Joyful Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 We are Americans living abroad, where it is a a long fight home. We were planning on making a 7-10 day trip early this fall to take DS (Gr. 11) to visit some colleges. But a family situation has come up. We can still go as planned (haven't bought tickets yet), but that would mean added stress to everyone. So here are my questions. How important is the college visit? Is it a must? How would it affect the college search/application process if he doesn't do it? This may be the only time that we can work it out for DS to visit schools, so I'm trying to figure out how much to priority to give it. I'm so confused. Would you advise us to give priority to a trip to visit the colleges? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 (edited) Not a must. There are many virtual tours online these days. For example: https://www.campustours.com/https://www.youvisit.com/collegesearchhttp://www.ecampustours.com/ Edited August 11, 2018 by MarkT added links 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful Posted August 11, 2018 Author Share Posted August 11, 2018 Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I've read someone's post that it is beneficial to visit a variety of small LAC, bigger schools, large public university to see how the student might feel about being in these different kinds of settings. Do you agree? Is there any value to some gut feelings of fit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 I think visiting a variety of schools for gut feel is nice if they are local or and easy day trip or you are in the area for some reason. But totally not at all necessary if it is a strain on the family. I don’t think early visits are necessary at all really. Waiting for acceptances is a fine strategy. Some people have spent time and money visiting schools their dc were not even accepted to. That is frustrating especially if the dc really falls in love during that visit. We have done both ways. With next dc we might do a visit if it makes sense or we are in the mood for a road trip but if we don’t until later in the process I will be fine with that too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 (edited) Not a must. You can also wait for acceptance and then visit schools you go into. Or not visit at all - some students choose their school without ever setting foot on campus before orientation. I don't buy into the idea that there is one school that is the perfect fit and soul mate. Neither of my kids needed to tour colleges to get a feel for large vs small, city vs urban. DD applied to 12, visited 3, and made her final choice between a visited and an unvisited school based on finances. DS chose his top choice based on location and degree availability without ever visiting the campus. Visiting can be useful to decide between colleges that rank otherwise equal on the student's list. It can also be useful for students who have no good idea what a college campus is like. Edited August 11, 2018 by regentrude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted August 11, 2018 Share Posted August 11, 2018 We are in a geographically remote part of the US that made college visits expensive and time consuming so the visits before application season were minimal. I do think it is helpful to tour a couple of colleges in conjunction with other travel if it can be worked out. My daughters actually did not apply to the colleges that they visited pre-application but it did give them a sense of what college life might involve. When we were on vacation or traveling for other purposes, I looked to see what colleges were in the area. Also, for colleges that consider "demonstrated interest" for admission purposes, the student will need to make an effort to show interest in other ways, like communicating with admissions officers, following links in e mails, regularly checking their online application portals, carefully considering their answers to "Why This College"-type application questions. The vast majority of my daughters' college visits occurred after admission though. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 Do you have to visit? Nope. After that it depends on your kid. I had one who wanted to visit everywhere and one who did a visit at their top choice school and dropped in on a friend at another school (nothing official with the admissions department). The downside-some schools do place great emphasis on an in person, on-campus interview. Some schools add up the numbers, how many times did you go to their booth at a college fair, visit campus, stay overnight, attend an alum/admissions event, etc. Some schools do use these statistics when determining admissions and merit aid. Yes, I understand how difficult it is to do this as an expat family. We used up a considerable amount of time during trips home to do this. We made one 24+ hour (one way) trip to attend two scholarship events that ended up providing significant financial benefit to one kid. In short, it really depends on the school. Do your research and find out if the schools you are interested in care about on campus interviews and are visit tally-ers. If not, then you can do what best suits your family and applicant. If they are, you might make time or have the applicant engage with them on how to express interest since the normal "signs" aren't an option for you. Upside-they usually love international applicants! Best of luck and safe travels! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 I agree it's not a must. I think they can be overdone, and also, sometimes they don't even help. Out of four of my kids who went to college, only one toured colleges ahead of time. The others did careful research and never toured the school ahead of time. They were very pleased with their choices. Because of the push to tour colleges, my youngest dd and I decided to spend a day touring colleges. They were all in the same metro area and we didn't schedule anything official. So, yes, they were kind of whirl-wind tours. We spent about two hours at each campus, and did end up talking with a few people at each, viewing some dorm rooms, walking a lot. In the end, I think the college my dd would have been happiest at is the one she turned down immediately, because she didn't like the feel of it when she toured it. She just happened to have a bad first impression of the layout of the campus and the dorm she visited, etc. I think if we hadn't toured it, she would have gone there! I'm not putting down college visits if you think it'd be helpful of course... Mostly I'm just saying that they're not always necessary. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 (edited) Another thought: if you decide to tour, schedule a visit at the academic department your student wants to major in. Most of the information from the generic campus tour is available online, but the department tours are much more specific. I lead tours for our department and spend 45-60 minutes with the visiting family, giving them an overview, answering specific questions about coursework, double majors, special issues for that student, and then take them on a tour of some research labs. That's all stuff they do NOT get from the general tour. Edited August 13, 2018 by regentrude 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful Posted August 13, 2018 Author Share Posted August 13, 2018 Thank you all for being so helpful in sharing your experiences with your DC, and your distilled thoughts on the matter. I appreciate the advice on finding other ways to demonstrate interest for schools that care about it. I'm quite relieved to know that good research can result in some good matches even without a campus visit, so that we can maybe consider arranging for visits after we find out which schools accept him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 I have friends who made a grand "tour" of multiple colleges, and that's fine if you have the time and money. We did just a few when it was down to a final decision. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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