Deciding what schools to visit

[Anonymous]

Rising junior DS is interested in schools in many geographic areas -- too many to visit all. Do you focus on visiting top schools that might be ED options or on more safeties to get excited by them?

[Anonymous]

Safeties. Very very hard to find safeties DC would love to attend, so we have to visit a few to make sure there is at least one. Safeties are so important nowadays because this might just be the one DC ends up with, so DC has to love it.

ED schools are all reach schools. It's a lot easier to fall in love with reach schools because they typically meet expectation on so many levels. Plus, it's highly unlikely the ED school will accept your DC.

I would do safeties first. If there is any ED option nearby, schedule a visit.

[Anonymous]

I’d focus on target schools to start. We didn’t visit many large state school safeties because they largely didn’t consider demonstrated evidence. If your safeties are slacs, good idea to visit for demonstrated interest but can be done early. You’ll likely want to visit your ED choices closer to senior fall to confirm it’s your top choice. I think having a solid group of targets is vital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Safeties. Very very hard to find safeties DC would love to attend, so we have to visit a few to make sure there is at least one. Safeties are so important nowadays because this might just be the one DC ends up with, so DC has to love it.

ED schools are all reach schools. It's a lot easier to fall in love with reach schools because they typically meet expectation on so many levels. Plus, it's highly unlikely the ED school will accept your DC.

I would do safeties first. If there is any ED option nearby, schedule a visit.

+1

[Anonymous]

Disagree somewhat with this.

Our approach has been to visit reach/targets that are easy to get to and/or easy trips where you can see multiple schools. I think that will help us narrow the list and then find safeties that are similar.

[Anonymous]

There’s no law saying you have to visit schools before applying or being accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safeties. Very very hard to find safeties DC would love to attend, so we have to visit a few to make sure there is at least one. Safeties are so important nowadays because this might just be the one DC ends up with, so DC has to love it.

ED schools are all reach schools. It's a lot easier to fall in love with reach schools because they typically meet expectation on so many levels. Plus, it's highly unlikely the ED school will accept your DC.

I would do safeties first. If there is any ED option nearby, schedule a visit.

+1

Plus one more. Build from the base up. It's both harder and more important. (And more rewarding--my fondest visit memory to this day remains the epiphany that was, for my oldest kid, Michigan State.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Disagree somewhat with this.

Our approach has been to visit reach/targets that are easy to get to and/or easy trips where you can see multiple schools. I think that will help us narrow the list and then find safeties that are similar.

It's much easier to find reaches that are "similar" to your preferred safeties than the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Disagree somewhat with this.

Our approach has been to visit reach/targets that are easy to get to and/or easy trips where you can see multiple schools. I think that will help us narrow the list and then find safeties that are similar.

Proximity is a good way to go with the caveat that it's easy for your child to fall in love with a hard reach.
Also, if you are considering sending DC a plane flight away, you and they need to get your head around the travel aspect. Make suuure you are ok with this before signing an ED contract!

[Anonymous]

Make sure you visit ED during the school year, especially for slacs where fit is key. Academic year is really busy for DC and we tried to do the bulk of the visiting over the summer before senior year. Thank goodness we were close enough to easily revisit the 2 ED finalists in fall—we got much more info and one of the original ED contenders moved way down the preference list. Some slacs have open house days in fall where you can sit in on a class, there are panels and more to do than just tour and info session. None of those worked for our schedule, but something to look out for.
If you can’t visit a slac before applying, make sure the kid is doing the webinars, chats, optional interviews, etc to demonstrate interest— for slacs I think showing them love really matters, especially the safeties and targets.

[Anonymous]

ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers. Be sure you know which of the three categories your kid will fall into before you spend too much time obsessing about that part of the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers. Be sure you know which of the three categories your kid will fall into before you spend too much time obsessing about that part of the process.

Disagree, at least with respect to top slacs, u Chicago, northwestern, Vanderbilt, Emory, tufts. About half the class at dc’s private make good use of ed, I’ve seen many great outcomes for unhooked kids. ED/SCEA to Ivies, not so much— better to just go RD if unhooked and aiming there.

[Anonymous]

First school my kid visited was Wash U - just happened that way. When we got to dorms I realized what a mistake I had made. First school sets the standard and we have yet to see better dorms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers. Be sure you know which of the three categories your kid will fall into before you spend too much time obsessing about that part of the process.

Or those for whom cost is not a consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers. Be sure you know which of the three categories your kid will fall into before you spend too much time obsessing about that part of the process.

Disagree, at least with respect to top slacs, u Chicago, northwestern, Vanderbilt, Emory, tufts. About half the class at dc’s private make good use of ed, I’ve seen many great outcomes for unhooked kids. ED/SCEA to Ivies, not so much— better to just go RD if unhooked and aiming there.

UChicago is the only school on your list (including whatever you're including in "top slacs") where a non-athlete admitted ED wouldn't very likely have been admitted to at least one equally or more selective school in RD. For kids/families who primarily are trying to maximize "prestige," applying ED to Emory or Tufts or wherever is just dumb--either they'll dinged (if they're not actually credible at that level) or they very likely could have done better.