Is it too early to do a college visit as a freshman?

[Anonymous]

I'd do the tour.

I pushed my younger two kids (8th & 10th gr) to take a college tour this summer when we dropped their sibling at school. I presented it as a way to get to know the school that their brother attends and have a feel for the campus. They were both reluctant, but the both LOVED the tour and the school by the end. I have no idea why they were so reluctant to go in the first place, but it really piqued both of the interests in college generally and what goes on at a college campus.

[Anonymous]

I think no issue touring IF you are there in town anyways. We went in 8th and 9th only because we were in town e.g. saw Northwestern because we were in Chicago for a wedding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD had a wonderful college counselor at her NYC private school. She discouraged this and stressing the kid out prematurely.

She said 10 th grade visits were fine if you were nearby. Yes, we made easily 16 school visits before, during, and after 11 th grade. Yes, I would have liked to have had the time/energy for two more states.

She applied to 9. Got in to 7.

Tell me how you did this.

NP

Probably applied to 3 safeties, 3 matches, and 3 reach schools. In this case, 7 out of 9 is a reasonable result.

I meant how the PP made 16 college visits during junior yr through application time. It seems like it would be a bummer to commit every school break and a large chunk of the summer junior yr on to be orientated around college visits. But unless you start before junior year, I just don’t see how you can get to several colleges in spread out locations otherwise

DP. Most people do not visit 16 colleges - that is unusually high.

That got me thinking about our oldest who is currently a college sophomore. We put on a lot of miles, starting summer before 10th grade
WL, VT, JMU-informal
UVA, WM-formal
GW-formal
Duke, WF-informal
UMD-formal
Drexel-informal
Swat, Penn, Lehigh, Pitt-formal
Oberlin-informal
CWRU-Formal
Yale-Formal
MIT, Harvard-Informal
BU, NEU-Formal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think no issue touring IF you are there in town anyways. We went in 8th and 9th only because we were in town e.g. saw Northwestern because we were in Chicago for a wedding.

This is the way to do it, especially if your finances or work schedule won't allow for constant traveling junior year. To the other PP, it's ridiculous to think an 8th grader can't form opinions. Give your kids some credit!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD had a wonderful college counselor at her NYC private school. She discouraged this and stressing the kid out prematurely.

She said 10 th grade visits were fine if you were nearby. Yes, we made easily 16 school visits before, during, and after 11 th grade. Yes, I would have liked to have had the time/energy for two more states.

She applied to 9. Got in to 7.

Tell me how you did this.

NP

Probably applied to 3 safeties, 3 matches, and 3 reach schools. In this case, 7 out of 9 is a reasonable result.

I meant how the PP made 16 college visits during junior yr through application time. It seems like it would be a bummer to commit every school break and a large chunk of the summer junior yr on to be orientated around college visits. But unless you start before junior year, I just don’t see how you can get to several colleges in spread out locations otherwise

DP. Most people do not visit 16 colleges - that is unusually high.

That got me thinking about our oldest who is currently a college sophomore. We put on a lot of miles, starting summer before 10th grade
WL, VT, JMU-informal
UVA, WM-formal
GW-formal
Duke, WF-informal
UMD-formal
Drexel-informal
Swat, Penn, Lehigh, Pitt-formal
Oberlin-informal
CWRU-Formal
Yale-Formal
MIT, Harvard-Informal
BU, NEU-Formal

I'm always curious about students who are interested in such disparate schools as JMU and Harvard. You really needed a visit to determine which to apply to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college tour guide and we occasionally had middle schoolers on our tours. We're used to it.

Official ones?

Yes, I was employed by the admissions Office. The majority of kids were Juniors or Seniors but we had Freshman sometimes and a handful of 8th graders come through. We'd ask the kids to introduce themselves so we could tailor our tours to the groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college tour guide and we occasionally had middle schoolers on our tours. We're used to it.

Official ones?

Yes, I was employed by the admissions Office. The majority of kids were Juniors or Seniors but we had Freshman sometimes and a handful of 8th graders come through. We'd ask the kids to introduce themselves so we could tailor our tours to the groups.

Interesting. What kind of reaction did those students get? From you, from the other parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college tour guide and we occasionally had middle schoolers on our tours. We're used to it.

Official ones?

Yes, I was employed by the admissions Office. The majority of kids were Juniors or Seniors but we had Freshman sometimes and a handful of 8th graders come through. We'd ask the kids to introduce themselves so we could tailor our tours to the groups.

Interesting. What kind of reaction did those students get? From you, from the other parents?

No reaction. We were always friendly to our groups and I never noticed a parent or kid reacting to another kid. Frankly, I think it would have inappropriate for another parent or potential student to make any comments and we would have shut that down.

We had some pushy parents but the kids were never rude to us. I completely lost track of how many tours I gave but at least 100. I can still do my intro spiel from memory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college tour guide and we occasionally had middle schoolers on our tours. We're used to it.

Official ones?

Yes, I was employed by the admissions Office. The majority of kids were Juniors or Seniors but we had Freshman sometimes and a handful of 8th graders come through. We'd ask the kids to introduce themselves so we could tailor our tours to the groups.

Interesting. What kind of reaction did those students get? From you, from the other parents?

No reaction. We were always friendly to our groups and I never noticed a parent or kid reacting to another kid. Frankly, I think it would have inappropriate for another parent or potential student to make any comments and we would have shut that down.

We had some pushy parents but the kids were never rude to us. I completely lost track of how many tours I gave but at least 100. I can still do my intro spiel from memory.

Really helpful, thanks. I have a 7th grader who's pushing to visit some colleges next summer. It feels silly to me, but maybe we've cave and try one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD had a wonderful college counselor at her NYC private school. She discouraged this and stressing the kid out prematurely.

She said 10 th grade visits were fine if you were nearby. Yes, we made easily 16 school visits before, during, and after 11 th grade. Yes, I would have liked to have had the time/energy for two more states.

She applied to 9. Got in to 7.

Tell me how you did this.

NP

Probably applied to 3 safeties, 3 matches, and 3 reach schools. In this case, 7 out of 9 is a reasonable result.

I meant how the PP made 16 college visits during junior yr through application time. It seems like it would be a bummer to commit every school break and a large chunk of the summer junior yr on to be orientated around college visits. But unless you start before junior year, I just don’t see how you can get to several colleges in spread out locations otherwise

DP. Most people do not visit 16 colleges - that is unusually high.

That got me thinking about our oldest who is currently a college sophomore. We put on a lot of miles, starting summer before 10th grade
WL, VT, JMU-informal
UVA, WM-formal
GW-formal
Duke, WF-informal
UMD-formal
Drexel-informal
Swat, Penn, Lehigh, Pitt-formal
Oberlin-informal
CWRU-Formal
Yale-Formal
MIT, Harvard-Informal
BU, NEU-Formal

I'm always curious about students who are interested in such disparate schools as JMU and Harvard. You really needed a visit to determine which to apply to?

Visited all kinds. Small, large, in-state, OOS, selective, private, public. Don't know, what you don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD had a wonderful college counselor at her NYC private school. She discouraged this and stressing the kid out prematurely.

She said 10 th grade visits were fine if you were nearby. Yes, we made easily 16 school visits before, during, and after 11 th grade. Yes, I would have liked to have had the time/energy for two more states.

She applied to 9. Got in to 7.

Tell me how you did this.

NP

Probably applied to 3 safeties, 3 matches, and 3 reach schools. In this case, 7 out of 9 is a reasonable result.

I meant how the PP made 16 college visits during junior yr through application time. It seems like it would be a bummer to commit every school break and a large chunk of the summer junior yr on to be orientated around college visits. But unless you start before junior year, I just don’t see how you can get to several colleges in spread out locations otherwise

DP. Most people do not visit 16 colleges - that is unusually high.

That got me thinking about our oldest who is currently a college sophomore. We put on a lot of miles, starting summer before 10th grade
WL, VT, JMU-informal
UVA, WM-formal
GW-formal
Duke, WF-informal
UMD-formal
Drexel-informal
Swat, Penn, Lehigh, Pitt-formal
Oberlin-informal
CWRU-Formal
Yale-Formal
MIT, Harvard-Informal
BU, NEU-Formal

I'm always curious about students who are interested in such disparate schools as JMU and Harvard. You really needed a visit to determine which to apply to?

Visited all kinds. Small, large, in-state, OOS, selective, private, public. Don't know, what you don't know.

Sure, but you can tell which kids are headed to JMU vs. Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a college tour guide and we occasionally had middle schoolers on our tours. We're used to it.

Official ones?

Yes, I was employed by the admissions Office. The majority of kids were Juniors or Seniors but we had Freshman sometimes and a handful of 8th graders come through. We'd ask the kids to introduce themselves so we could tailor our tours to the groups.

Interesting. What kind of reaction did those students get? From you, from the other parents?

No reaction. We were always friendly to our groups and I never noticed a parent or kid reacting to another kid. Frankly, I think it would have inappropriate for another parent or potential student to make any comments and we would have shut that down.

We had some pushy parents but the kids were never rude to us. I completely lost track of how many tours I gave but at least 100. I can still do my intro spiel from memory.

Really helpful, thanks. I have a 7th grader who's pushing to visit some colleges next summer. It feels silly to me, but maybe we've cave and try one.

Same former tour guide. It might feel a little silly but it also might be a sort of aspiration/motivation thing.

My job was to be welcoming, friendly, and informative and I'm sure that's likely to be the case everywhere else. We were taught to gently deflect on some things (most commonly people trying to quiz us if their kids' stats would get them in). A few of my tour guide colleagues actually went on to be admissions officers.

[Anonymous]

This is a very personal question. You know your kid best. Some kids will love it because they’re excited about it. Other kids will think that you are already putting pressure on them way too early. This is something you have to answer for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Sure. Go on the campus tour if you want. But your kid will not be in the right frame of mind to do anything with the info. So treat it as part of a vacay stop but not as a “tour”.