Value of Informal/Unofficial Visits

[Sasmita_Shah]

From experience, I believe that informal college tours are better. I did the formal college tours with my parents, and the tour guides give the general tour of the college/university, i.e. the dining hall, the main campus ground, the university center, etc. Although this may be useful, it's better to take your own tour, or even better, find a friend or relative going to that campus so you can get a personalized tour.

I went to the college tour and admit day for my university, and it was a sunny, 80 degree temperature day, and the students were having fun, skateboarding, and playing games. But when fall quarter came around, I found out that the average temperature is actually 60-70 degrees, and that the campus is much bigger than I initially realized.

It also helps to do college tours throughout high school, rather than during senior year only. It becomes overwhelmingly confusing to choose a school, and I often had trouble (and sometimes still do) deciding between UCI and UCSD, not just for proximity but the difference in social and academic scenes.

[TrumpetDad]

I agree about spreading out the visits. I got D to 11 campuses prior to the start of her senior year, starting as early as the 2nd half of her freshman year [which I'd say was a bit TOO soon], ranging from Maine to Florida, though most were within a 3-hour drive of home. And then we visited just two more, on one trip to Ohio, in the Fall of her senior year. This gave D plenty of time to work on her senior project, while many of her friends were travelling all over creation every weekend during that period doing what we had already done. And we met frazzeled people on campus tours while at those last two schools who were in the midst of their own last-minute whirlwind tours, while we felt quite relaxed.

With D, we really didn't know what she wanted at first, and she changed her mind a couple of times along the way regarding what she might focus on, hence a total of 13 schools. My son seems more focused, so we've got it [tentatively] limited to 10 schools this time around. We've started with a single, informal tour -- as we were on our way to somewhere else -- done by an acquaintance, once again during the 2nd half of freshman year ... but at least we didn't bother any admissions personnel by showing up with a freshman. My wife and I did one other tour recently -- while in the area, and without S -- at a school that's sort of just off the list. The visit confirmed it should stay that way, so we were glad we didn't drag S along.

We'll do some formal tours, with S, right after his sophomore year. And maybe something sooner...

[livesinnewjersey]

If you have a S or D not working to their potential, I think a formal info session & tour is very important. Visiting a a great school helps the student get motivated. Summer of junior year, we visited 2 big name schools while on vacation, when S heard from Admissions people that they want to see As, it was like it was the first time he heard it! Since he saw what a great experince college life could be (they had a slide show & cool students speaking) and he wanted to go away to a nice school, he finally started to work very hard and turned it on.