17yr Old Doing College Visits Alone?

LBowie
Sat, 26 May 2012 22:29:35 +0000

Sure, I have my opinions. I also have a lot of experience attending various schools and working at others. But I still don’t think it is critical for the parent to see the school before applying, as long as it fits other criteria like price, location, academic fit. As it happens, my son is attending a school that we did not visit junior year. We visited it in April, just last month (this school was a waitlist for him). It was not near other schools, so was not practical to make a separate visit to earlier, even though it was high on his list. We also visited another school in April to which he was accepted but we similarly did not make it to beforehand for similar reasons. (We visited both using frequent flyer miles.) Of the schools he did visit junior year (about a dozen between going with me, my husband, and by himself), I think he applied to five. It will be interesting to see how we decide to approach the visits with his brother in several years. I think we will use a more streamlined approach. I also have a hunch brother will want to stay closer to home, but it’s hard to know yet.