Reply to What school dropped off the list because of your visit?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I disagree with everyone claiming visits are a waste of time. Perhaps people are saying this now...because they can’t visit? Consoling themselves?

We started out with a long list of possibilities,  and the visits really helped us narrow that down:

How did we like the trip from home?
How was the food in the dining hall?
The dorms?
The distances between things on campus?
Safety of the surrounding neighborhood?
Were there Dining/shopping options nearby?
A shuttle to the airport or shopping?
Any wow features? (We saw a farm, lakeside Field station, ice cream shop run by the Ag students, equestrian center, arboretum, waterfront)
How did the kids interact on campus?
How did they dress?
Were faculty generous with their time?

These are just some examples, but they helped my child figure out whether she would be comfortable in her new home.[/quote]

12:41 here. Thank you. For all of you claiming tours are pointless and a kid's stats alone will narrow the field, that's fine for you. Some kids want to get a sense of whether they like a campus before applying somewhere, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you have the time and the schools are in driving distance, why not go see them? My child wanted to visit the colleges before applying (it was not me pushing this) given that she had never been to a college campus, and she knows a lot of seniors who applied to schools sight unseen and are visiting now to help decide where to go. Quite a few applied to schools they say they would not have bothered with had they seen the campus first. The tours clarified things for my child and narrowed her list further (and certainly did for me when I was looking myself). The virtual tours and online experiences do not convey the scale of a campus. [/quote]

If there's some schools within a 2 hour drive of home, sure, go see them. But from the posts, clearly some people have toured the country to see a variety of schools. I'm sure they had fun, and some were probably part of a larger vacation, but the idea that everyone should strive to do the same is not only impractical, but also unnecessary. If your student needs to see the physical campus of 20 schools before they send applications, they/you do not know how to make a college list. OTOH, if you just want an excuse to tour the country, so be it, but be honest about your goal.[/quote]

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