<p>Agree that it depends on the kid, but we never did it. We did take much younger sibling along, which benefited her but may have very slightly distracted older S. </p>
<p>It’s such an important phase in life that I wouldn’t want the distraction of other kids and I found the time as a family invaluable. In the end, the only application overlap my kids had with their friends was with state schools, which we to this day have not visited as they are remote and those schools didn’t makemit to the final two for either kid.</p>
<p>Obviously other people feel differently, but looking at D’s friends, three are attending regional Catholic colleges majoring in business or social work, one at a state uni majoring in business and another at an art college. D is majoring in a liberal art. The group has stayed very close and visit each other’s campuses, but there were two outliers in that group who were not looking for the same kinds of things in a college, not to mention that two are athletes on scholarship and each family has different funding issues.</p>
<p>If your high schooler’s friends’ interests are closely aligned, I’d say that’s unusual. I can’t think of a single reason I would turn the college search into a group activity.</p>