When to start college visits?

[Chanley]

I have seen on other threads that the best time is the spring of Junior year. However, my kid who is headed into the 11th grade has a pretty packed competition schedule in the spring. So I am thinking we need to start college visits perhaps a little earlier. This whole process makes me want to hyperventilate. In my head, I keep saying , we have 2 more years to enjoy her at home. But then the reality of needing to start planning college visits makes all of this feel so eminent. 

 

This kid wants to go out of state, there are no colleges in the state that have what she wants. I have looked at them and I agree, she would be hard pressed to check off her wishlist with what is available to us. So that means we are going to have to travel to visit schools. I want her to spend next summer writing application essays. 

 

Is fall of Junior year too early?  Do I need to travel with her? I know this is crazy, but she spent her summer traveling alone and visited a few campuses of schools that she has no attention of applying to, but they were nearby so she dropped by and looked around the mostly empty summer campuses at a few schools. There is a possibility she will be traveling to visit friends this fall near-ish a school at the top of her list. Should I make it a point to travel there too? 

 

Should I try to schedule tours and meet with counselors while we are there? How involved should I be with this? 

 

I remember reading all of the "caring for your newborn" books while I was pregnant.  But when I brought home my first child, it was like everything I read was forgotten and I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. I have been reading these forums for years and as we approach the point where I need to act upon information that I have been reading about, once again, I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. 

[Julie of KY]

My oldest started in the spring of JR year and through the summer. He did not feel like this was enough time.

 

My second started loosely in Sophomore year with the intention to look more seriously JR year.

 

I traveled everywhere with my boys. I wanted to have some input and I look at things from a different perspective. I also wanted to see places as I'd be paying for the bulk of education.

 

Definitely if you are going to be close to a school she's interested in, then I'd make a point to go visit. I'd schedule tours/meeting with professor at top schools. If she finds that it is not helpful then you can stop doing so at future schools. 

 

You don't have to visit everywhere now. She can apply to some sight unseen and then visit in SR year only if accepted and financial aid is good. There are a lot of paths to get it all done and everyone does it differently.

[GailV]

You can start as early as you want.  Some people take years to get through all the different regions.  Some people don't do any visits at all, and are happy with where they end up.

 

Dd will be auditioning into programs and has decided not to visit anyplace until she's accepted since she doesn't want to get too excited about a place and then get dinged (except she spent last week hanging out in NYC around Tisch, and has decided it's the center of the universe, so there goes that plan  :001_rolleyes: ).

 

I would like to be at the "important" visits so I can check things out, too.  It's also nice to help debrief afterwards, and perhaps remind your kid to jot down impressions while they're fresh/before they all run together.  Some people like to visit types of school just to get a feel for things before making a final list -- urban vs. small town, big vs. small -- those general visits I would probably be okay having my child do on her own. 

 

Older dd did all sorts of tours -- the big cattle calls marching hundreds of students through campus, the small focussed tours with lots of personal attention, the weekend "fun" tour with other high school kids staying in dorms.  I think one of the most helpful was a personalized tour where she spent a lot of time talking to professors; she ended up deciding against the school, but the conversations helped her focus on what she really wanted.  

[GoVanGogh]

We started in ninth grade.

I know of one book that says to start in middle school, esp if you have a relecutant learner, so that they can buy into the idea of college and know what they are working toward.

[Milknhoney]

I work in a college admissions office. We meet with prospective students at a wide range of grade levels. I'd say this summer is really when we started to see more fall 2018 students than fall 2017 students. This fall wouldn't be too soon if you are looking at fall 2019, but neither would next summer or even later be too late. As Julie said, you can still apply for admission early and make your visit later. Many families do this, because let's face it, college visits are expensive, so they want to wait until they've narrowed it down to their top choices before making visits. 

 

99% of the time, families accompany their student on the visit. You probably have a better grip on what to ask... and the assertiveness to ask. Not to mention you would make observations that your daughter might not, or have a different perspective. But it also depends on how much say you want to have in the final decision on where she goes.

 

Also, it depends on how easy it is for your daughter to travel by herself. At my university, we're two hours from the nearest major airport and don't really have public transportation. So traveling here alone is a bit of an ordeal. But if that's not the case at the school your daughter will be visiting near, and you feel comfortable letting her, then why not? Contact the admissions office and ask if they will let her stay overnight in the dorms. 

 

Also, many universities host information meetings in metropolitan areas where they tend to draw students from. I recommend making sure your daughter is on the mailing list for all the schools that she is interested in, and then she will be notified if any of them are going to be in your area. That might be a way to get information, meet with someone, and possibly rule some places out without the time and expense of a campus visit.

[catz]

We started last week and I have an incoming junior.  He's interested in programs that require auditions so I feel we need to be a little extra on top of it and be narrowing pretty early.  Although, I suspect he will be applying to some programs that we won't visit unless he gets invited to audition. 

[justasque]

Start now.  There's no reason to wait, esp as your spring will be busy.

It's much easier to have a short list come fall, rather than applying to a zillion schools because you haven't really narrowed it down at all yet.

I would go with her in general, but if friends are going I would encourage her to tag along; you can both go together later if the school gets on the short list.

I would also drag a friend or two along with you when you do car trips, partly 'cause I like to help out friends, but also because it's good to have the conversation on the way home about what looked good and what didn't, and get input from others (with the understanding that they won't be looking for the same thing.)
Special visiting days when they are having financial aid seminars, panels of students, and other sessions can be more useful than regular tour + info session days, so keep an eye out for them, but don't obsess over it. 

Once she has applied, if there are several schools still on the list, going to Accepted Students Day can be a good opportunity to get a second, often deeper look at each school.

 

[g1234]

We started sophomore year, which was earlier than any of her friends but such a good choice for her.  It demystified the process and let her start mulling her choices in a relaxed way.  Since she makes big decisions slowly, stating early actually reduced stress and has let her spend a few years honing her idea of what she's looking for, based on having had a couple of years already of slowly visiting various kinds of schools.  We didn't spend a lot of extra money, but rather visited places when we were already traveling, and places we could drive to.  Big, small, private, public, liberal arts, technical, selective, not selective....visiting a place she later decided she definitely did not want to go to was as valuable as visiting places she ended up loving.

[gstharr]

It is never too early. The new 7th grader has taken classes, attended seminar and sporting events on many campuses. When we travel, we try to visit the top school in the area.  It is just walking around the campus, but it gives us something to talk about.