<p>I have heard of a service that will help you to coordinate campus visits/travel plans/local attractions, etc. in certain regions. It seems fairly reasonably priced. Would you consider this a worthwhile investment? I feel it might be helpful in a spring break visit type situation where there might be multiple visits in an unfamiliar area. Maybe less so on a one day, one school visit. Any thoughts or advice? </p>
<p>The programs like this I know of are for whirlwind tours of HBCU’s. Because Seattle is so far from all of them, we do know some kids who have gone on these trips and have found them useful. The kids/families are expected to participate in fund-raising events to keep the trips very affordable. They don’t strike me as for the faint of heart as they hit nearly a dozen schools in the span of a week-long spring break. Some are longer and include visits to cultural sites as well. They seem to average about $1500. </p>
<p>Well, I have to give credit to whatever entrepreneur decided this was an opportunity and jumped to take it–I would never have imagined this kind of service existed. This a personal calculation. I would never spend a penny planning any trip because I have the time to do it myself and rather enjoy the process of researching and organizing. (Maybe I should get into this business!) I also don’t think planning a college trip is a particularly challenging proposition, certainly not compared to, say, setting up a vacation out of the country. But it can be time consuming and require good attention to detail–you don’t want to arrive at College A just as the day’s last info session has ended. Once you’ve decided what schools to visit and absorbed their info session and tour schedule, you’ll have to set up your itinerary (CC folks can be very helpful in advising the order of travel and how long to spend in each location), make any reservations required by the schools, and then spend a couple of hours online to make hotel reservations and scout local attractions. But if you hate that sort of thing and the money isn’t an issue, why not use a service?</p>
<p>Thanks, SSEAMOM! I have heard of many programs like that, and have heard mixed reviews. This business is different. It’s kind of like a travel agent who will help coordinate the tours we want to go on based on custom preferences. I don’t know much about some of the places we’re visiting, so they’re there to help coordinate all of the logistics. I think it would save headaches, for sure, just want to see if anyone else has used a similar service/would use one. </p>
<p>MommaJ- that’s great! Thanks for that info. Maybe I’ll just use them for the big spring break trip and do the smaller visits myself. </p>
<p>I’ve seen some of these tours on campus tours. The ones I’ve seen, to be honest, were large and the adults didn’t have particularly good control over the kids, who were making lots of noise and making it difficult for those on the rest of the tour to hear the speakers, ask questions, etc. They left a bad taste in my mouth.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine spending a dime on something like that.</p>
<p>If your kid is checking out rural campuses across the country by him or herself, I can see how a touring company could be useful. However, there’s very little reason to hire a company to plan college tours if you’re going with your daughter since the admission office at most non commuter colleges are used to fielding questions about where to stay, where to eat, what to see, etc. Yelp and travel websites are also useful and can quickly show which attractions are worth it, and which ones aren’t. </p>
<p>By the time I figured out where I want to stay, I might as well just have made reservations myself. </p>
<p>Now, if you want to make a case that with some family dynamics, having the parents <em>not</em> be on the tour – that’s a different argument altogether. Wild horses couldn’t have kept me away, personally, but I’m sure there are dynamics where it doesn’t work well to have parent / kid on the same tour. </p>
<p>Where do you want to go? Betcha we can help you plan…for free.</p>
<p>As I said, the trips I’m aware of are different-they are locally based, the parents are involved but for lots of reasons aren’t able to do the trips as well-it’s easier to fundraise $1500 for one kid all-inclusive from airfare to snacksthat for parents to pull the money for an entire family trip out of their pockets. And the tours try to fit in sightseeing too-many of the kids on the tour may have never left town. I’m planning our summer excursion myself, but if D adds a set of HBCU’s to her list that we will NOT be touring, we may well let her go on such a trip. Some also include college application help and SAT prep. It’s not for everyone.</p>
<p>Some of the private HSs do these one week tours. Have looked at the itineraries and they seem really exhausting to me and would beyond the stamina of my kids. Neither of my kids was interested and the tours were about $3k or so, I believe. These tours are packaged by the HS, and tend to visit the Us where they have had students attend. </p>
<p>Have not heard of the type of service you describe. </p>
<p>Seems like a total waste of money. An online look at each city’s website will provide a list of “what to do.”</p>
<p>Seems like this is some travel agent looking for alternative revenue since few people use TA’s anymore.</p>
<p>From the sounds of it, this is not a tour but, rather, a service to plan a family trip which includes visiting schools and attractions in the surrounding areas. Like others, I enjoy doing my own planning and have planned a few multi day / multi school trips with each of my older kids. I wouldn’t pay for this service, but if others are willing to pay, it might be time for a career change!</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! If I end up working with the company, I’ll let you know how it goes. </p>
<p>I guess if I had money to blow, then it would be worthwhile. However, if paying for college is going to be a challenge than why waste on this?</p>
<p>How do we know the colleges the group wants to see are appropriate for the kid?</p>
<p>I believe they post the names of the colleges on the tour and then if the kid/family thinks the kid is a fit for the college, then they join the tour. I know the HBCU tours are targeted to kids that otherwise might not go to college or might be the first generation of college for their families, so the whole trip is targeted to getting the kid out of their environment and get them wishing/dreaming/hoping about college. Of course every college on the tour might not be a fit for every kid but hopefully each kid will be able to ‘see themselves’ attending college.</p>
<p>@Texaspg - It’s not a group tour. For example, we are thinking of traveling to see a few schools in Boston, but I am not familiar with the area. There is a small company in New England that will do the planning of the schools I tell them my child wants to see. They help with accommodation, finding activities to attend on campus, places to check out nearby campus etc. It’s completely tailored to what we want to do and seems like it will save me some time and the locals know the area. I’m thinking of using them for New England and doing other planning on my own. </p>
<p>How much would they charge to do the Boston planning for schools/area there?</p>
<p>^^Yeah, really. Some of might be happy to undercut them! :D</p>