Visiting colleges as a day trip

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah yes, the college visit — America’s favorite ritual of spending three days and several thousand dollars to walk around a campus you could have seen on Google Maps.

All to find out that Colleges All Have Grass, Libraries, And Students.

Of course, the “vibe” is what really matters. Never mind faculty, financial aid, or whether the school even offers your major. The vibe! Which is of course scientifically measured by the weather that particular day, the personality of the one tour guide, and whether you had a good night’s sleep. If it’s sunny, the school feels like a paradise of opportunity. If it’s raining, clearly the students are depressed, the administration is corrupt, and the entire school spirit is in decline.

Wow! I hope your day gets better.

I was laughing at this because it's basically true. I mean, I'll still do the college visits because....I don't really know. But this poster is basically right. I remember when I did my college visits -- I didn't do them until after admitted and then did a crazy trip where I went up and down the East Coast in a few days visiting 4 colleges I was considering. It was POURING rain and Georgetown and everyone was in a pissy mood, so that one went way down my list! (Also, I was weirded out by how everything at Georgetown was locked, which felt very fortressy to me .... one oculdn't just wander into the library without a student ID.) And the students I stayed with at Hopkins were sort of miserable -- was that representative of Hopkins generally? Maybe, or maybe they just shouldn't have volunteered to host admitted students. Luckily, the school I liked the best at the visit was also the one that gave me the best FA package.

I have heard so many kids say they didn't like a school becuase the tour guide was kind of awful. My own kid knocked out Columbia because the tour guide seemed really snobby. There probably were good reasons to knock out Columbia, but a sample of one kid out of how ever many thousands was probably not the best reason. Things like the weather make a huge difference -- if you go on one sunny day and all the kids are out on the quad playing frisbee and reading a book under a tree, it just seems like a great place to go.

Glad you enjoyed this!

We did college tours because it felt like it is parental neglect not to take the kid. Did not find them helpful, but if the kid ends up not getting admitted to schools, I wanted to avoid "you should have done college visits".

Ended up getting admitted to reach schools that we did not bother to visit. Do we really need to check out H Y P S M to see if they "vibe" with my kid? It turns out a kid can really really like a college sight unseen.

On this theme, my now-college freshman got burned out on college visits and started to feel like all the info sessions/tours/etc. sounded the same - like there was a bingo card for cheese club. So maybe don't do too many for the schools that won't end up on the app list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah yes, the college visit — America’s favorite ritual of spending three days and several thousand dollars to walk around a campus you could have seen on Google Maps.

All to find out that Colleges All Have Grass, Libraries, And Students.

Of course, the “vibe” is what really matters. Never mind faculty, financial aid, or whether the school even offers your major. The vibe! Which is of course scientifically measured by the weather that particular day, the personality of the one tour guide, and whether you had a good night’s sleep. If it’s sunny, the school feels like a paradise of opportunity. If it’s raining, clearly the students are depressed, the administration is corrupt, and the entire school spirit is in decline.

I bet you were a joy to go on college visits with. My kids and I had a blast together, regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks. My sense, based on location only, is that WVU is the only school on that list that he’s likely seriously consider. I’m thinking that he’s thinking more about Vermont, upstate NY, Maine, NH and schools in WA or Oregon but we can’t do those in a day or two.

Based on this list, I have two more local ones to look at.
https://www.frostburg.edu/stemfest/index.php
Frostburg you can swing by on the way to WVU. It’s smaller, but has some specialized STEM programs. They are having a neat STEM festival in November which would be interesting just to go to and then rack in a tour.

Try a visit to McDaniel in Westminster, MD. It’s a small private, but gives good merit (several family friends kids have gone there). They have weekend busses to Baltimore and DC for various activities and have a pretty bustling set of school clubs and sports. It’s on the CTCL (colleges that change lives) list. https://www.mcdaniel.edu/