We did a few in the spring of sophomore year, but they weren’t part of travel planned for the purpose of doing tours. Life took us to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and upstate NY that year, so we looked at some colleges while we were on the road.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is too early if done in a way that is relaxing and fun. We went on vacation back East during the summer between our son's sophomore and junior year and toured 3 schools in Massachusetts.

It directed his attention to the kind of school he wanted and the requirements for getting into them. After seeing the schools, he was even more academically focused during his junior year. By the time senior year came around, he had a clear sense of the schools that were good fits for him.

+1. DS wasn’t that interested, but we made a combined vacation/college visit trip in 10th grade. DS had previously been only focused on a single school in a way we didn’t think was the best. This opened up his ideas of what is possible and what he would like.

DD is hoping to be recruited for athletics, so we started casual admissions visits the summer before high school to get a feel for distance/college town atmosphere, campus size and programs of interest. Have continued doing this, but now including the athletic component.

If it’s doable and if you happen to be in the area, some tours of nearby campuses can be time well spent. College is usually our kids’ home for 4 years. Fit is important and some early casual visits can get them thinking about what they want/prefer.

Anonymous wrote:We booked tours when my kid was in 10th grade, if we happened to be in the area for something else. To give my kid a feel for small v big, rural v. Urban, public v private, etc. it helped narrow things down when we took college-specific trips junior/senior year.

Same. Cost nothing and was a good investment of a few hours time.

We did one tour in spring of 10th grade and now, DD is a senior and says she barely remembers it and it was too early. She won't be applying there.

We had the opportunity to visit college campuses in 9th and 10th grade due to travel for a sport so we took the opportunity to see a bunch of different types of schools. Some we scheduled a tour and others we toured ourselves. We saw 12 schools and 2 of them are now on our kids list to apply to. But it did help narrow down type of school

Had casually visited some campuses in 9th, but did first “official” visits spring break of 10th. Turned out to be very helpful because DC really liked a couple of the schools, which provided some motivation for test prep summer before junior year.

Really started the summer between sophomore and junior year.

It wasn't really "just" to see the campuses, though. Our rising junior went to a number of sports camps and showcases during the summer, and we piggybacked on those to visit nearby colleges campuses that seemed interesting.

We brought my 8th grade DD along last spring and she was almost more into it than 11th grade DS. DD is exponentially more focused on college than DS was at that age. I’m sure it will help a lot when it’s her time, since she’ll have an idea about how schools can vary and what she likes and dislikes.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is too early if done in a way that is relaxing and fun. We went on vacation back East during the summer between our son's sophomore and junior year and toured 3 schools in Massachusetts.

It directed his attention to the kind of school he wanted and the requirements for getting into them. After seeing the schools, he was even more academically focused during his junior year. By the time senior year came around, he had a clear sense of the schools that were good fits for him.

Agree with all of this. If your child is interested in attending school in a different area of the country, it is worthwhile to go see the schools whenever you can fit it into your schedule.

I don't think it is too early if done in a way that is relaxing and fun. We went on vacation back East during the summer between our son's sophomore and junior year and toured 3 schools in Massachusetts.

It directed his attention to the kind of school he wanted and the requirements for getting into them. After seeing the schools, he was even more academically focused during his junior year. By the time senior year came around, he had a clear sense of the schools that were good fits for him.

We found fun reasons (football, museum, play) to get DD on a few different style campuses early (large, small, city, rural) just so she could be exposed to the variety out there. She only applied to one of those, but going into her college search she had a feel for the physical environment she was looking for when trying to identify the academic environment.

Definitely not necessary, but maybe it was worthwhile.

We booked tours when my kid was in 10th grade, if we happened to be in the area for something else. To give my kid a feel for small v big, rural v. Urban, public v private, etc. it helped narrow things down when we took college-specific trips junior/senior year.

We went on two tours with our sophomore of a couple schools that we could see within driving distance over a long weekend, including one big city campus and one in a smaller town with a land grant school. We were very transparent that we did not expect any sort of decision from them about whether they wanted to attend either school. It was just a low stakes way to help start to think about what sort of place they might prefer living and learning for 4 years. We kicked it into higher gear during junior year (7 more schools), when I do think it’s important to get some college visits done. By the summer before senior year, when offered an additional opportunity to tour, they declined saying they felt like they’ve seen enough schools and knew which ones they wanted to apply for, including ones they hadn’t visit yet. It feels good to head into the fall with no pressure to tour and allowing our kid to spend their limited extra weekend time to complete applications. We fully expect that we still might need to visit or revisit schools next spring once we know where they get admitted.