Visiting colleges, yes or no

[Anonymous]

Adding to the chorus of, "make the time." Experience from 20 years ago isn't relevant now. Check out some different types of schools. Use long weekends and be flexible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone has busy lives, you aren't unique. Make some time to visit some colleges.

This. We prioritized it because it is important. It’s hard to believe that you can’t set aside a couple of weekends at least. We combined visits with a spring break trip, went on school holidays, etc.

[Anonymous]

While you may have experience with different schools, this is about your DC, not you. Your DC should be able to see schools, talk with students, see dorms, and eat there to see how they feel about the school. I’d make time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A downside to waiting for admitted student days is that it is even harder to find time to fit those in at the end of senior year.

And they may be on the same day in different states. April gets pretty crowded.

[Anonymous]

We did one school over MLK weekend, another over President's Day weekend, and five schools over spring break (southern road trip). Why can't at least one parent take your child on a few weekend visits over the next year? Many schools have Saturday tours.

[Anonymous]

It would be so easy to take a weekend in Philly - visit some of the following: Drexel, temple, Haverford, Villanova, St Joes, U Del. This will give your kid an idea of many different kinds of schools, which should be helpful in making your list.

[Anonymous]

We visited all 11 schools DD ultimately applied to. I think it’s really important. Especially if there is any thought of ED, you want to make sure you take in all available information before making that call.

[Anonymous]

Make the time OP. Spring Break '25 isn't on the beach or Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great, thank you for all the replies. I think I am good now with not officially visiting any schools unless we happen to be in there. And I like the idea of visiting schools nearby, a large state school, a mid size private, and a liberal arts college.

The issue with waiting until a kid is accepted before you visit is that you'll then potentially be cramming in visits to several colleges during the relatively short window between acceptance and having to commit to one place.

I've also posted this before on this forum, but for us, we narrowed the list quickly at the start, since DD knew she didn't want to go to a gigantic university (we did visit, both formally and informally, one huge state flagship, as due diligence) and she knew the major she wanted. At the start of her senior year we drove to tour two colleges of interest, and after poking around online to see what else was in the area, added another one that wasn't even on the radar but had a good program in her desired major. It was really just a place to spend the day en route to full-day, big-deal, show-off events for prospective applicants at the other two colleges. Guess where she ended up going? The "just stopping by" college! I think it made a huge difference that she emailed the two departments of the most interest to her, before we traveled, and both departments immediately asked her to come by and see them--one department head even asked if she wanted to attend his class; she did, and afterward he gave her a tour of the department and asked her all about herself. If we'd stuck only to the agenda we would not have visited there.

That's just our experience of course but I think visits are key. I get that they're not doable if a student wants to apply to a large number of colleges of all sizes, etc. which our DD did not.

We also visited two colleges in another region and seeing one of them in person, which had seemed ideal on paper, caused her to knock it off the list before trying to apply. Saved her having to apply there, and the application asked for a lot (for her specific major program).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We visited all 11 schools DD ultimately applied to. I think it’s really important. Especially if there is any thought of ED, you want to make sure you take in all available information before making that call.

+1

And ED or no ED, the available information includes things like what the dorms are like inside, what the surrounding town or city is like, how well maintained the campus seems to be, and many intangibles as well. Students will be living in these places for four years; they're choosing a home, in effect, and seeing whether it's too rural, too urban, no nightlife, too much nightlife, run down, well-kept, etc. --all affect day to day living. It's so easy for parents to forget that this a kid's home for what is a large chunk of a young life. Seeing it first-hand does provide information which might affect the student's happiness, and yes, how happy they are does affect how well they'll do there.