It’s not just the urban landscape of Hyde Park or the cold midwestern winters. In my opinion, it’s probably a good idea to at least consider a visit to any school before deciding to invest four years and maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars in that institution. (And that would include before ED applications, as well, since that is, in effect, a commitment as well.)
D thought she would love UCBerkeley, but, for some reason, she was totally turned off by the campus and the surrounding area. (Weird kid, I know.) I remember sitting in the car as she cried because she was so disappointed that she didn’t like this school that she thought she would feel a connection with. I’m just glad that was before she had made a decision rather than after. Instead she fell for a smallish school in snowy upstate New York that I hadn’t really paid much attention to before our visit there later that same year.