I visited some colleges with DD before she began her junior year, we didn’t plan anything serious as we did not have her standardized test scores nor GPA for junior… Now that we have an idea, and we are receiving brochures from colleges about junior days, open houses, but nearly all of them are in April, I just do feel that we can spend the time in visiting even with the spring break as she will have three AP exams in May… But then I think after the AP exams, the colleges will begin their summer terms and we do not see a good representation of the school… at this point, we are planning to visit during the summer, I am wondering why do colleges schedule junior day in April? will you bring your kids for junior day if the kids were taking AP exams?
We visited colleges during summer between sophomore and junior year, spring break junior year, and summer between junior and senior year.
Kids brought homework with them…and did it while flying or driving.
My kids only started their serious AP review about a week before.
Most “junior day” programs offer about the same info that you’d receive during a info session + tour at any other time. Tips:
- Schedule visits when classes are in session. This provides much visibility to the vibe of the school, and it allows for meeting students, auditing a class, etc. A summer visit with an empty campus provides a nice view of the architecture, but the soul of the campus (i.e. most students and faculty) will be absent.
- Don’t worry about overnight visits yet. Once accepted, she can attend “accepted students day” at those schools which typically includes a stay in the dorms. These are usually held in April of Senior year.
Good luck!
When D was a junior, all college visits, with the exception of a couple of summer visits, were done in the fall, Feb break, or early April break. She was doing three AP classes and she brought work to do during car rides. As a senior she did one visit for an accepted students’ weekend in mid-April. She had to miss a day of school, and yes, it was extremely difficult to fit that in along with studying for AP exams. She was doing four AP classes. She did two other accepted student visits, one in Feb, because she was admitted EA, one in March, because she went at the earliest possible opportunity.
I will not be taking my son to visit colleges during April if at all possible. I see no need to visit a college for a special juniors’ event. You can visit any time that works for you. Those organized events are marketing strategies. In addition, if your kid is a spring athlete, as mine is, it’s super difficult to get the time to do it all.
I personally do NOT recommend summer visits, though I know it’s unavoidable sometimes. A college is nothing without its students. It’s quite literally like a zoo with no animals, and I mean that in the nicest way. D and I visited a few colleges in the summer before junior year. It gave her a negative impression almost universally and we ended up revisiting a couple in the fall. It’s worth noting that you should always check the college calendar to be sure students aren’t on break before you plan a visit.
There is never a good time. If it’s not AP tests, it’s SAT or ACT, or the kid has a term paper due, or it’s the baseball conference finals, etc. As others have said, have the kid bring study materials along.
We went across country to visit colleges during spring break. D studied throughout the week, mostly at night.
We did a monster trip April of Junior year and then finished up during the summer. We didn’t hit any Junior days, just regular tours and info sessions. Son did some studying on the trip. We had a great time.
We visited some schools in the summer too. Didn’t make much of an impression without the students. So April break is prime college visit time. Also book your sessions ASAP with the schools because they fill up.
Agree with many others here. We tried our best to arrange trips during our kids’ spring vacation when schools were in session. No need to specifically target those “junior days” as they can be overcrowded – colleges offer tours and information sessions most days and we found those to be sufficient (and sometimes preferable) for getting a feel for the school – you can check each school schedule online and make appointments as needed. Some closer schools that didn’t require an overnight stay we were able to fit in a visit on a weekend afternoon. The kids brought books and did some work in the hotel at night, on the road etc.
I am still waiting for my kids to start buckling down for their AP tests, lol. In all seriousness, I think spring break junior year is a great time to go look at some colleges. We did not want our kids to miss too much class time for college visits, so pretty much we limited ourselves to trips to far away schools over breaks and in the summer. If I had my druthers I would go when school is in session when possible. I think there is a great benefit to seeing campuses while kids are there, and I know both my kids really enjoyed sitting in on a couple of classes over the course of their various visits. That certainly would trump any disruption in AP prep in my mind, particularly since the student can always study in the hotel/car during down time if they are that locked in on the AP tests.
I would also echo what others have said that assuming your daughter is not an athletic recruit there is no real benefit to going to junor visit days. In our experience, some of the best tours/visits we had where on days when there were few if any visiting prospects because that provides more time for some individualized questions, etc.
In theory, a student completing a good quality AP course should be well prepared for the AP exam as if it were a final exam for the course. If the student has had good study skills throughout the course, there should not be heavy cramming needed.
Spring break junior year was a good time for us, despite APs (really there wasn’t much specific studying going on for those, she did bring homework with her) and a spring sport. We visited colleges then that were not also on spring break.
We also did summer visits and they are not ideal but you do what you can. Often there ARE students on campus, doing research or working for the school in some way. Our summer tour guide was very helpful, she was a Chem major doing a SURF program, which is exactly what D wanted to do at that time.
D says she feels bad for tours happening on Saturday mornings at her school in winter…no one is out and about then unless it’s super nice out.
We visited colleges over spring break. Have them bring study materials for the down time.
DS and DD did not study for their AP’s, and did just fine.
My daughter did not want to look at any colleges in April or early May, because of the AP test prep. She likes to self-study and take extra AP tests, so she is really hitting the books hard in April.
We timed our visits:
- Day trips to nearby colleges on “teacher in-service” days (or whenever there was no HS but there was college)
- Over junior spring break. This didn’t work for local colleges, because their spring break aligned with the HS. But it worked well for some colleges that required travel.
- End of summer before senior year. This worked for us because in the Northwest, school starts in September and ends mid-June. We were able to visit a number of colleges in other parts of the US that were in session in the last half of August.
Thanks for responding… We did the Summer prior to junior year and thought that we didn’t see much during the summer as everyone already knew it was just empty building…but have been struggling to find an appropriate time in Junior year…I did however schedule DD to visit one that allows her to attend classes, but find it difficult to justify the time spent on flying and driving…hence was surprised to see so many colleges arrange for junior day near the AP, say Lafayette and Wellsley on April 29, I would love for her to go, but given AP chem is on May 1, I just find it difficult…we are in NJ, may be we try the teachers’ conference week in early November and end of summer…
Late August/early September can be a great time as students are back at college by then but east coast schools don’t start until mid-September.
Study for AP at home, study in a hotel on a college visit - is there a big difference? FInish the studying before the visit, maybe?
Just wanted to mention again that if junior day doesn’t work then you can visit these colleges anytime and just arrange for a regular information session and tour. If you are in NJ you perhaps can even go down to see Laf one Saturday, FWIW my D recently graduated from Lafayette (loved it) and we first visited the school over my D’s spring break, not junior day.
My D2’s school is having a tour with the orchestra class (~100 mostly juniors) out of state for one whole week right now during Spring break. They will return 2 days before the state mandated SAT next week. I don’t think you need to worry too much about the AP test coming up.
Finding those teacher “in service days” and using them for visits was great. We also did a few during spring break and some schools do Sat or Sunday events too (especially in the fall). Summer visits are pretty useless, IMHO.
Use car time to study if needed. Will your child be studying all day for the entire week? A few days of lighter studying (during visit days) should do it.