We visited 11 - son applied to 13 schools including 9 that we visited. Attending one that he never saw in person.

We've done 10 visits, spaced out throughout junior year, from late August - April, plus some virtual open houses. All the top choices have been visited. We'll probably visit one or two more schools in the fall, but otherwise will wait for acceptances and then dc will decide where to do revisits and admitted students' days.

We visited about 20 schools, starting in sophomore year. Combined visits with tournaments for DC’s sport. Visited top choice school twice before turning in ED application.

Officially, we only visited one school. It was one of DCs top choices and the only one that indicated it considered DI.

Unofficially, we made day or long weekend trips to self tour around 8 others.

Anonymous wrote:DC is a junior and we are planning to visit some colleges over spring break. We are trying to visit the ones they are most interested in/ have the stats for, but it feels like they keep adding to the list every day. One friend's advice was not to visit any college before they get accepted, but I feel that is a bit too extreme.
What is a good happy medium of how many colleges to visit before applying?

We toured 6 the spring/summer before senior year.

7 in total. DS applied to 5 of the 7 visited, and got into 3 out of the 5 applied to. 2 of those schools he did visit did consider "demonstrated interest" and he got into both (a safety and a reach).

DS also got into 9 other colleges he never visited. Of those 9, 2 did consider demonstrated interest, which he satisfied by virtual events and attending the school rep meeting.

S23 visited 13, D26 visited 12. Several trips were built into family vacations- we took an extra day to do tours. Also did weeklong visits where we did 1-2 schools per day and drove all over. There were some schools that looked perfect on paper, and that gave us fantastic merit aid, but in person just weren’t a good fit. If you have the time and money to visit, highly recommended it.

Anonymous wrote:As many was possible when out and about including a few vacation time ones

+1

It was really helpful in building the final list.

Only one. Then I realized we should only visit the ones that accepted my kid, offered a big scholarship. That saved a lot of wasted trips.

As many was possible when out and about including a few vacation time ones

OP, I bet we visited 6. Two she applied to, then added eight she had never seen. Got into seven. Her favorite, which she attended and liked very much was one she had not seen until she was admitted. It is, btw, sooo nice to take campus tours once you know you're already admitted, the experience is far superior.

OP, the journey, is very different for every family. Do what feels right for *your* family.

DD had one particular college on her list that was way more expensive, a real outliner re: cost. She actually said to us that she did not want to see any college that we couldn't afford. So, we didn't. She got in, she got a big merit aid award but we all knew it was still out of reach. So, she never saw it and declined that admission. Another kid might have wanted to handle the decision in another way. Another family might have wanted to handle the decision in another way.

Taking my sophomore to see two in a few weeks then another in June when we will be traveling near what could be a top choice. More for size than specific targets, though they could work. He has seen a few for our reunions, etc.

I'm expecting we will end up doing 15 or so, though spread out and some as parts of other travel. He is excited about it.

We visited 8, and she ruled out 2 of them.

We visited 9 before she applied SCEA

None! But he did visit some two-3 years ago with his sister. He wanted to apply 1st and then visit?