So, how many college visits did your kids do?

Parents Forum
81

Well my kid is a junior and he’s visited 5 so far. Just local options that represent a “type” - U of MN TC (large public), Macalester (Urban LAC), Lawrence (Semi-urban LAC, music conservatory), UW SP (mid-size, non-competitive, state option - safety in all ways), St. Olaf - religious LAC, rural. Kid interested in music so chose this to visit first over Carleton. Hope to hit that later, though he’s getting fed up.

We are hoping to do a little road trip in the spring to visit UW Madison, possibly Beloit, some schools in the Chicago area. But other than that if he wants to apply to a few far flung schools that is fine. But money matters and the ones he is looking at are more competitive so we’d do an after visit if any of those are feasible.

82

Yes, @Chembiodad , it was too many, but it did seem very manageable, as it was all spread over an 18 month period. We also happen to live near a lot of the schools we visited, so it really wasn’t as difficult as it sounds.

@wisteria100 , haha! My kid ended up at the very last college she visited. And before she got off the WL at her school, she nearly ended up at the school she visited only after being accepted. Could have cut out 22 visits!

Should add, my son has visited Bates, where his sis attends. LACs are not for him:-)

83

D1 visited 10, 6 on a week long tour that she begged for and arranged before her junior year. I thought I’d do the tour just to humor her and spend some time with her, as I knew the main school she wanted to visit was a huge reach and not a great fit. She learned a lot about what was important to her through those visits. She ended up applying to 9, 5 of which she hadn’t visited, and was accepted at 6. She ended up at a school that she added to the grand tour at the last minute because it was along the way.

D2 visited 6, applied to 7 (3 not visited), accepted at 6. She initially thought she didn’t really care where she went to school, so she wasn’t very interested in visiting. I figured this was fine, as long as she applied to a variety of schools she could visit the ones she was accepted to. We appreciated the October acceptance to a school where she met guaranteed admittance requirements! She fell in love with one of the schools she toured, and she loved it even more after the accepted students day.

84

S1, 10 official, + 6 for various high school activities

S2, 9 official +3 for high school activities

D1, who is a junior, 5 official, 3 walk through

85

S visited ten schools prior to senior year for an assortment of HS related activities. Went back to two of the ten for more in depth “official” visits prior to applying. Applied to three of the ten, including the two that were “officially” visited, and then went back to all three applied to for accepted student event visits

86

Lemme see if I can remember (this thread topic recurs frequently on cc):
DS#1: Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Brown, Tufts, Cal Tech, Harvey Mudd, Ga Tech, Rice, Duke. (considered but skipped: UF, Columbia) .

DS#2: Vanderbilt, UNC-CH Hill, Emory, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, USC (California), Tulane, UCLA, College of Charleston, UGA, and I believe 3 more I can’t remember.

87

Our plan: Visit our in-state publics, visit a few far-flung guaranteed merit schools, and visit highly-selective schools only if admitted and financial/merit aid is sufficient.

Our actual: Visit in-state publics, visit a few far-flung guaranteed merit schools, fall in love with one of the guaranteed merit schools and call it done. :slight_smile:

88

So here goes my list of the schools the kid visited:

BC-liked the architecture and that was about it.
BU-tour started in a nice air conditioned room which was a good impression.
Brandeis-underwhelmed by the facilities.
Tufts-loved the cannon and Jumbo, but didn’t get to see the classrooms/dorms.
Harvard for giggles and grins-he did Harvard SSP but there was no way he was applying with his high school grades.
Santa Clara-dragged him to this one since it was my alma mater. It would have been a safety for him but the school didn’t click with him. Maybe because it was raining the day we visited plus Santa Clara is pretty stingy with freebies.
WashU-loved this one. Ted Drewes frozen custard, plenty of bottled water for the humid St. Louis summer day, a free tote bag with school info, and a coupon for lunch at the cafeteria as well as a discount at the school bookstore.

Presentations by schools (not actual visits to the school) in our area:
BU
UChicago
Case Western
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
USC

He had interviews with Brandeis and WashU and had one scheduled for Case that turned out to be a disaster. The local interviewer contacted him and son replied back with some times that were good for him, but he never heard back from the interviewer. It left a bad taste but he still applied EA. We contacted Case as well about the interviewer flaking out and requesting another alumnus interviewer but never heard back. Pretty bad impression.

It was a moot point after he was accepted ED by WashU. Case released its EA results a week after WashU IIRC, but by that time he already cancelled his app. He might consider Case for grad school, but for us Cleveland doesn’t rock…

89

Being so close to so many schools we were able to get in many schools since most were less than an hour away.

DD:

UCI, UCSB, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO, LMU, Occidental, Concordia, Chapman, CSULB, USC, Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps, CMC, USD, Soka, Cal Lutheran, Only out of state schools: Princeton, Yale, ASU

DS:

(Tagged along to ASU, Princeton, Yale, UCSB and SLO, since these were combined with familiy vacations). Then when it was his turn: UCSD, Occidental, Pomona, CMC, Harvey Mudd, UCLA

90

D#1, Over a two year period; many visits combined with seeing family but at least 2 (dedicated) college road trips: Colorado College, University of Denver, UC Boulder, Carleton, UVM, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Williams, Amherst, Hampshire, Wesleyan, Conn College, Tufts, Wheaton (MA), Brown, Dartmouth, Georgetown, American, Swarthmore, Haverford

D#2: Colorado College, Chapman, Scripps, Pitzer, Occidental, Redlands, Lewis & Clark, Puget Sound, Whitman, Willamette, Bates, UVM

Yes it’s a lot! And, we’ve had a lot of fun along the way. D#3 is a few years away from the search process. I will be excited to see where she wants to visit, for some reason this doesn’t get old for me.

91

D#1: SUNY Binghamton, Rutgers, Clark, Northeastern, New Hampshire, CU-Boulder, University of Denver, Pitt, UConn, James Madison, George Mason, American, UMass, Boston University, SUNY New Paltz, Maryland

D#2: Arcadia, Susquehanna, Cornell College, SUNY Purchase, Rider, Drew, Hofstra, Monmouth, Goucher, Rowan

S#3: Rochester, Bucknell, Cornell University, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Penn State, RIT, Northeastern, Emory, Columbia, Rutgers, Wesleyan, Lehigh, Brandeis, Maryland (last two were drive-throughs)

Can you tell how different my 3 kids are?

92

Let’s see…NU, Chicago, UIUC, Loyola, UW, Santa Clara, Cal, Stanford, Rice, Tulane, UAB, Vandy, WUSTL, F&M, Rochester, Tufts, Northeastern, Brandeis, BU, Brown, Princeton, Emory, UVA. And probably a couple more. Between 20 and 25.

I wish I would have made her look at more LACs. She didn’t want a small school, but I think most colleges “feel” a lot bigger than than their enrollment alone would suggest and there are a lot of LACs that would have been a good fit for her.

93

I visited over 50 colleges: something like 52! These include Bryn Mawr, Simmons, Clark, Wheaton (MA), Nazareth, University of Rochester, Boston College, Colby, Colby-Sawyer, Dartmouth, Barnard, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Geneseo, Villanova, UPenn, Brandeis, St. Anselm, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wesleyan, Princeton, Tufts, Hobart and William Smith, Cornell, Hamilton, Colgate, Middlebury, University of New England, Bates, Bowdoin, and a bunch more. I started freshman year of high school. Now I am in senior year and I am waiting for results. Only one (Smith) explicitly said that they do not track demonstrated interest.

94

Official tours:
S1 Two -University of Virginia and William & Mary - ended up at University of Virginia, did not apply to William & Mary
S2 Two- JMU, GMU- ended up at Virginia Tech, which he had seen informally.

We saw lots of schools informally over the years- Duke, Pitt, Penn State, CMU, UCLA, USC, Caltech, VCU, University of Richmond, etc. but minimal formal tours.

95

@sevmom, that’s the beauty of living in a state with a bunch of great public choices.

96

We have been to Cornell, Ithaca, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Barnard, u of Richmond, wm & mary, American, hmm must be more.

97

S18 has visited Brown, Cornell, Williams, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Fordham, Rutgers, University of Vermont and Princeton.

S15 has visited University of Vermont and Middlebury.

We visited quite a few schools before S18 realized what he really wanted was a rural SLAC. So we fit Middlebury in earlier in November, but if we had realized this earlier, we would have changed our visiting plans.

98

It’s been a while, hope I remember:

D: University of Texas, Southwestern University, Tulane, Davidson, William & Mary, Vassar (wouldn’t get out of car), Williams, Skidmore, Hamilton, Allegheny, Centre, Sewanee, Rhodes, Carleton, Macalester. Attended Carleton.

S: UT-Dallas, Carleton, Missouri S&T, Rose Hulman, Allegheny, RPI, WPI, Rochester Institute of Technology. Attended WPI for 2 years, now finishing up at University of Houston.

99

@Chembiodad , yes, it is great to have very good instate choices. Even with that, some kids still want to go elsewhere. Sometimes teenage stuff - I want to get out of town, I worked hard so should be able to go to the best school I can get into, etc. But, also could be that the instate choices are not good fits . Neither of my kids would consider applying to William & Mary. Wonderful school, just not for them. Also, some parents want/expect their kids to pursue merit or need based aid elsewhere and the kids cast a wide net. Many reasons potentially that could influence number of visits. Even in the many states known for good public options

It was stressful for awhile with our oldest,in particular - very high stats kid. He was competitive for top schools, had some athletic interest from a couple of top privates. But no money there and hard to justify more debt when we have such good schools. High stats kids and families in California, Michigan, NC, etc. probably also face the issue of what do do. Do you focus only on instate options, have your kids pursue merit, pay more for a private because your kid wants to go to one?

It’s complicated. Most kids still stay instate, either at community college or their instate publics. And many kids/families in some states seem to have little regard for their instate options and automatically seem to look elsewhere. New Jersey comes to mind from what I’ve seen here. It seems lots of kids are quite happy at their instate schools. College Confidential does not always reflect that reality.

100

Only four — strictly on the basis of the quality of their Engineering schools — University of Michigan, Cornell, University of Maryland, and Penn State. Attended Michigan