
Totally agree. The Application process has become such a crap shoot. I wanted our DC to fall in deep like with several schools and once he applies, we will see who likes him back! |
Everyone has busy lives, you aren't unique. Make some time to visit some colleges. |
We just visited local schools to get an idea of what type of schools DC might like - since it was all local, just a few hours here and there.
DC also did a lot of online admission sessions when it worked with their schedule. Then they did admitted students days. Three of them were over spring break, so it worked out fine. They did not visit every college they applied to, because 1)they didn't get in, 2) finances did not work out, or 3) some safeties dropped off the list when better offers came up. |
My DS thought he wanted a larger school. When doing some family trips we visited Temple, Pitt, BU, NEU.
I thought my kid might do better at a smaller school and he visited a Midwest LAC and fell in love with it. We pivoted and visited more smaller schools and they felt right for him. I encourage you to try and visit schools with students on campus to get the vibe of different size / styles (even if they are not the choices of your students) and start narrowing it down to what feels right. Best of luck - it is really fun to see how our children process things and what energizes them through selecting colleges. |
If your DC was only going to consider big state schools, out of state and in state, I'd say you could put off the visiting. Apply widely. See where DC gets in. But if you include any consideration of privates, fit matters and showing interest matters. |
I'm not sure why you think you can't do these visits.
I agree, pick a representative handful, then follow up with the others after your child has gotten accepted. But in our case, visits were REALLY helpful. (Also, one of my kids loved the whole process, and probably would have visited more.) |
Research colleges that would be a match, or even a safety, and visit those. Also keep financials in mind. Don't take your kid to Harvard if he/she doesn't have a chance. Also don't visit $70K a year schools if it's not in the financial picture. |
Not sure why you can’t visit a few schools during one or two long weekends or spring break? My DC found it useful. |
Do you have a child who can distinguish between visiting a school knowing it's representative of a certain type, or will they fall in love with a specific school? You could easily do a loop in Virginia over spring break and visit a wide range of schools. Take 95S and stop at U. of Richmond and W&M. Cut across the state to visit VT and Radford. Continue north to U of Lynchburg. Cut over to Charlottesville to UVA and then back up 81 with a stop at JMU. That's 7 schools in 9 days or so of a range of sizes and settings? Or cut it down to 5 schools if it feels like too much.
Take one or two of those teacher work days next fall to tour a few of the DC-area schools. UMd, Georgetown, Catholic, GW. Where are those summer family visits? Find the nearest college and go wander the campus, take a tour. YMMV but I think it's important not just to start with a list of what you think your child will like, but to have them start to think about the process early. |
A downside to waiting for admitted student days is that it is even harder to find time to fit those in at the end of senior year. |
Make the effort to visit a variety of schools nearby. Our DC applied all over the country, but we didn’t get on a plane until acceptances were in hand. Particularly if this is your first kid. They have an abstract understanding of college but if they haven’t been on campus in a meaningful way for a tour and info session, that is worth the effort. |
We have a very busy kid as well. She's seen some schools with our eldest, so she has a general idea of what she likes. We will want her to apply ED/REA somewhere, so I think we will try to get her to pinpoint a smaller list of those possibilities and try to get to them sometime next year. As far as the rest, we'll wait to see how it all shakes out. |
The college tour slog is nothing that anyone has time for but we have found it to be invaluable (while also painful...).
Top benefits: -Experience different sized schools. Our kids (twins) thought they would hate a small school (and wanted a big state school) but at least one is now going to ED to a smaller school. -Get a feel for the student body. Many schools have definitive personalities. We have been to a few that my kids knew almost immediately were their place (or not). It's striking. The tours themselves are almost always the same or can be picked up by reading online... (blah, blah, blah about study abroad opportunities, class size, amenities, etc). It's the first two things that we have found to be INVALUABLE. |
Some schools value demonstrated interest. For those, you absolutely need to visit in-person. You should be able to find that out from a school’s website.
For other schools that may be farther away from you, I recommend visiting only after an acceptance. |