Wondering if people have gotten a lot out of summer college visits? We will definitely be doing spring visits (one week in March and one week in April, both weeks when school is out) but I feel like that would get us New England for one week and the Mid-Atlantic area for the other, but that still leaves NC, Chicago and maybe one other area. We’re in California, so all non-CA visits are a flight away.
I’m a little worried that visiting some schools in session and some out of session will unfairly skew impressions towards the in session schools but not sure how to jam in more visits without doing this.
Some schools have robust summer sessions where there are still many students on campus. Also depending on your child’s high school calendar, you may be able to catch the beginning or end of a college’s academic year. We did a first round of college visits during the summer months and I remember a number of schools feeling bustling.
The schools that made my D’s list or got cut had nothing to do though with the number of students still on campus.
Yes - my kids got good insights at off time visits.
But I think what you’re getting at is - we can’t get there in busy times so is it ok to go when it’s not as busy/robust.
We did - and if the alternative is not going, then yes - you will get a lot out of it.
I don’t think my student would have had a different take on a school and the surrounding area based on the date/timing visited.
You still see the campus, buildings, surrounds. You can still make appointments to see folks and you can still stop folks on campus to ask questions, etc.
That said, there’s only so much time on the calendar and if you truly want to get out and see many - your choice is to see them whenever you can or not at all.
And in that regard, yes it is helpful - even in summer.
We are on the west coast, too. In our experience, it’s still worth it to visit in summer if that’s the time you have. My preference is during the school year, but that’s not always possible coming from the west coast. The vibe will be different, but you can acknowledge that and still get a sense of the school, at least to know whether your kid wants to apply or not. If they’re accepted, they can make another trip when students are there. We also found that YouTube videos were somewhat helpful (or at least interesting) as well as online info sessions and interviews. There are many ways to get a sense of a school in addition to in-person visits.
I am one that thinks that visits are overrated. Spending 3+ weeks looking is a lot of colleges if you are not doing something else. All the schools start to blend together. My DS and me toured 10 schools. 4 on a local trip, 4 when we were in DC for a week and 2 that we were at for some other reason. Of the 8 schools that he applied, he did tours at 2 of them. After an acceptance, we toured a 3 and that is where he is attending. Your evaluation of the school is too dependent upon the weather and your tour guide to actually be useful. We he went as an admitted student, it was helpful because we only had one other student in the tour. The “normal “ tour was walking around with 40ish people.
I think that my kids got a better “vibe” about the school when it was in session with students abounding, and my kids could see their potential classmates and visualize whether they would fit in at the school.
One option is to apply sight unseen, and then take your campus visits on Admitted Student Days in the Spring before high school graduation – when your kids can also see potential classmates and visualize whether they would fit in.
My husband and I both teach, so most visits for D23 happened in the summer (and during one mutual spring break when most colleges we were visiting were also on spring break). We all felt like we got a pretty good feel for the vibe of the schools we visited. There were very few campuses that were totally quiet – usually there was something going on, and some students on campus, especially during the summer (less so during spring break). It would have been ideal to visit when classes were in session, but the physical setting of a campus is important to D, so it was still worth it to us.
We’ve done both and feel like we’ve gotten a good sense of the schools. We are visiting a couple this week that won’t even have tours because of spring brend I think that will be “worse” than a summer visit.
No tours over spring break? That’s too bad. When we did our March trip, even amid Covid restrictions, there were still tours on every campus that was on break. See if there are virtual guided tours that you can do with your phones (you’ll need headphones). Those are much better than no tour at all, and you can learn a lot about what you’re seeing of the campus that way.
Wow. OK, well, I can tell you (because I’ve done it) that Mount Holyoke has a really good guided walking virtual tour, so try to do that, at least. We felt like we got a lot out of it and saw parts of campus (and learned about parts of the college) that we might not have had we not done the tour on our phones.
OK, thanks for the feedback. Sounds like it’s still worth it. Agree with @Eeyore123 that perhaps visits are overrated but he also hasn’t seen much of the areas we’ll be considering, so it’s partly also to get a sense of the wider area and types of campuses. I’m not from the US so I applied sight unseen from a big book and didn’t end up at a place that I felt particularly connected to, so I feel like it might help at least to steer towards a type of place.
We visited a lot of “empty” campuses during Covid and more recently on a very rainy week. Still worth it IMO. Seeing the campus in person, even if on a quiet day will them allow you to make more of online resources.
Highly recommend goseecampus.com when planning your visits to map out the best route. Super helpful when visiting multiple schools in a short amount of time.
It definitely did for us. We went to one school with no summer school and there were a bunch of retirees on campus doing something and no students. My D22 struck it right off her list, but ultimately I don’t think it was a good fit for her anyway.
I wouldn’t worry about summer visits too much. This is for a junior? I would say you can always apply and come back and visit when school is in session if accepted.
If you feel like you have to visit in summer I would prioritize visiting bigger schools that have a robust summer school program. Those small schools with no one on campus are just sad.
I’m in NC. What schools are you thinking about here? I can tell you do not go to UNC-W in the summer. That is the one that my D22 was like nope nope nopity nope on after a summer visit.
Just my two cents… keep in mind that campus visits are part of what college track for demonstrated interest. Some schools track this very closely, and I’d guess that the smaller the school, the more important it is. As a result, you should try very hard to do campus visits through the scheduled options at the admissions office. If you do your own self tour, make sure your child interacts with the admissions office before and after the tour (you may need to help them with what the emails say). “Contacts with the school” is also a frequent question Common App, where you list out the ways you learned about the school.
To check these issues out, you should look at the “common data set” for the school (if it notes that interest of applicant" is at least “considered” then you will want to make sure you’re in the game on this detail - and there are a few schools that consider it “very important”) and also create a dummy account on Common App to see what the school questions are regarding contacts.
With the time and effort associated with this process, make sure you’re tracking these issues carefully (and well ahead).
Also, you should research interviews in connection with the campus visits (and in general). Many schools allow you to do an interview during the visit, and for a (very) few its the only option for interviewing (Denison cut off virtual interview options part way through early fall this year… so our child had to visit campus to get one, and it was a bit of a scramble). You’ll have to gauge your child on whether they’re ready for interviews during your visit. Even though we visited schools all through junior year, we postponed all interviews until after junior year so our kid could mature a little and develop more engagement. We did all of them from start of August through early December - but note that some schools (e.g. William and Mary) end interview opportunities by the end of summer, so do your homework carefully!
Just a couple of notes to add to this advice. First, if you do a self-guided tour using an app on your phone (which I recommend if the option is available and you can’t schedule a guided tour – of course a guided tour is best), admissions will know about that, because you have to register and log in – so you don’t need to check in with the admissions office in that case. If you’re just walking around campus without the app, then you’ll want to check in if possible.
Re: interviews – these are rarely used to evaluate you. They are used more to assess interest, and even more than that to keep alumni engaged with the school (in cases where alums do the interviews). Request interviews if possible, but sometimes colleges won’t be able to meet all requests, and it won’t be held against you if you don’t get one (or if interviews are in-person only and you can’t visit campus when they’re offered). There are lots of ways to demonstrate interest. Do research this in advance to be aware of interview availability.
Finally, not all schools consider demonstrated interest (not even all LACs). You can find out which schools do by checking the factors that influence admissions decisions in the CDS.
I’d amend that in the following ways (and note that the below is mostly for private schools - i dont have much experience having kids apply to public schools):
Interviews can be evaluative or informational. Probably a majority of private schools offering interviews treat them as “evaluative”. Again, check the website and the CDS. Even schools that have non-evaluative interviews count them for demonstrated interest. Also, interviews, whether or not evaluative, that are with admissions officers should be considered high margin, because your kid is talking to the person that actually reviews the applications (bonus if its your region’s AO… that AO is required to sign off on apps for the region as the advocate in front of the admissions committee). So… interviews are super important one way or another. One caveat: Ivy League schools usually don’t track DI or do evaluative interviews (and the interviews are with alumnus) - so there’s not really an angle to play if that’s the case. That is only the situation for a very, very few non-ivy private schools.
+1 on the on-campus self guided with an app. An email to your AO is still an important detail, and you need every plausible reason to have your kid start tobuild the relationship. It’s generally not a good idea to pepper your AO with emails, so functionally plausible reasons (like a thank you and note of good impression following a tour) shoudl be taken advantage of. Remember, the AO for your region will be reading your kids app, and be the one arguing for your kid in admissions committee. You want them to know your kid, like your kid, and be an advocate for your kid.
I can’t speak for public universities (other than W&M), which may not track DI, but virtually all private schools (outside of most Ivy schools) DO track it to varying degrees. Pay attention to the options to interact with the schools that track DI and maximize your odds. The in-person visit and the interview are the primary means by which DI is measured, with other options falling off in importance.
My experience is with private schools, too (mostly LACs, mostly selective or moderately selective), and there was surprising variation re: how seriously they tracked DI. Some listed it as “important” and some listed it as “not considered.” This seemed unrelated to how selective the LAC was, whether they offered interviews, etc. You just have to look at the CDS.
Interviews are not usually evaluative because the quality of the interviewers is so inconsistent – whether they are student interviewers or alums, they receive bare minimum training, and some are better conversationalists than others, and their reaction to the students they interview is highly subjective. So colleges typically say that they use interviews as yet another source of information, but they will never make or break your application (I think some are different, like Harvard or MIT, but I’m not talking about those kinds of schools), and they are one of many ways to demonstrate interests for colleges that track that. Obviously it can only help to have a good interview, but it won’t hurt you to have a mediocre one (or none at all). I’m sure if you reveal something about yourself that’s truly awful, that’s a different story.