ED to a school without visiting - has anyone done this?

[Anonymous]

It’s fine. What they get out of the visit is fairly arbitrary and likely has nothing to do with what their actual experience would be like on campus. I went to a school that I had technically visited but literally could remember nothing about because it was on a string of college visits and it was just one more campus. I don’t think the likelihood of a successful first year in college changes that much with a visit or not. More than anything it’s just a chance to make college seem more “real“ and get excited about the next chapter.

[Anonymous]

I’m going to assume OP is not a troll and simply send a hearty congratulations. Your kid will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really confused. What's your point?

Are you saying don't waste doing any visits, even if you are doing ED, because your kid might hate it and decide not to apply ED (or to even apply at all)?

Weird post.

I think OP is looking for feedback on how it turned out for kids who didn’t do a visit. No need to be nasty, but what’s a DCUM post without a few negative comments. Nothing weird about the post it in my opinion.

No, the OP is not looking for feedback but is dissing the idea of visiting, period. "If a visit is needed to make the yes or no call, the process was mishandled." Meaning: We know The Way To Do It and anything else is mishandling the process, whatever that means.

Of course the OP tried to deflect by adding "expect to get bashed here." Eh, it's not bashing to point out the snottiness in the post. It's an odd thing to come here and trumpet about.

I'm the PP who was called out for being nasty - but this was how I read it too - but then it seemed like there was a question at start.. which led me to wonder what the OP was looking for? Or maybe they were looking to make a statement?

[Anonymous]

Seems fine to me!

[Anonymous]

K.

[Anonymous]

I suspect there were quite a few in the HS class of 2021.

[Anonymous]

My DD did. Narrowed T20 reach schools down to 2, visited one, didn't like it, so ED'd the other. Wait-listed for ED, but ended up at another T20 with a surprising RD admit, so everything worked out in the end I suppose. DD did visit the RD admit, and had a positive attitude going in b/c already accepted, so that definitely helped the visit vs. the earlier ED visit.

[Anonymous]

I applied to 7 schools and had only actually seen 2 of them prior and not on official tours.

I do think social media helps these days, but when I visited campuses between applying and acceptances, it helped to rank my choices. I did fall in love with my eventual alma mater the moment I stepped foot on the campus, so I was thrilled when the acceptance came a few weeks later.

I had applied ED to an Ivy and got deferred then rejected, but also had an EA acceptance to a state university (not my state…at the time) by December, so it did take a little pressure off.

[Anonymous]

We had no choice--the heart of the pandemic fell between my kid's junior year spring break (when we'd had multiple visits planned) and the November application deadline. He's a sophomore now at his ED school and is very happy there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had no choice--the heart of the pandemic fell between my kid's junior year spring break (when we'd had multiple visits planned) and the November application deadline. He's a sophomore now at his ED school and is very happy there.

Same here— didn’t step foot on campus until move in day but it all worked out.

I think sometimes visits help and sometimes they don’t. I would never tell someone not to ED if they can’t visit but I would never tell them to skip a visit because it might give a wrong impression.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we let our kid apply ED without visiting. She liked the school and it’s Duke, so we had no reason to object!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we let our kid apply ED without visiting. She liked the school and it’s Duke, so we had no reason to object!

Well that’s understandable because it’s Duke, but I imagine this question is more relevant for other schools where committing through ED could backfire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:expect to get bashed here but we did - and DS was accepted to a reach school. Now we will visit, but he’s going regardless of the visit. In my opinion, there is a ton of data to help kids make informed decisions, and arbitrary crap like a rainy day, snotty tour guide, or empty campus should be kept out of the equation. Let kid do his research and make the call - if a visit is needed to make the yes or no call, the process was mishandled.

Visits are overrated, sometimes bad visits paint a bad picture of a good school and vice versa.

I agree that a couple of hours can give one an incorrect impression but I also remember walking into a campus of a school I thought I would like a lot and feeling the lack of energy in the student lounge spaces, no one hanging out the way I pictured things, etc and knew it wasn’t for me. I was right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:expect to get bashed here but we did - and DS was accepted to a reach school. Now we will visit, but he’s going regardless of the visit. In my opinion, there is a ton of data to help kids make informed decisions, and arbitrary crap like a rainy day, snotty tour guide, or empty campus should be kept out of the equation. Let kid do his research and make the call - if a visit is needed to make the yes or no call, the process was mishandled.

Visits are overrated, sometimes bad visits paint a bad picture of a good school and vice versa.

I agree that a couple of hours can give one an incorrect impression but I also remember walking into a campus of a school I thought I would like a lot and feeling the lack of energy in the student lounge spaces, no one hanging out the way I pictured things, etc and knew it wasn’t for me. I was right.

DC felt the same way about Cornell. Bleak, and the students all looked miserable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, we let our kid apply ED without visiting. She liked the school and it’s Duke, so we had no reason to object!

You never know, my senior did not like Duke after a visit.