True. On the other hand my oldest didn’t visit before arriving and hated it for a good half of a year. Luckily after that she found her groove and it ended up fine. You just never know.
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Agree 100% that if you can get a St. Olaf tour, you should do so. And if they don’t have sessions on a Sunday afternoon, I’d reach out to the regional admissions rep and see if there was any way they could arrange for a student to meet you … from what I understand every tour at St. Olaf is one student per family; that was our experience. Bar none, the best campus tour we got across two kids and too many campuses to count.
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And a reminder St. Olaf provides lunch for visitors!
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Handy, but there is still afternoon tea, elevenses, second breakfast . . . .
Here are my suggestions for the spring break trip we are located in MA (Worcester area)
First check your dates. April school vacation in MA starts on April 15 Patriots Day/Boston Marathon day. If your break falls within this week, staying in Boston is very difficult and college tours in New England are very hard to get into.
D23 toured or was on the campus of Bates/Colby/Bowdoin ultimately chose not to apply to any of them. Sleeper of the trip was UNH. No official tour but daughter liked the campus and location, and smaller size for a state flagship. She ended up applying EA and was accepted into the Honors program and they even bettered UMASS instate price by a small margin. The campus is very close to your Maine stops could be a great option for your son to see an out of state public flagship. D23 did not choose UNH but recently received a letter that they would honor her initial financial aid package is she decided to transfer (assuming her grades were sufficient).
Worcester trip: Based on your description your son it seems like Clark might better social fit than Holy Cross but Holy Cross is fantastic as well. D23 applied to both. Holy Cross is very hot right now and admission is indeed a moving goalpost as someone posted upthread. If your son likes Holy Cross you need to show a lot of demonstrated interest.
My suggestion is to add WPI as well. Also located in Worcester and based on another of your threads that your son likes to invent things this would be a good place to investigate. We toured WPI more of curiosity and D23 said it was her favorite college tour and this is coming from a kid who hated college tours.
Good luck in your search and tours.
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Just dropping this in here as you mentioned some of your S’s tendencies upthread and you’re thinking about visiting Whitman at some point -
My S23 is at Whitman now, and he went and visited several high school classmates who are at the University of Oregon in November as he was there for a frisbee tournament and stayed an extra two days.
One of the things that he talked about when he came back, was that at Whitman, when he walks across campus he’s always nodding and saying hello to people as he passes them, and that’s normal there. But at UO, that on different days, in different places with two different friends (two kids who are some of the kindest, friendliest kids you’d ever meet) he said that no one ever said hello to each other or nodded when they were out walking around campus. That it was more akin to walking down a busy city street—people don’t make eye contact, don’t say hello, and it made him so glad that he was at a smaller, friendly SLAC.
But/and I want to add that his classmates at UO are happy! And he is really happy that his classmates found the right school for them. They wanted the big hustle and bustle of a large university and it’s fantastic for them. Everyone is different in terms of fit 
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Seconding your comments about Olaf. From our Minnesota trip:
Just back from Minnesota!
We went into this trip with S23 excited to visit Carleton (his #1 choice), and lukewarm on visiting St. Olaf and Macalester but thought it would be a good idea to visit both since they were close by. Presenting in the order we visited:
St. Olaf: WOW. We had a terrific guide who was engaging, thoughtful, and took the time to reflect and answer all of our questions as we walked. They spoke about different student’s experiences and perspectives in addition to their own. When S and I had a question about Great Conversations and the role of religion at Olaf while we were coming to the end of our time, he offered to stay and wait for us to finish our final information session so that we could chat further.
Campus was terrific, and we were visiting on an absolutely frigid day (an unseasonable storm was blowing through), and from a Mom perspective I noticed how every building we entered and walked through was full of natural light from the large windows (and two and three story windows were quite common in many buildings). There were nooks to gather in nearly every building to study or chat in front of windows, and I felt that if I was stuck inside in a freezing Midwest winter, I wouldn’t be stuck inside dim rooms - the natural light indoors was a tonic.
Perhaps a small thing, but as we went through the dining hall our guide explained that backpacks are left outside the hall as the expectation is that students eat and talk together, not do their work during meals. And when we came back through to eat lunch in the dining hall later we certainly saw that: 95% of the kids were deep in conversation, chatting and laughing and there wasn’t a laptop in sight.
My kid really enjoyed St. Olaf and could see themselves in that community.
We next went to Carleton, which went down after the visit. The tour was fine! But it was just “fine.” The students we saw were keeping to themselves, and in contrast to what we’d just seen at Olaf, the dining hall we went through had kids all on their laptops instead of talking. There was a lot of mentions of how intense it was at Carleton, how hard it is, how they do a full semester of work in a trimester. And my kid observed that Carleton has a great website and a great photographer, but in person the buildings looked much smaller and darker. He also noticed more expensive clothes on many of the kids and a bit more intensity. He said that because he had such high expectations of Carleton he thinks it was easier for it to come down as a result. But we left the visit with him thinking he wants to apply to see if he can get in - but doesn’t see the benefit to being stressed out all the time.
Macalester: it was 12 degrees with the windchill. Not ideal! We walked away from this tour thinking it’s a fabulous college for those that want to go to school in a city, but still be in a neighborhood in a not super urban environment. There are incredible options for internships in the Twin Cities and great networking for the Midwest. My S really wants the true residential college experience, and felt that with the high number of juniors and seniors moving off campus, and “the vibe” we got when we were there - that it was the school for people that really wanted to be “in the city” and dispersed in that culture, than embedded on campus.
- Adding a bit of clarifying info to this as someone asked me about it later:
When S and I had a question about Great Conversations and the role of religion at Olaf while we were coming to the end of our time, he offered to stay and wait for us to finish our final information session so that we could chat further.
We are not religious ourselves, and while I had read a great deal about how ~45% of students at Olaf are not affiliated with any religion, it was important to me to both suss out if there was any sort of social division between students who are religious and those that aren’t, and while I knew (on paper) that the branch of Lutherans at Olaf was one that had both women and LGBT pastors, I wanted to ensure that there wasn’t any quiet bigotry. We are not anti-religion! But we will not financially support any institution e.g. in which their religion “tolerates” LGBT folks or reproductive health care, but also says those people are going to hell.
Our tour guide was gay (and not religious), and thanked me for asking the question about bigotry and “tolerance,” and we went on to have a really lovely and detailed conversation about faith and religion at Olaf and I left our discussion confident that Olaf would be a terrific place for my student.
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I remember reading this when I was doing my research and it made a big impression on me. Thank you for sharing!
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When we visited it was 2 families per tour. They did a nice job of making everyone feel welcome.
We visited all 3 in August, so definitely a different vibe.
St. Olaf seemed to go above and beyond on the tour…only 2 families per tour, each student’s name on a tv, great snacks, and lunch at the dining hall. The school is very nice. They made sure to talk about how welcoming they are. Even with that, I’m still pretty hesitant about the religiousness. It is also pretty secluded. D25 liked it okay.
Carleton is more “in town” and not quite as defined of a campus. Definitely very pretty. D25 liked the emphasis on writing. No impressive snacks. lol
Macalester was much smaller, but still very pretty. They definitely emphasized the opportunities for internships and culture in the Twin Cities. Even though it is urban, it is a very residential and nice neighborhood. This was D25’s favorite of the 3. It probably helped that we met with a professor there who was super cool. Good snacks, but not on the same level as St. Olaf lol
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Since you’re starting off on Iowa I wonder if you’ve considered visiting Grinnell? It seems to fit well with your son’s requirements, and you couldn’t ask for a more nurturing and supportive environment — plus top notch academics.
We visited quite a few of the LACs on your son’s list. The school that ultimately rose to the top and to which he applied ED (and was fortuitously admitted) wasn’t even on our original travel plan. I hadn’t thought it a good fit for various reasons but evidently my son like many uncommunicative high schoolers harbored undisclosed ambitions.
The last minute add on turned out to be The One and the former before-visit first choice dropped into oblivion. So don’t lock yourselves in too tightly; leave room for improvisation.
We really benefited from the information sessions, more so than the tours in many cases. The best panels offered opportunities for current students to express why they chose their college and how it has lived up to their expectations. The professors’ and admissions’ perceptions of their student bodies were often illuminating.
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I wondered about this too, as Grinnell seems like a good potential fit. It’s very competitive but no more than some of the others discussed on here. My son decided he wasn’t interested because he didn’t like the folks representing Grinnell at a college fair he attended in Tokyo - I didn’t quite understand what the problem was, but he also dinged Middlebury, Wesleyan and Hamilton at the same event for the same reason. He did like the folks from Carleton, Davidson, St. Olafs and Bates, so they went on the list. Kind of a variant on dumping a school because of the tour guide, I guess, but it was pretty perplexing at the time.
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Agree that Grinnell sounds like a good fit for OP.
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Davidson is not like the other fratty schools on the list. There are frats and eating houses but I married into the alumni network and some of them are the least fratty people on earth. My spouse and many of his friends were GDI (Gd Dmn Independent). His friends are now musicians and professors, cartoonists, photographers, museum workers, counselors, work in publishing, ministers, lawyers, a liberal politician in a red state, teachers, engineers. There is at least one second generation kid there now. I don’t see fratty stuff when his mom posts on social media about his experience. He has been traveling internationally doing debate with the school.
What is your son interested in studying?
I think this sound brutal, especially in the winter as you just never know which entire state might have to be ‘regrouped’ because of weather. This weekend in Boston? Nope, all those plans would be snowed out.
Also,I sure hope he’s set on LACs because you’ve scheduled 10-12 and no other type of school. No Ohio State when you are right there? No Pitt? I wanted my kids to at least LOOK at some schools to get them thinking. One daughter ended up at an engineering school, and we didn’t even know she was interested until the start of senior year. She thought she wanted a tiny school, like 2000, and it was immediately clear that those schools were just too small for her (and me). One school we looked at had 5 prof in the physics dept. What if she didn’t like one (or two!)? What if she took all the offered classes and still wanted more? Too small.
I’d have my kids eliminate a lot of those schools on paper before the trip. Are they all really still in the running based on programs offered, cost, size, remoteness? Big difference between Worcester MA and Wooster OH and it is hard to explain just how cold -20 degrees is in Northfield MN so he should be sure he’s ready for that. Is it worth it going 30 miles out of your way and spending 4 hours on a school that is really unlikely?
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My son was also uncomfortable interviewing, although he had all sorts of interview practice in middle school and high school. His first interview was with a recent Denison alumni - they met in a Starbucks and I think he was surprised how casual and natural it was. That interview provided him with a lot of information to use when he later wrote the optional “why Denison” interview. He decided not to request interviews at any of the other schools where he applied, but he later did interviews at a couple of schools where he’d already been accepted. At that point it was a completely different dynamic, but I think it was still good experience and helpful to him in his decision-making process. He later worked in Admissions while in college as both a tour guide and an interviewer, and that experience has also served him well. Anyway, point being that I don’t think there’s any need to push your kid outside his comfort zone, better if he’s relaxed and focused on the things that matter to him. They get there when they get there.
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Also - interviews normally only happen within the applicant’s admissions cycle. So he wouldn’t even be able to request interviews until the summer before senior year (or later, in some cases). I think that interviews are good for developing a feel for a school, and they are helpful in demonstrating interest for schools that consider DI, but there’s no rush at all on interviews. It’s fine to request them later, once he’s narrowed down the list. My daughter only interviewed at schools where she’s already decided to apply.
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I don’t know – my D23 absolutely knew she wanted a smaller school. Other than one small university, we only visited LACs, because that’s the experience that resonated with her. She did apply to a couple of larger universities as safeties (applications were free and required no supplements), but she never visited them or considered them, even when she got in. Sure, departments in a LAC might be small, but so are student bodies, so there are plenty of class choices. I know my daughter will never be able to take all the classes that interest her at her LAC – there are too many! I can see that for a major like engineering, most students would want a bigger university, but for others, a LAC would provide the academic opportunities they’re looking for. Many students instinctively know they’d thrive in smaller and more intimate settings, just as others know instinctively that they want something bigger. If a student is on the fence or not really committed to one type of experience over another, I can see going out of the way to sample different kinds of colleges and universities. But I think we can trust that this family has already thought that through.
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Our DD did interviews during her junior year of high school at a few places we visited.
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OK, I stand corrected. For all the schools on our daughter’s list, this was not a possibility – she had to wait till summer or fall of senior year. In many cases, she interviewed after she submitted the application.
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