s/o when to do college visits?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

While students do change a lot between freshman and junior year, it can be very helpful for parents who aren't as conversant with the present day college application process to start well before spring break of junior year. If you want to be able to guide your child (and I'm not talking about making the decision or even driving the decision but providing helpful input) there's really a lot to know these days. Also, in our experience many of the LAC's strongly urge interviews including Bates, Colby, Wellesley, Smith, Connecticut College, Holy Cross, Hamilton, Wesleyan, Hobart and William Smith. Other schools suggest them but do not strongly urge them, for example, Trinity, Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg. Our private school college counselor made the statement during a parent meeting that most colleges don't conduct interviews and it left us scrambling to schedule them when we discovered that the schools my child was interested in did, indeed, urge them.

We also found that interviews were strongly encouraged at all but one of the schools my DC applied to. Hobart actually had an admissions rep locally so that one was easier (had already visited the campus). I think Wake Forest may have actually required interviews but they did offer them via Skype.

[Anonymous]

I think you'll find, though, that most, if not all, of the SLACs you mention offer off-campus interviews with alums and/or staffers traveling to the area. Where interviews are considered evaluative, the off-campus interviews are nearly always weighted equally. In any case, it is unlikely that any admissions office would schedule an interview for a 10th-grader. Most schools specify that candidates should be, at the earliest, 2nd-semester 11th-graders at the time of the interview.

That said, it's worth noting that many of the SLACs mentioned by the earlier poster weigh a candidate's demonstration of interest more heavily than do some of the more selective SLACs. The reality is that they're trying to suss out whether they're just a safety or whether the candidate is genuinely interested. So, yes, I would agree that a visit is helpful, but in planning your visits you have to weigh this against the cost and stress of traveling to see a lot of schools, as well as the time away from schoolwork and activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you'll find, though, that most, if not all, of the SLACs you mention offer off-campus interviews with alums and/or staffers traveling to the area. Where interviews are considered evaluative, the off-campus interviews are nearly always weighted equally. In any case, it is unlikely that any admissions office would schedule an interview for a 10th-grader. Most schools specify that candidates should be, at the earliest, 2nd-semester 11th-graders at the time of the interview.

That said, it's worth noting that many of the SLACs mentioned by the earlier poster weigh a candidate's demonstration of interest more heavily than do some of the more selective SLACs. The reality is that they're trying to suss out whether they're just a safety or whether the candidate is genuinely interested. So, yes, I would agree that a visit is helpful, but in planning your visits you have to weigh this against the cost and stress of traveling to see a lot of schools, as well as the time away from schoolwork and activities.

This is one of those situations where I think a family does whatever works for them. Perhaps she was in the minority, but my DD wouldn't consider applying to a school she hadn't visited. We felt the visiting, while time consuming and at times a bit logistically difficult, was very much worth it as we were all very intent on finding a good fit. Plus every she was accepted to every single school she visited and applied to and most of them also offered her considerable merit packages.