We visited most schools spring break junior year and made a few visits senior year to the closer schools. We looked for weekday holidays but in a couple cases missed one day (which was excused absence for college visit) and she made up the work. It really wasn’t a big deal. If your kid is trying to visit a lot of out of state schools though you might want to try to visit some in the summer or wait until your child is accepted.

We found official tours while school was in session and the open houses or admitted student days to be the most useful. Apply EA wherever you can to allow more time for return visits.

The week before school started worked well for us as well as some long weekends and spring break. We found the visits very helpful.

I completely agree. it’s ridiculous. When you get to the fall some schools will offer open houses on weekends. Villanova, W & M, Virginia Tech…many more. So you can go to a few of those. Definitely see a few over the summer. It’s not ideal, but it’s when you’re free. We also went over the teacher workdays in November.
Try to get a few that are different types of schools. Then do some onine tours.
Lastly, they will have admitted student days once your child is admitted, so that’s another chance to really get to know the school and choose and by then you can miss a few days.

Plenty of time for rising junior. Be sure to visit Ohio and one other in winter. NY is dependent on location. If Cornell and NYU or other city schools are on the list, plan accordingly. New England is more central if just touring the condensed Boston proper schools. If your headed to Amherst consortium schools that’d be a full multiple day/night trip with Boston and done.

Top students can miss a couple days here and there and catch up. It’s not an issue and if it is they’re not particularly top.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Do schools that claim not to consider demonstrated interest still do this?

They're not just data mining to measure demonstrated interest. They are using data to predict who will accept admission, how much merit aid they'll have to spend to attract someone from your zip code, etc.

Yes, the PP is correct. I have worked at a T10 private, R1 public, SLAC, and T25 private. Only the SLAC used the data to measure demonstrated interest and to determine merit aid. The other schools used enrollment management data to determine yield, resource planning (e.g., which departments get more/less funding based on predicted majors, etc.), to market to demographics that reflect institutional priorities, e.g., 1st gen, etc.

Right, but doesn't yield - the likelihood of a particular applicant enrolling - affect the admission decision for that applicant?

Yes, it does. However, demonstrated interest (i.e., campus/virtual visits, meeting with admission officers/reps, email/social media engagement) is not a variable used to crunch the data using enrollment management software. My university determines yield using other data, i.e., supplemental essays, applying early action, and aspects of the application demonstrate the student really researched the university.

PP again: forgot to add the probability of students applying and enrolling at competitor schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Do schools that claim not to consider demonstrated interest still do this?

They're not just data mining to measure demonstrated interest. They are using data to predict who will accept admission, how much merit aid they'll have to spend to attract someone from your zip code, etc.

Yes, the PP is correct. I have worked at a T10 private, R1 public, SLAC, and T25 private. Only the SLAC used the data to measure demonstrated interest and to determine merit aid. The other schools used enrollment management data to determine yield, resource planning (e.g., which departments get more/less funding based on predicted majors, etc.), to market to demographics that reflect institutional priorities, e.g., 1st gen, etc.

Right, but doesn't yield - the likelihood of a particular applicant enrolling - affect the admission decision for that applicant?

Yes, it does. However, demonstrated interest (i.e., campus/virtual visits, meeting with admission officers/reps, email/social media engagement) is not a variable used to crunch the data using enrollment management software. My university determines yield using other data, i.e., supplemental essays, applying early action, and aspects of the application demonstrate the student really researched the university.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Do schools that claim not to consider demonstrated interest still do this?

They're not just data mining to measure demonstrated interest. They are using data to predict who will accept admission, how much merit aid they'll have to spend to attract someone from your zip code, etc.

Yes, the PP is correct. I have worked at a T10 private, R1 public, SLAC, and T25 private. Only the SLAC used the data to measure demonstrated interest and to determine merit aid. The other schools used enrollment management data to determine yield, resource planning (e.g., which departments get more/less funding based on predicted majors, etc.), to market to demographics that reflect institutional priorities, e.g., 1st gen, etc.

Right, but doesn't yield - the likelihood of a particular applicant enrolling - affect the admission decision for that applicant?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Do schools that claim not to consider demonstrated interest still do this?

They're not just data mining to measure demonstrated interest. They are using data to predict who will accept admission, how much merit aid they'll have to spend to attract someone from your zip code, etc.

Yes, the PP is correct. I have worked at a T10 private, R1 public, SLAC, and T25 private. Only the SLAC used the data to measure demonstrated interest and to determine merit aid. The other schools used enrollment management data to determine yield, resource planning (e.g., which departments get more/less funding based on predicted majors, etc.), to market to demographics that reflect institutional priorities, e.g., 1st gen, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Do schools that claim not to consider demonstrated interest still do this?

They're not just data mining to measure demonstrated interest. They are using data to predict who will accept admission, how much merit aid they'll have to spend to attract someone from your zip code, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Do schools that claim not to consider demonstrated interest still do this?

Also, several of the summer tours were on our own. It was helpful to see campuses in oerson and most had some students around.

I didn’t tour any colleges (other than the ones my older sibs were at). It’s not a requirement!