Advice on scheduling out-of-town college visits

[Grantmom]

My advice to my former self would be to start making college visits earlier.  I started thinking about it early, and most people around me discouraged me, saying it's far too early to think about college.  Now it's spring of junior year, and we are so busy and I don't have any idea how I am going to work college visits in.  I really wanted to visit while classes were in session.  There are three colleges very close to each other that we could visit all at once, so I am thinking that we could fly there and visit them.  However, I am trying to imagine how to hit all three colleges in one trip.  It seems like you need a full day for one college.  Also, I thought about visiting some over the summer, but again, how do you recommend scheduling them?  It almost seems like you need a full day per college.

 

Any advice on bundling these visits, either on a road trip or by air?   I guess I was hoping that making these visits would give DS something more tangible to work towards.  Any advice is appreciated!  Thanks!

[Starr]

I would post this on the college board so more people can see it.  We drove to all of our visits. I'm sure you will get some good advice.

[GoodGrief]

Three in a day would be too much, for sure.

 

You could possibly do two in a day, if they are in the same town and the scheduling worked out (you are somewhat at the mercy of those who schedule tours at the school.)

[8filltheheart]

My advice for college visits is to really spend time pre-planning the visit to the school. Don't just sign up for a tour. Have your student contact professors, make arrangements to meet with the dept, sit in at least 1 class, make appts with any additional dept that makes sense (study abroad, dining (if allergies or special dietary needs exist), etc. Make the visit worthwhile bc they get expensive fast.

 

Fwiw, we started Sept of jr yr and that was about right. No way we could have handled waiting later and have narrowed schools down as effectively.

[Julie of KY]

Plan a day per visit. As suggested above - explore online. You can schedule professors yourself even if it's not offered.

When you get there, spend some time wondering around on your own - it gives you a feel for the school and people,

[Bootsie]

I think much depends on where you are in the college exploration process.  If your child is really at a starting point and is having trouble thinking of what colleges he might be interested in, I would suggest short visit to a variety of nearby campuses so that he begins to get the feel of what a campus is like and can begin picturing himself there.  If you have a local college, this might be a trip to a concert, a visit to the bookstore, lunch at the food court. etc.  I think it helps for a student to have a feel of a big campus, feel of a small campus, feel of a commuter campus, etc.  If you are still at that point, I would not make a long trip with detailed, all-day visits to campuses.  Some students naturally have these opportunities visiting older siblings or participating in high school events hosted by colleges.  I find that many students have not, and the thought of a college campus is intimidating and foreign sounding for those students; this can be especially true for homeschooled students who have not spent much or any time in a classroom/campus setting.

[plansrme]

I would not try to do more than one per day unless these are very early visits, the schools are close together and you will have time to return for a longer visit if you feel you need more.  I really feel like a visit takes 3/4ths of a day, leaving 1/4th of the day as time to kill.  My junior and I do the standard group tour (usually 2 hours), eat lunch on campus (very, very important) and then look for the pool.  We also include a meeting with the swim coach if he's amenable (and they all have been, so far).  If she likes the school at all, we also buy a t-shirt at the bookstore, especially if they have one with "XYZ University Swim & Dive," because we are all about supporting everyone's swim team.

 

I just finished scheduling flights, etc., for three or four schools she wants to visit over spring break.  It required three flights out of and into three different cities, a one-way car rental and four nights in hotels, all in different cities.  I feel like a travel agent, but it is very important to us that she see a variety of schools before her senior year.  Last year, spring break of her junior year, we toured three schools, and she is still in regular contact with the coaches at two of those three coaches, so I definitely do not feel that starting sophomore year was too early.  Most of her friends, however, have done few, if any, college visits, so you are definitely not behind the usual curve.

 

I LOVE college visits.  Enjoy!

[Grantmom]

Thanks, all!  We are lucky to have lots of colleges, big and small, close by, so he does already have that sense of what a college campus feels like. He works at the local uni and is there multiple times a week, and has had lots of experiences with the smaller neighborhood college, too, so I feel like he has a really good sense of all that.  Most of what I am trying to figure out is how to fit in visits to the far away schools without taking a whole week off and just taking a giant trip.  We just don't have room in the schedule for it before classes end for the semester.  Even then, it seems like we could only get in five schools, because it really does feel like you need a full day for each one.  I definitely want to include the tour, a visit with the department, sitting in on a class, etc.  I was feeling it would have to take a full day per school, even in the same city, but I wanted to ask for other opinions on that.  There are two schools he is very interested in that are just 15-20 minutes apart, and even a third that he might be interested in also within that 15-minute range of each other.  So, it seems like we would need three days in that city, which is three nights in a hotel, plane tickets, etc, and it just seems really expensive.

 

How important do you think it is to visit now?  Would it be okay to wait until later?  I mean, the main reason I wanted to do it now was to provide some motivation for pushing through these last couple of months of a monstrous junior year, to provide something tangible to strive for, to know it's not all for naught.

[Julie of KY]

Your son is at end end of JR year - I'd make some college visits sooner than later. It's probably fine to wait until after finals if your schedule is hectic, but get started May/June.

 

The main reason I say to start soon is not to motivate for now, but because you might not know the reality of where you'll end up visiting. As my oldest visited schools he decided he wanted to look at more, but it's exhausting to do too many to quickly. My advise to myself for my second son was to start even earlier simply getting a feel for some varied schools that are real choices and then talk more about what appeals - size, location, campus vibe, selective school, etc. Also look realistically at costs and scholarships and have those discussions with your student.

 

 

[snowbeltmom]

My advice to my former self would be to start making college visits earlier.  I started thinking about it early, and most people around me discouraged me, saying it's far too early to think about college.  Now it's spring of junior year, and we are so busy and I don't have any idea how I am going to work college visits in.  I really wanted to visit while classes were in session.  There are three colleges very close to each other that we could visit all at once, so I am thinking that we could fly there and visit them.  However, I am trying to imagine how to hit all three colleges in one trip.  It seems like you need a full day for one college.  Also, I thought about visiting some over the summer, but again, how do you recommend scheduling them?  It almost seems like you need a full day per college.

 

Any advice on bundling these visits, either on a road trip or by air?   I guess I was hoping that making these visits would give DS something more tangible to work towards.  Any advice is appreciated!  Thanks!

My current senior had 10+ schools on his list that he wanted to visit.  The furthest away from us was 13 hours by car, so we did a monster road trip.  Other than planning out our driving route, we did nothing else prior to hitting the road.  This approach worked out very well for us because there were a couple schools that my son disliked as soon as we arrived on campus, and because we had not arranged anything prior to our visit, we were able to leave immediately for the next school on the list.

 

Have fun on your college tour!