It was absolutely super helpful to our kids and did not raise stress. It helped to inform them about different types of schools (big publics, small schools, art schools) and it was super helpful to have those visits in the bag when COVID came along and everything went online. So much more helpful to be able to walk around a campus and get a real feel for it.
I would just ask her if she’s interested in looking at any of the colleges in Boston or Vermont or elsewhere on your way and follow her lead. If she is not interested not reason to push it but if she says, “sure why not” i would take her up on that.
We had done at least 4 official tours by 9th grade and my daughter had done two with her middle/high school. Some we did on the way to somewhere else like SCAD on the way to Orlando and some we made a special visit to go see. These are not including the walking around campuses or drive bys or self guided tours. I found them useful and when D22 was narrowing down her list in fall of last year I think it was helpful to her to have seen those schools. Some were eliminated and some stayed on her final list.