Maybe not big of a leap of faith— In the past this was the norm. I never saw my undergrad before move-in day. DH had the same experience.
We sent our older child off by herself (i.e. un-accompanied by any parent/family member) to college on a plane to a campus several states away that none of us had even seen. Younger child only visited her future undergrad because the college paid for her trip. (Interview weekend for a prestigious scholarship.)
Many students are unable to make campus visits before enrolling due to financial constraints.
Plus now–with campuses shut down due to the coronavirus epidemic–there’s not much to see other than the outside of some closed up buildings.
I see your point. I know that I didn’t see my own school 25 years ago either but it just feels like it is almost part of the process now (your example holds true- mom and dad didn’t see schools and both kids did). Maybe it isn’t the worry I feel today. Certainly plenty of worry going around.
@JD7777- I am in your spot with my son as far as not being able to see some schools on his list and it is pretty damm hard to write a check for a brand new car every year for the next 4 years without seeing it. And that assumes campus is open in the fall.
April 29 update-
Not too much new in our world as we approach May 1, the deadline for some schools. This week our son has seen a flood of communication from his schools all saying “We plan to open this fall with on campus learning” in some fashion. Stands to reason as I think many parents are struggling with the potential dilemma of full price college while students are at home learning online. Schools want kids to commit so are putting out a picture of “regular” college coming this fall.
School 7 called our son on the phone yesterday and shared they have additional “leadership” scholarship available for our son at 5000/year. While very nice, this drops our out of pocket from 41 to 36k and school 6 is still so much more affordable it is a non issue.
^^ JD777; I’ve been following this thread; we are in a pretty similar situation with our son with S20s stats ; we need a low cost as we have 4 kids to get through college. We’ve had extra merit thrown his way recently during COVID – but not enough to make the difference at one school. Plus, he didn’t visit it in the first place.
It makes me wonder if some schools are hurting? do you commit on May 1? or have another month?
@bgbg4us My theory (with no good evidence to prove it ) is that colleges outside the traditional “elite” schools, are feeling very uneasy about the class of 2020 numbers. If nothing else, our family’s journey has taught us that there is very little “non profit” about higher education and they are very institutional and market driven in their actions. They have algorithms that depend on incoming classes of such and such size and this year they can’t reasonably predict what is coming. So I don’t know if they are “hurting” as much as very nervous.
Obviously, this is not a complete list of policies, and it is likely that colleges with worse policies do not post them. Also, the policies pertain specifically to outside scholarships; scholarships offered through the college may have different policies (which may differ between different scholarships offered through the college).
) is that colleges outside the traditional “elite” schools, are feeling very uneasy about the class of 2020 numbers. If nothing else, our family’s journey has taught us that there is very little “non profit” about higher education and they are very institutional and market driven in their actions. They have algorithms that depend on incoming classes of such and such size and this year they can’t reasonably predict what is coming. So I don’t know if they are “hurting” as much as very nervous.