We did a combination of summer visits and virtual sessions. Did mot visit a few (like Northwestern) because just too far. Did that and revisited others after acceptances when 2nd semester senior work was not as intense or crucial.

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine these schools have the IT means to track interest via URL clicks and emails clicks. There's just no way, that would be a massive data mining experience.

They do.

Anonymous wrote:Spring break junior year
Summer before senior year
Some schools he applied to without seeing and figured if he got in and was interested we’d visit then

This is pretty typical

+1

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, as the veteran of 3 kids visiting colleges:
The junior tours are mostly helpful in getting a feel for a TYPE of college (small vs big, rural vs urban etc) rather than learning much about a specific school that you can't learn any other way. You can do that in a few tours during spring break, or even fairly locally. Once the acceptances roll in, your child can skip a few days or school and take some long weekends to visit the top few choices.

As the parent of a rising senior, this is how we approached last year. We used fall holidays to visit nearby school (not always with an offical tour) to get a sense of scale and location then used Spring Break for a more curated tour farther away. DC only missed 1 half day.

There are a few long weekends in the fall we plan to use while at the same time DC will be applying to schools, after acceptances come in, we'll use the spring to do even more visits.

What I've learned is that for so many kids it's not a linear process.

We really felt the crunch because most colleges didn’t start opening up tours until June last summer due to COVID and my kid plays a fall sport that started practice mid August. The way we did it is we prioritized the colleges where our child had the best chance between early action, acceptance rate and merit/cost that were the furthest distance and made that the focus of the summer visits. If there was more of a high reach school, we would tack it on, but wouldn’t make a trip just to see that one school.

The focus on safety/targets/financial safeties was helpful because my kid was able to eliminate some of the safeties and targets based on those visits. You don’t want to have safeties/targets that you wouldn’t actually want to attend if your don’t get in or the money doesn’t come through for the other places. We weren’t in a financial situation to ED situation but if we were, I would research and try to figure out which school on the list offers the best ED chance and prioritize that visit and then safety/targets. For the closer colleges, we went during teacher workdays or half days, Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day, and weekend open houses (which seemed to be more common with the state schools). As a pp mentioned, those registration dates fill up fast so don’t sleep on signing up.

We took one trip during the summer to “walk through” different colleges to get a feel for what DC was looking for in terms of size, location, etc.

We then took another summer trip for several “official” tours.

DC took one day off from school to do an official tour of the school to which he thought he wanted to apply ED. With covid restrictions, I found that the tour of the school in the fall wasn’t really all that different from the summer tours. Just more students around playing frisbee, but it’s easy enough to visualize that at the other schools.

One thing we also did that can really give you a feel for the campus is go to some sporting events — we went to some weekend football and basketball games & that was really the most interesting in terms of seeing students & the campus “in action.”

Anonymous wrote:We took advantage of the Friday before Labor Day being off (FCPS) and went out of town Wednesday night, skipped Thursday school to do 3 tours over Thurs and Fri. With the holiday weekend there were no Saturday tours available, but kid didn't miss much at school that early in the semester.

The rest we did in summer bc Covid prevented Junior year spring break tours (were only available for admitted seniors at that point). I was originally opposed to summer tours, but it worked out well for us in the end.

FCPS has 4 out of 6 Mondays off this fall. I know it is a little late if you wanted apps to be in early, but you could definitely take advantage of that.

Also monitor the tour sites frequently, bc they do "sell out" and at some places (like Michigan for us) it happens quickly.

This. There are many days off you can still tour. Not to mention, most kids who gets good grades will still get good grades missing a day, or days, here or there. Don't let your stress get to your child who is probably already stressed out about college apps!

We are touring only the colleges that track demonstrated interest. Looking at the virtual tours of those that don’t consider interest. After we find out where DD gets in, we will tour those schools.

With my first child, we toured almost all up front. It was helpful but I think this approach will also work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine these schools have the IT means to track interest via URL clicks and emails clicks. There's just no way, that would be a massive data mining experience.

They hire outside consultants to do this for them. Enrollment management is a $15 billion/year industry.

+1, I attend two enrollment management presentations each school year as a professor at a R1 university.

I'd avoid summer visits unless they are having an actual open house. We went to one last summer and it was just meh. Very few students on campus and just the tour guide and admissions rep. By senior year, your kid should have their s*&t together enough to miss a few days of school to visit schools.

Look for open house events in the Fall. We did a few of those with DD last Fall when she was a junior. They were weekend events so she didn't have to miss school and were helpful to see more from specific academic departments rather that just the general tour/info session.

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine these schools have the IT means to track interest via URL clicks and emails clicks. There's just no way, that would be a massive data mining experience.

They hire outside consultants to do this for them. Enrollment management is a $15 billion/year industry.

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine these schools have the IT means to track interest via URL clicks and emails clicks. There's just no way, that would be a massive data mining experience.

Yes, it is a big data mining process but they all do it. There are tools specifically for that just like any organization with a big direct marketing function uses.

I can't imagine these schools have the IT means to track interest via URL clicks and emails clicks. There's just no way, that would be a massive data mining experience.

Anonymous wrote:Do not try to visit the entire list of schools. You will need to choose, in consideration of limited time. I would focus on visiting matches and a safety, and put reaches on hold until spring of senior year (then visit only if she gets in).

Exception, any school where ED might be on the table - a top choice - try to visit if possible before applying ED.

I agree. My rising senior has only visited 5 out of the 10 schools he is applying to. We might get to 2 more this fall. The others will have to wait if he gets in and gets enough FA. Then he can go to their accepted student day next winter/spring.