Why visit colleges before getting accepted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand the need for high school students to get a personal feel for what a 40,000 person campus feels like compared to a 3,000 person SLAC. And seeing what things feel like at a very selective school compared to a school where it's easy to get in makes sense. But for anybody living in the DMV, this can be done by taking the metro or with a short drive to Baltimore or Richmond. You could even visit lots of small private SLACs and state schools in rural places by driving just 2-3 hours from DC.

But what is the goal of touring schools all over the country as a high school student before you've applied or been accepted? If you happen to be going to Chicago for a family event, sure, visit University of Chicago and Loyola while you're there. But why take time away from school and spend money on an airplane flight for the sole purpose of visiting a school in another part of the country? At my child's school, trips to see colleges get an excused absence. Are the people doing this those have never been to Texas and are worried that it's too full of MAGA people to put it on their list of places to apply, so they want to make sure it's acceptable? Or maybe they want to visit Boston in the dead of winter to see if their kid could stomach that environment?

I could see why someone would fly to view UCLA and NYU if they get into both and have the great fortune of needing to choose, and they live in Ohio and have never been to either LA or NYC. But why spend so much time and money when you haven't even been admitted? Just spend the $50 to apply, and if you get in then you can take a trip if you're worried there's something about the school that you can't see from watching videos and asking current students.

I didn't visit any schools as a high school student and I loved where I ended up, on the other side of the country from where I grew up. I applied to schools all over the place that met very clear criteria. The fact that one school might have had nicer landscaping than another, or that its dorms were nicer had nothing to do with whether I wanted to go there. There's a thread in this forum about ridiculous things that turned off kids when they visited various campuses, none of which should enter into such a major decision about which school to attend. Why indulge that tendency among some high school kids? Almost every school I've seen offers prospective students a chance to chat with current students about campus life, and they have really well produced videos of the campus. is this just sort of upper middle class rite of passage? It feels like when brides take their mom and best friends shopping for a gown and make an afternoon of the whole exercise, another thing I didn't do.

OP, can you not understand that not everyone is in the same position you were in, in many ways? My private high school limited us to applying to SIX colleges. SIX. They also strongly encouraged early decision applications. "Just spend the $50 to apply" is a ridiculous way to apply when each school you apply to inevitably knocks another one off your list which might have been a better fit for you, or more likely to accept you, or whatever.

That's nice that you went to school across the country and loved it, but the vast majority of college students go to school much closer to home. You are the exception, not the rule. Even at the elite schools, Stanford has a ton of students from CA, Harvard has a ton from MA, etc. You were lucky that your school was a good fit, because I know plenty of kids who went far away to school and felt homesick and miserable, which is one outcome people are trying to avoid by visiting schools in person.

Chatting with students pre-selected by the admissions office or viewing their slick videos (which never show the ugly buildings or the terrible cafeteria food or anything bad) is not a substitute for the sort of things you might see and experience by chance while visiting. You will only get positive information from these sources. Personally, I would like to have a more realistic and balanced view of what these schools are really like before committing a small fortune and my child to them.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t visit any schools when I applied back in the day; my DH visited schools up and down the east coast before applying.

We made one driving trip to see 4 schools spring break of junior year. DD really liked a couple that were low reaches for her and I think seeing them motivated her to finish out her junior year strong. We saw a few more on the way to our summer vacation and a couple other closer ones in the fall.

There’s more than one way to do things - no right or wrong. For her this was helpful to eliminate some schools and to motivate her - she did get accepted by her two favorite schools that were not sure things.

[Anonymous]

"+1 For many reasons even before she visited the campus my DD had one school at the top, by far, of her list that she was most excited about. The school valued demonstrated interest. We visited, my DD became even more certain that the school was what she wanted and she applied ED. Got accepted this past Dec

With many schools, applications have increased so greatly that showing interest is just smart to do. There are various ways to show interest but visiting the campus and taking a tour is an obvious one."

Visiting the one school you plan to ED at is hardly what this post is about.

[Anonymous]

DEMONSTRATED INTEREST. I think schools that claim they don't care about it are not telling the truth.

[Anonymous]

I agree. Especially for the reach for all schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DEMONSTRATED INTEREST. I think schools that claim they don't care about it are not telling the truth.

There are literally (top) schools where you try to give your name (see if you should sign in) and they're like, no, we don't care.

[Anonymous]

Of the several colleges that accepted our two DC, neither DC had visited before acceptance. We visited others. They either didn't like them or were rejected. It was very empowering to visit as an accepted student. It worked out well. It also worked that all schools were OOS publics, not small LACs. Only fit issues were really geography, major & Greek/little Greek.

Op, it's such a uniques journey, all families/experiences are different. Seems odd to have this get under your skin.

[Anonymous]

Why would anyone take a general comment like this and apply it to their very unique and unusual situation, then act as if OP is crazy for not concerning themselves with the poster's highly unusual scenario?

This isn't a post about people applying ED. VERY few people apply ED relative to the hundreds of thousands of people applying to college each year. Even though DCUM skews upper income and higher achiever, most people here don't have kids applying ED. And most colleges don't even offer ED as an option. This isn't a post about people who live in some rarified exclusive private school world where they are limited by their school to six college applications. I imagine that even fewer are in this situation than there are people applying ED?! Get out of your rich people and top 20 bubble and join the conversation with the rest of the world.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of reasons to visit schools that are outside the DMV area: application fees, supplemental essays can be time-consuming, demonstrated interest, and to evaluate fit and atmosphere. We could not visit many of the colleges my DC was considering that would have required a flight -- but we did take a combination vacation/college tour in the Boston/New England area which helped us see a number of different types of schools. DC was able to remove some schools that were previously under serious consideration off the list based on our observations from the tours. Visiting schools is worth it but obviously needs to be within reason.

[Anonymous]

That was long OP. Some people make a big trip of it. They like that. But most people your the nearby and top choices. It’s exhausting and boring. But the time between acceptance and decision is fairly short and at a busy time so at least one or two matches. If you are finding flying to CA from DC taxing now think about 4 years of it.

[Anonymous]

Why? I get one personal day per year and there is no way my kid can tour all of the schools he is accepted to in such a short period of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would anyone take a general comment like this and apply it to their very unique and unusual situation, then act as if OP is crazy for not concerning themselves with the poster's highly unusual scenario?

This isn't a post about people applying ED. VERY few people apply ED relative to the hundreds of thousands of people applying to college each year. Even though DCUM skews upper income and higher achiever, most people here don't have kids applying ED. And most colleges don't even offer ED as an option. This isn't a post about people who live in some rarified exclusive private school world where they are limited by their school to six college applications. I imagine that even fewer are in this situation than there are people applying ED?! Get out of your rich people and top 20 bubble and join the conversation with the rest of the world.

So this is a thread for all students except those applying ED? I am just trying to understand what the rules are for this thread.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the premise. It was better for DC 21 not to visit all the schools she didn't get into.... so you aren't envisioning yourself really there. At least for the real reaches.

[Anonymous]

If you can why wouldn’t you? I understand if cost or time is an issue but if I’m spending 350k on an education I want to make sure that DC loves a school. Plus our trips were fun bonding experiences.

[Anonymous]

Because it's fun? My DD and I had a great time touring colleges. OP, you do you and MYOB.