College Tours

[Anonymous]

This is a logistics question. How many college visits did your kids do, and how did it all fit into their busy schedules? DD is a rising junior. I figured we should start visiting colleges she is interested in, and what I have read says to do it when college is in session, not during breaks. How do you fit 10 - 15 colleges into your kids' schedules when they're taking a bunch of APs, doing sports or ECs that take time commitments, etc.? Do you just do a representative sample of some sort first (Urban/rural, large/small, public/private), pare down the list as much as possible on that basis, and then visit the rest? Do you just not bother until the application results are in, and only visit where your child gets in?

Do you always do the official college tours to the ones your kids are seriously interested in, or is it sufficient to just do your own thing, wander around campus, and get a sense of what it's like, instead of a more curated version?

[Anonymous]

Do the best you can. A lot of it depends on your kid. Some kids have no concept of what a college even looks like. So worst case go to something really close to you, even if it isn't really on the list, just to give a sense.

So I would try to get to something. Ideally with kids there, but if not possible, go another time. We have already written off spring break of junior year to use it for visits (we did a few sophomore year as we were able to tie it into another trip, though don't worry about not doing that).

If possible take the official tour. Especially if going to schools where they keep track of things. But we found it very helpful to hear from real students, even though it is somewhat scripted. And that way you are doing more than just looking at architecture.

But again, do the best you can. Don't let others stress you out.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Summers, spring breaks, long weekends, etc. We just took every opportunity we had to do tours.

[Anonymous]

I am the first responder. Also wanted to add that if possible - it often isn't - see if you can connect with someone other than the tour guide. Graduate of your child's school. Friend of a friend. Whatever else. Preferably someone who is somewhat similar to your child but take what you can get. Worst case, if your child has a particular interest or background (sport, club, religion, etc) reach out and see if they can connect you.

Again - looking at buildings is fine but getting a sense of the culture is preferable.

[Anonymous]

My kid isn’t high achieving but knows what he wants for his major so we visited 3 schools in the spring of his sophomore year.
We timed it to an annual event for his prospective major which was fun even for me (a fashion show).
It was interesting to compare two schools, one has a dedicated major and another a concentration, the first show was much more impressive though the second school is much more prestigious.
The third one was an art school and it’s definitely a reach but it was interesting for me to see how the whole school is about what my kid is interested in.
Overall I found the tours of the whole school not too informative. If possible, tour or talk to someone from the department your child is interested in.
Also some people apply and see where they get in and then tour.

[Anonymous]

We will visit after acceptance.

[Anonymous]

We were looking at schools far away and visited over the summer. It was the only way to see campuses that required flights. We did a few big road trips, it was fun. We flew, rented a car, and drove from city to city. We knocked out 15+ campuses doing this.

We found it very difficult to do during the school year. Only spring break was viable for us.

[Anonymous]

You spread them out if you can. We did spring break 10th grade, a long weekend in fall 11th grade, mid-winter break 11th grade, and the summer between 11th and 12th, and saw a total of about 14 colleges in various cities.

[Anonymous]

We are doing most now during the summer for a rising senior. It was helpful to wait because we got junior year grades and SAT scores to help better identify likelies and targets and eliminate ones that would be closer to reaches. Plus, we have more travel time for a road trip (we arent visiting any schools by plane). Downside is that there is one area where hotels would have been MUCH cheaper if we had gone in the spring rather than summer.

[Anonymous]

We started with a few episodes of the online “reality” show “The College Tour.” It is, of course, canned, and it covers a pretty random assortment of schools, and the interviews are carefully selected, but it’s free and easy and opened the door for my kid to think about what the college experience is or might be. By the time we were doing real tours, DC had a more specific idea of what they wanted.

[Anonymous]

We didn’t do that many. 6-7 maybe? A few over spring break, one on Presidents Day, one on a fall in-service day. Senior fall we did a quick visit to decide on ED. Dc applied to 15 schools and at the end his final decisions were between a few he hadn’t visited before acceptance. His “favorite” from touring junior year wasn’t even in the mix by sr spring.

[Anonymous]

I would also not spend a lot of time visiting reaches, except for potential ED schools. DC got into some, but not the ones I would’ve thought more possible, and in the end, there was plenty of time to go visit after acceptance.

[Anonymous]

We did a mix, some just because we were in town for sports or something else, some planned college visits near and far, we may do a couple over Christmas break, depending how fall admissions go for the possibility of ED2 in January or even visit some acceptances after the fact in the spring. It’s a lot, and I don’t want my daughter to get burned out. We visited 4 schools on a 5 day trip in April and neither of us wanted to even look at another school so planning breaks in between visits is essential.

[Anonymous]

We started in the summer before junior year by visiting several VA schools (we’re in VA) so that DC could get a feel for types: big vs small, rural/suburb/urban, a more or less defined campus, etc, because DC really had no frame of reference to start narrowing things down. Once DC figured out some preferences, we fit in a few more day trips (a couple in the summer, a couple on Saturdays in the fall) to more targeted VA and MD schools. And we planned a 5-day trip of PA schools for spring break, when those schools were in session but DC was out. And we fit in revisit open house events on a Friday that had no school and a Saturday, for two schools that we’d seen in summer but that have stayed at the top of the list. This October (senior year) we’ll work in an open house revisit for one or two of the PA schools that are near the top of the list, just to have a better comparison with the two VA schools.

We did official tours/info sessions at all the schools. You can do 2 per day with nearby schools and the right itinerary. Wandering around on your own isn’t super helpful.

[Anonymous]

My kid saw around 12-15 colleges- the tours/trips were spread out over a few long weekend trips to different areas- DC metro (we’re from outside the DMV), Atlanta metro, Boston, and NC/VA.