Gwen in VA Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 True confessions -- kid #4 is looking at colleges and I can't figure out how to schedule a visit. We don't have time! You would think that after doing the college process three times I'd know how, but apparently I don't. Kid #1 and Kid #2 mostly visited colleges during the summer, which is suboptimal but easy to schedule. Kid #3 was only interested in one school, and its spring semester goes well into June, so he visited it in June after all of his classes were done. Kid #4 is interested in all kinds of schools. We should be visiting them, but -- 1) Most of them are far away -- the nearest is a 6-hour drive, and the rest are 600-1200 miles away. 2) Her dual-enrollment classes meet every day of the week so taking a day off is tricky -- she is already missing three Friday classes because of competitions. 3) Her spring break is also the spring break of the college that is "only" a 6-hour drive away, so visiting the college that week would be like visiting it during the summer. Do most folks visit colleges during the summer? Do juniors just miss multiple days of classes to visit colleges? (That seems silly!) Or am I missing something? Words of wisdom (or humor!) are appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Gwen, I sympathize. For my next kiddo, I looked ahead about this time last year and realized that he wouldn't have a good time to visit colleges this year either. His workload is heavy, and between his local outside class and the ones he's taking on line, all of them have different spring break weeks. Given the heavy junior year workload, I also didn't see how he could have taken several days to a week off and not fallen hopelessly behind in the outside classes. As a result, we ended up visiting a few last summer, which wasn't ideal, but it was the best we could do. If one of these ends up being in the running next spring, we'll squeeze in another visit so he can assess the climate on campus when the students are there. We also squeezed in one visit this past September, when the college was in session, but our local stuff was just getting started. My son did get a few questioning looks from the admissions folks about why he was looking so "early", but what else could we do? We did meet one other mom & son at one college who were US citizens living in Europe. The son also just finished 10th grade, and they were here in the US for a summer visit and thought they better get in some college visits because they didn't know when they'd be back in the country, so there are others out there visiting "early". With my older son, we just visited during the spring break week of one of his outsourced classes (he was only taking one), and it happened to not fall on the break week of the colleges. I'm not sure what advice to give you except to suggest doing summer visits, but trying to see if the faculty she will want to meet with will be there when you visit. Since she's interested in music, will she need to make separate visits for auditions? If so, you could look around the campus at that time. Sometimes, high school seems the logistical nightmare. My son just realized that the spring performances of two of his favorite ECs are on the same date in June. Now he's got to choose which one he will do -- not a fun choice for a kid who doesn't like to disappoint anyone or miss out on performances. Sigh.... Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 It has been a few years since I did this so I am working from memory, which isn't the best right now. RIght before her junior year, she visited about five schools. We did it on a trip to Fl that we needed to do to get dd her driver['s license. It was also sort of a mini vacation trip. Then she visited none in Junior year. IN the summer before senior year, she visited two schools by plane- one with me, and one for a summer program she wanted. She later applied to both schools. Then during senior year, she was very busy with a dual enrollment class (online), co-op classes, speech and debate, a semi-professional choir, etc, etc. After she was admitted to one school in the fall, we drove (about 4 hours) and visited it in a day trip. Then in the winter, when she was taking no more dual enrollment classes, she flew to three areas. One was by herself for an overnight visit. One was with me and her sister to visit two schools about an hour and a half away. And the third was supposed to a family visit (we would sightsee while she would visit) to two other schools and that was over President's Day Weekend. We dropped one school because of a blizzard adnd just did the one plus a bit of sightseeing and also hanging out in the hotel and later in an airport. We just ended up paying the airfare for her. With next one, she is my last and it will be the easiest for me. NOthing to worry about with missing any other kid's stuff- just her appointments and mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 My daughter did a few summer visits after sophomore and junior years. She also visited two campuses early in her senior year. Those schools began in late August/early September while the local community college at which my daughter took classes did not begin until later in September. In Februray of her senior year, she attended a scholarship event at another college (she flew solo). After her applications were all in, she traveled solo (air and train) during spring break (before April 1 decisions were announced) to visit two campuses. One of those campuses she had not previously visited, the other was one where she had previously only visited during the summer. I agree that those visits can be challenging (and costly) to arrange. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Can your student go alone? So far Calvin has visited three universities: one he went to by train with friends, the second by train with his father, the third by train with me. He's going to another in a few weeks and will be going by train alone. I know that public transport is not always available, but it's worth thinking how the student might be able to go alone - Calvin is feeling good about his growing independence. He will probably miss a couple of weeks of school time over the year due to visiting universities - his school expects this. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 We're trying to figure this out with youngest now. With our homeschooled guys it was rather easy, but neither were heavy into cc (or other) outside courses and hubby works for himself, so we just took off working around the little things. It was nice. Now, youngest is in ps on block scheduling, so missing a day is supposed to be like missing two. He already took a week off this semester for a work trip to Jamaica and has/is missing other days for school related things (FBLA conference, a college visit to one he isn't going to be attending, junior shadowing, etc). I simply don't feel we can pull him out for any visits the rest of this year. So, that will leave summer or next year. We're still debating. He may even have to visit a couple after acceptances and financial packages arrive. If the colleges aren't financially do-able, then that would save us a trip (or two). Ideally, since he wants to go to school in the south (or Hawaii), I'd like to take this whole month of Feb off and look at a ton of them! If only he were still homeschooling... (sigh). As for other students... most go within 2 - 4 hours of home, so they merely take day trips (which is ok with our school). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Juniors and seniors do miss class for college visits. That is one of the "authorized" absences at the local high school. It's harder if your'e dual enrolled - feels a bit odd to tell your college professor you're going to visit other colleges! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Yes, we'll probably do one or two during spring break this year because *finally* the online classes, local classes, and my work are all off the same week, but the colleges we're thinking of are still in session. The rest will have to wait until summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Juniors and seniors do miss class for college visits. That is one of the "authorized" absences at the local high school. It's harder if your'e dual enrolled - feels a bit odd to tell your college professor you're going to visit other colleges! My son said that his community college allows a specific number of absences for visiting colleges that one might tranfer to, so it might not be as odd as you think? I thought that about asking for references until I realized that our cc tries hard to transfer their students to 4-year colleges and it isn't at all unusual to need lor's. Nan PS Gwen - I sympathize about the college visits. My son visited and interviewed last spring as a junior right after his cc semester ended and right before he flew off for the summer just because I was afraid it would be hard to fit in in the fall and I was SO glad we'd done that when fall came and he was flat out. For the others, we decided to go for the visit-if-you-get-accepted plan, which somebody here suggested and would never have occurred to me otherwise. The timing wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. The older two applied to one college and visited fall of senior year at the open house, interviewing at the same time. So the only real college visiting we did was with the middle son in 10th grade, before he started dual enrolled classes, before he had any idea what sort of college he was interested in. We visited one big, one small, etc., using nearby colleges as examples for the most part. I can't imagine managing six or seven college visits during the school year. As they get older, they are involved with so many more things, it seems like. Even just finding time to take the SAT twice was difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Thanks! I appreciate hearing that I'm not the only one to find scheduling these to be rather difficult! I hadn't thought of the fact that a CC prof might actually LIKE a kid to miss a class in order to investigate a 4-year college! Of course, dd2's MWF class is at the local 4-year college -- but when scheduling next fall, I will try to get her 4-year college classes on T/Th if possible. Teen schedules are amazingly busy! Dd2 spent a bit of time this morning learning how to use the scheduler on her iPod -- she has way too many random things in her schedule for anyone to keep track of without help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I have to say this is a struggle for us. Fortunately, we are limiting our search to a closer geographical area (5 hours maximum.) Also, ds has his college classes 4 days a week (one is an evening lab) but he has a live online class on the days he doesn't go to his college classes. We may be able to have him do visits on his online days and make sure he can find a place with wifi and privacy to participate in online discussions. But still, it is difficult. I don't know how we would do it if he was at school 5 days a week. We try to get round one of visits done during junior year so that he can go back to visit schools he is really serious about his senior year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Put kid on plane; pick up a day or two later. Colleges often have weekend events for applicants or accepted students. When my son visited one Midwestern school, he flew to Chicago and first spent the night with friends. Then he took a bus to the college, spent the night there. He took the bus back to O'Hare to return home. Most colleges only want applicants for one night. One school that was at a distance allowed my son to spend two nights on campus. We visited colleges as a family during sophomore and junior years. By senior year, this really became his mission--more than ours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readwithem Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 What if you deferred visiting till she is accepted? If she needs to audition, can she send CDs or DVDs of her performing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 My schedule isn't the problem -- it's her crazy-busy schedule that is causing us fits with this visiting thing! Since she needs merit aid, we want to show the love to each college. She will do all (except possibly for the school in Texas!) auditions in person. A strong successful audition/interview should help the merit aid cause. I want her to see some schools before then -- 1) Hopefully seeing some schools will help her eliminate one or two! 2) Getting a specific instrumental teacher excited about having her as a student would be a good thing! 2) The audition weekend will be stressful enough without it being her only trip to the school! She will need to approach her prof to see how much her missing a fourth class would bother him. And I guess we will do some visits over the summer. I am glad that I am not the only one stumped by the "how do you do college visits" question. I feel better knowing that I am not missing some obvious solution that everyone else has found! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Gwen, it's no comfort, but I think part of the reason you feel that other people don't struggle as much with this is that public school students often have Feb. and April vacations in which to visit colleges in session, where as duel enrolled students' breaks coincide with the breaks of the students at the colleges they are visiting. I can't make that not sound like a tongue twister lol. Hopefully you understand. Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 I think part of the reason you feel that other people don't struggle as much with this is that public school students often have Feb. and April vacations in which to visit colleges in session, where as duel enrolled students' breaks coincide with the breaks of the students at the colleges they are visiting. Yes. Yes. Yes! Thanks for putting that so succinctly! That would explain why more people don't have this issue... Homeschooling does have its oddities -- like the breaks of the online and dual-enrollment classes never ever line up, so I have never had a kid in high school actually get a spring break with no classes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Homeschooling does have its oddities -- like the breaks of the online and dual-enrollment classes never ever line up, so I have never had a kid in high school actually get a spring break with no classes! Yes!!! This is us, too, and I feel so badly for ds that he has no real spring break where all his classes are off.... Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in OH Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Put kid on plane; pick up a day or two later. Colleges often have weekend events for applicants or accepted students. When my son visited one Midwestern school, he flew to Chicago and first spent the night with friends. Then he took a bus to the college, spent the night there. He took the bus back to O'Hare to return home. Most colleges only want applicants for one night. One school that was at a distance allowed my son to spend two nights on campus. We visited colleges as a family during sophomore and junior years. By senior year, this really became his mission--more than ours. I agree. It is scary to do this the first time, but you'll be able to arm your dc with an itinerary, pre-paid shuttle reservation, loaded debit card, etc. I have one dd doing this right now, and I received a funny call yesterday when she was looking for the airport shuttle desk in Houston. She called to ask me where it was? :confused1: No idea. Never been there! She figured it out. :coolgleamA: We also did not visit the distant or inconvenient colleges until dd's had already applied. Too much $$ for that early in the decision making process. In the early high school years, we only visited schools that were close, on our way to somewhere else, and/ or inexpensive to visit. These schools served to give dd's a basis for comparison when they were seriously looking at schools during their senior year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 I've only done this with one so far. One school is up in the mountains, 4 hours or so away. We went the week before Thanksgiving. We take that week off anyway and she wasn't taking CC classes at the time. The college was in session so it was easy. The other 2 schools we visited are local so we went on a day she didn't have cc classes and I just gave her the day off home classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 My daughter did a few summer visits after sophomore and junior years. She also visited two campuses early in her senior year. Those schools began in late August/early September while the local community college at which my daughter took classes did not begin until later in September. In Februray of her senior year, she attended a scholarship event at another college (she flew solo). After her applications were all in, she traveled solo (air and train) during spring break (before April 1 decisions were announced) to visit two campuses. One of those campuses she had not previously visited, the other was one where she had previously only visited during the summer. I agree that those visits can be challenging (and costly) to arrange. Regards, Kareni My daughter wants to go to school overseas (today). I'm not flying there for visits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Have to share a story of oldest's years ago. She spoke to her theory prof to tell him that she was going to have to miss Friday's class and sight-singing lab for All-State Orchestra. "Why are you going to a HIGH SCHOOL orchestra????" Well, I'm only a sophomore in high school--I thought you knew that." He didn't. That is so funny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 My daughter wants to go to school overseas (today). I'm not flying there for visits. Some things require a leap of faith. Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 My daughter wants to go to school overseas (today). I'm not flying there for visits. TranquilMind, does overseas possibly include Europe? Are there any schools in Europe that she is interested in? Maybe we (or another board member) have made the campus visit, and could share some info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbeth Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I relate. Luckily my dd's spring break for dual enrollment classes is unique to those schools that she plans to visit regionally, so we are using that week. Our local community breaks for a major sporting event but schools elsewhere in our region break several weeks earlier, so we'll be using our spring break week to do a 4 day winding road trip and visit several schools she is strongly interested in that are mostly 4-6 hours away. She doesn't want to be more than 1 day's drive away at this point so nothing is terribly far. Two that are a bit further away (8ish hours) are not her top choices. We plan to delay those visits until next year if she is accepted and receives such a great package that it tips the scale in their favor. Next year she plans to have an even fuller schedule with dual-enrollment though so I am somewhat concerned that those last minute visits could get dicey. FWIW our local public schools give juniors/seniors 5 days of excused absences to use for college visitation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TranquilMind Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 TranquilMind, does overseas possibly include Europe? Are there any schools in Europe that she is interested in? Maybe we (or another board member) have made the campus visit, and could share some info. Yes, Europe, but not sure which schools yet. Thanks for the reminder. I will certainly ask when I know! She wants to focus on this in the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Yes, Europe, but not sure which schools yet. Thanks for the reminder. I will certainly ask when I know! She wants to focus on this in the summer. Yes, ask here too if she's interested in the UK. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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