Daughter's visit strategy as decisions come in?

aunt_bea
Mon, 28 Nov 2022 17:51:10 +0000

Eldest daughter she knew the minute she set foot on a campus, whether or not she would be comfortable at a school.
Case in point: she was applying to Yale. Her chances were really good there. I think she was accepted there. (I can’t remember if it was her or her brother.) The minute we stepped on that campus she said “mom it’s a no.”

I said, “well we came all the way here to the East Coast, to look at your schools, don’t you at least want to take the tour we reserved?” “No”, she was done.

When you’re not from the region that you’ve applied to, you really want to take a look at where you’ll be living for the next four years.

I personally like San Diego State, (I have a huge bias as a graduate.) I think what makes the campus are the students. They’re happy, they’re very friendly and the school feels like a huge family where you’re constantly meeting “new relatives”. So even though the campus is huge, it can feel really small because of the way the students interact.

Our middle daughter applied to and was accepted at Santa Clara and we did visit during admitted student days, but the middle daughter, who always was anxious to go on the tours suddenly said to us, “no, this isn’t it”. It was a beautiful campus, warm, happy people. So my husband and I were thoroughly confused because we had been through this with the previous child.

Did our middle child explain it to us? Nope not a bit.
We didn’t “get it” but she ended up at a UC that was a lot cheaper and she was happy there.
So the visits are crucial because you never know what your child is going to think, or say, or do, that is a different feeling than when they’re applying.