We live in Chicagoland. Plenty of schools close. Started Fall Junior year at Loyola Chi. This was a visit to see what a college looks like and what they have. Later in the year we did UChicago. D19 wanted to visit Pitt so we made a driving trip to see it in the Summer. Also visited Carn Mellon. Fall of senior year we took a trip to Boston and visited BU and Brown.
Acceptances started to roll in. Put D19 on a train to visit MO S&T as she had good scholarships. Wife and D19 made trip to a small LAC in Iowa.
Oddly D19 ended up at MiamiOH. It was the last place we visited. D19 didn’t want to go there. I made her apply. She loved it.
We drug D23 along to almost every visit. I think the key is to understand the size of the college the student might want to go to. Also urban or rural. A few visits give you that.
I wouldn’t bother visiting Ivies. If you get in and money works you are going to go pretty much no matter what.