when to visit colleges

[Anonymous]

You are not early OP. This time next year, your child should have his college app list decided. Are you in VA or MD? Visit those schools too this summer. To me, looking at colleges is comparable to looking at houses. The more you see, the quicker you access.

[Anonymous]

We did a drive thru of VT last summer on our way to the lake. Barely a soul was there, but my DS could tell immediately that the school wasn’t for him as it was “in the middle of nowhere”. If he had loved it, we would have gone back for a tour, but a 30 minute drive around campus saved us another trip going back there. So check out schools if your nearby and have time to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I hear you and agree. But …

- isn’t the best way to get a real sense via an actual scheduled tour? which basically removes the “casual” nature

- this may be our only times in CA and NC before son applied to college, so shouldn’t we actually visit ones of interest even if they will be “reaches” (eg, ucla and pomona instead of pepperdine and ucsb)

It's a bit on the early side for info sessions and tours. You can do them if you like, but just be aware that he might not absorb the info quite the same way. Often a walk around campus, just to get sense of the physical place, would be the thing to do at this stage. Low-key, just swing by because you happen to be close. And with the caveat that you really can't get the vibe of what it's like with students if they're not around. If possible, some official visits this fall would be better, and also next summer as you already may be planning to do.

It's much bettter to go on a tour and info session. Easy to do, low pressure, and you actually meet a student and have some context. Otherwise, you just walk around and stare at buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op - I am absorbing and taking this all to heart. Is interesting, though, because I have also been told there isn’t much point to just self-touring an empty campus in summer because kids just can’t get any sense (vs a tour when campus is empty at least is more engaging, and a self tour when campus is hopping gives you a good vibe).

Your instincts are good, OP.
As one who recently did this, here's my advice, FWIW.

1. Most schools will excuse an absence if it's for a college tour. In addition, teacher work days can also be helpful.
2. Since your kid's schedule is more intense in the spring, aim for fall visits this year (junior year).
3. You aren't necessarily trying to achieve every single possible school you kid will apply to, but it can be really helpful to get a variety of schools. Go to a big university. Go to a small liberal arts size place. Go to a school in a city. Go to a school in a small/rural area.
4. There are pros to both the weekday tour and the weekend "focus" weekends. Weekday tour definitely gives you more of a feel of actual life on the campus. Weekend focus days are a more orchestrated event, where you will see far more high schoolers and their parents vs. actual students. On the other hand it can provide access to certain things you won't get on a weekday tour. All of this will be laid out on the websites.
5. I really think there's very little benefit to going to campuses during the summer or during a fall/spring break.
6. We did a scattering of Monday, Friday, or sometimes weekend trips. Only one time did we go to two schools on same trip. Doing a week-long slog of jamming multiple tours just makes the whole thing a blur. Not really enough time to consider each school.
7. Make it fun! We saw some families that looked so stressed an miserable on the tours. Make it fun and low-stakes.
8. Do some financial research now. It's cruel to visit a place that your kid might fall in love with if there is no way you can pay for it.

How do you know what 'most' schools will do? I think this is a wild assumption. I know Whitman wouldn't be pleased if you just fuked off on various college trips during sophomore and junior years. you have got to be insane

[Anonymous]

I’d visit wherever you want but prioritize any registered visits/tours at the privates. I’m betting UCLA isn’t tracking visits the same way say Occidental might.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I hear you and agree. But …

- isn’t the best way to get a real sense via an actual scheduled tour? which basically removes the “casual” nature

- this may be our only times in CA and NC before son applied to college, so shouldn’t we actually visit ones of interest even if they will be “reaches” (eg, ucla and pomona instead of pepperdine and ucsb)

Scheduled tours all sounded the same pretty quickly. FWIW, we went for relatively intensive visits at schools DC was actually interested in and that approach seemed to work well — e.g. She had a strong preference for UW Madison over Michigan, which I wouldn’t have predicted. UCSD, despite great programs and environs, proved to be a non-starter for her.

By relatively intensive I mean visit campus but also have a meal (of the sort a student could easily afford/get to) and check out some fun thing in the area (same constraints). Encourage DC to walk around/look around/eavesdrop.

When DC was trying to choose an SCEA/ED school, she even sat in on classes (having emailed instructors in advance to ask permission).

Oh, and in at least one case, we dropped DC off for the tour and did our own thing while she saw campus. If your goal is letting DC figure out what he wants, you don’t always have to be in the mix if there’s somewhere pleasant (bookstore/museum/cafe) where you can go while he tours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did a drive thru of VT last summer on our way to the lake. Barely a soul was there, but my DS could tell immediately that the school wasn’t for him as it was “in the middle of nowhere”. If he had loved it, we would have gone back for a tour, but a 30 minute drive around campus saved us another trip going back there. So check out schools if your nearby and have time to do so.

Good point re drive-thrus can function as efficient disqualifiers and that you can selectively revisit places (including after admission) that looked promising but where DC doesn’t have enough info to decide. Berkeley was an example of the latter for DC (summer/holiday weekend/no tours/few students around).

[Anonymous]

Fall of junior year! Start looking for open house schedules.

[Anonymous]

We made college visits an extension of our travels from the time DC was a sophomore. Very glad we did bc then COVID last year during spring of Junior year! She had seen 5 colleges by the time COVID hit and put 4 on her list. Took Northeastern off immediately. Didn’t like the campus, didn’t like the location in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Scheduled tours all sounded the same pretty quickly. FWIW, we went for relatively intensive visits at schools DC was actually interested in and that approach seemed to work well — e.g. She had a strong preference for UW Madison over Michigan, which I wouldn’t have predicted. UCSD, despite great programs and environs, proved to be a non-starter for her.

By relatively intensive I mean visit campus but also have a meal (of the sort a student could easily afford/get to) and check out some fun thing in the area (same constraints). Encourage DC to walk around/look around/eavesdrop.

When DC was trying to choose an SCEA/ED school, she even sat in on classes (having emailed instructors in advance to ask permission).

Oh, and in at least one case, we dropped DC off for the tour and did our own thing while she saw campus. If your goal is letting DC figure out what he wants, you don’t always have to be in the mix if there’s somewhere pleasant (bookstore/museum/cafe) where you can go while he tours.

I mean, anyone who visits Madison in the late Spring to early Fall will see how amazing it is, and that is taking nothing away from Ann Arbor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op - I am absorbing and taking this all to heart. Is interesting, though, because I have also been told there isn’t much point to just self-touring an empty campus in summer because kids just can’t get any sense (vs a tour when campus is empty at least is more engaging, and a self tour when campus is hopping gives you a good vibe).

Your instincts are good, OP.
As one who recently did this, here's my advice, FWIW.

1. Most schools will excuse an absence if it's for a college tour. In addition, teacher work days can also be helpful.
2. Since your kid's schedule is more intense in the spring, aim for fall visits this year (junior year).
3. You aren't necessarily trying to achieve every single possible school you kid will apply to, but it can be really helpful to get a variety of schools. Go to a big university. Go to a small liberal arts size place. Go to a school in a city. Go to a school in a small/rural area.
4. There are pros to both the weekday tour and the weekend "focus" weekends. Weekday tour definitely gives you more of a feel of actual life on the campus. Weekend focus days are a more orchestrated event, where you will see far more high schoolers and their parents vs. actual students. On the other hand it can provide access to certain things you won't get on a weekday tour. All of this will be laid out on the websites.
5. I really think there's very little benefit to going to campuses during the summer or during a fall/spring break.
6. We did a scattering of Monday, Friday, or sometimes weekend trips. Only one time did we go to two schools on same trip. Doing a week-long slog of jamming multiple tours just makes the whole thing a blur. Not really enough time to consider each school.
7. Make it fun! We saw some families that looked so stressed an miserable on the tours. Make it fun and low-stakes.
8. Do some financial research now. It's cruel to visit a place that your kid might fall in love with if there is no way you can pay for it.

How do you know what 'most' schools will do? I think this is a wild assumption. I know Whitman wouldn't be pleased if you just fuked off on various college trips during sophomore and junior years. you have got to be insane

We took off time three times while at Whitman a couple of years ago. No blowback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op - I am absorbing and taking this all to heart. Is interesting, though, because I have also been told there isn’t much point to just self-touring an empty campus in summer because kids just can’t get any sense (vs a tour when campus is empty at least is more engaging, and a self tour when campus is hopping gives you a good vibe).

Your instincts are good, OP.
As one who recently did this, here's my advice, FWIW.

1. Most schools will excuse an absence if it's for a college tour. In addition, teacher work days can also be helpful.
2. Since your kid's schedule is more intense in the spring, aim for fall visits this year (junior year).
3. You aren't necessarily trying to achieve every single possible school you kid will apply to, but it can be really helpful to get a variety of schools. Go to a big university. Go to a small liberal arts size place. Go to a school in a city. Go to a school in a small/rural area.
4. There are pros to both the weekday tour and the weekend "focus" weekends. Weekday tour definitely gives you more of a feel of actual life on the campus. Weekend focus days are a more orchestrated event, where you will see far more high schoolers and their parents vs. actual students. On the other hand it can provide access to certain things you won't get on a weekday tour. All of this will be laid out on the websites.
5. I really think there's very little benefit to going to campuses during the summer or during a fall/spring break.
6. We did a scattering of Monday, Friday, or sometimes weekend trips. Only one time did we go to two schools on same trip. Doing a week-long slog of jamming multiple tours just makes the whole thing a blur. Not really enough time to consider each school.
7. Make it fun! We saw some families that looked so stressed an miserable on the tours. Make it fun and low-stakes.
8. Do some financial research now. It's cruel to visit a place that your kid might fall in love with if there is no way you can pay for it.

How do you know what 'most' schools will do? I think this is a wild assumption. I know Whitman wouldn't be pleased if you just fuked off on various college trips during sophomore and junior years. you have got to be insane

We took off time three times while at Whitman a couple of years ago. No blowback.

yeah but were you honest about why or did you have imaginary deaths in the family and illnesses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We took off time three times while at Whitman a couple of years ago. No blowback.

yeah but were you honest about why or did you have imaginary deaths in the family and illnesses?

DP, and why can't you just admit you were wrong? We're at a public in Virginia that excuses absences for college tours. My kids weren't willing to miss class their junior years to go look at colleges, but they could have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Scheduled tours all sounded the same pretty quickly. FWIW, we went for relatively intensive visits at schools DC was actually interested in and that approach seemed to work well — e.g. She had a strong preference for UW Madison over Michigan, which I wouldn’t have predicted. UCSD, despite great programs and environs, proved to be a non-starter for her.

By relatively intensive I mean visit campus but also have a meal (of the sort a student could easily afford/get to) and check out some fun thing in the area (same constraints). Encourage DC to walk around/look around/eavesdrop.

When DC was trying to choose an SCEA/ED school, she even sat in on classes (having emailed instructors in advance to ask permission).

Oh, and in at least one case, we dropped DC off for the tour and did our own thing while she saw campus. If your goal is letting DC figure out what he wants, you don’t always have to be in the mix if there’s somewhere pleasant (bookstore/museum/cafe) where you can go while he tours.

I mean, anyone who visits Madison in the late Spring to early Fall will see how amazing it is, and that is taking nothing away from Ann Arbor.

We were there in July; Madison still won.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Scheduled tours all sounded the same pretty quickly. FWIW, we went for relatively intensive visits at schools DC was actually interested in and that approach seemed to work well — e.g. She had a strong preference for UW Madison over Michigan, which I wouldn’t have predicted. UCSD, despite great programs and environs, proved to be a non-starter for her.

By relatively intensive I mean visit campus but also have a meal (of the sort a student could easily afford/get to) and check out some fun thing in the area (same constraints). Encourage DC to walk around/look around/eavesdrop.

When DC was trying to choose an SCEA/ED school, she even sat in on classes (having emailed instructors in advance to ask permission).

Oh, and in at least one case, we dropped DC off for the tour and did our own thing while she saw campus. If your goal is letting DC figure out what he wants, you don’t always have to be in the mix if there’s somewhere pleasant (bookstore/museum/cafe) where you can go while he tours.

I mean, anyone who visits Madison in the late Spring to early Fall will see how amazing it is, and that is taking nothing away from Ann Arbor.

We were there in July; Madison still won.

Oops — I now see it was a range — not two different seasons, lol!