You picked great schools - and on off time, you can always drive by or have dinner near another.
For example, you’re at Elon and headed to NC State.
Stop in Chapel Hill for dinner and walk the campus. Chapel Hill is really hard to get into OOS so if you don’t have top grades, maybe skip - but you see what I mean. Chapel Hill is enroute from Elon to NC State - and Duke is just on the other side of the freeway…you could do one at dinner, one early AM breakfast and walk and get to NC State, etc. Chapel Hill a much nicer place to “sleep” than near NC State anyway.
These are very different schools. JMU is rated really nice and the campus is gorgeous. But it’s a small town and the I-81 splits the campus although it’s mainly on the West.
Va Tech - for my money - the nicest school in the country. It’s just - unbelievably gorgeous. But it’s HUGE - and it’s in the base of the mountains - so nature - it’s its own world. Blacksburg is not a a big city but has everything.
btw - when you drive from JMU to Va Tech - stop in Lexington for dinner and walk W&Ls gorgeous and small campus and the town is cool…great restaurants. Or maybe there’s different colleges you’d like enroute. This way, you aren’t going out of the way, you are breaking up the drive, getting some exercise and keeping nourished. btw - wanna get excited about W&L - read up on the Johnson Scholarship.
Elon is your small and equally gorgeous - but there’s nothing there - like a few restaurants and the nearest town ten minutes away.
And NC State is your near big city school.
You might also start to think - is it important to be near a major airport or is it ok if she has to fly and take a 2 hour bus, etc. to get to school from breaks.
But I think you can stick with this plan - but if you have other interest - you can in an afternoon or dinnertime - at least stop at another if it’s enroute so you aren’t going out of the way - and try to get the vibe by walking or checking the area - if that makes sense to see if maybe more consideration is warranted once you get home (virtual tours, etc).
Good luck.
PS - check to see who requires the interest - google the college + common data set and it’s section C7. Elon will - JMU, VA Tech, and NC State likely not.
You can get on each of their “request info lists” - they’ll ask your year.
But b4 you do that - and you are way early - but you’ll want to set up an email for your son’s college stuff…just college…nothing else…we used HSname, first name and grad year at @gmail.com Just something - where all things college can funnel to.
But yep, you’re early!!!