For Prepx3D it was Tufts…not horrible, but the campus seemed cramped and grey and all of the students we encountered there did not seem grossly happy about being there. Great school with amazing programs, but the vibe there on that particular day was enough for her to focus her efforts elsewhere
@Mnacttutor it was me who called WashU a Stepford campus and my kid goes there. I guess at the end it comes to best fit and comfort level.
We had a very similar takeaway after our Cal visit 2 years ago. Our son however did apply because of the strength Berkeley has in his area of interest. In the end, he was accepted at Cal but he was also accepted at his first and second choice schools. We breathed a sigh of relief because we did not feel Cal was a match for him. Interestingly, a friends son did attend Cal. His feedback is that the academics are great, however, you have to endure quite a bit of non-academic disruptions.
Webster in STL. We thought it would be “the one”…it was nowhere near that. The campus looks like a historical beauty; it has a few nice historical buildings and the rest clunky 70’s offices. The tour guide was not “socially adept” and just kept talking about his clubs and had nothing to offer about why the campus was completely deserted on a Saturday at 1:00pm.
My D eliminated Brandeis once we pulled up to the campus. The architecture was probably once considered modern but now just looks sad. The campus was also unkempt. We did manage to sit through the admissions session which was chock full of young HS school students from NJ. We actually were the only people in the crowded session not from NJ. We left before tour.
I am amazed by the number of schools some of you visit: 19, 22? Where do you find the time (and travel money)? In all honesty, we visited just four schools for my son - two of them twice. My son had some very strong dislikes that negated a lot of exceptional schools within his desired 250 mile radius of home. He excluded many of them on paper by researching websites, comparing all sorts of numbers from common data sets. We tried to get him to visit some of those he excluded on paper and succeeded once. His response: “This is exactly what I thought it would be and I have no interest in attending.” We didn’t try that again! ;)) SUNY Geneseo was that school - great school, too small and rural for him. I will say that after the visits his #3 and #1 switched positions.
@choguy1 , a lot of people who see a bunch of schools make a vacation out of it. Or, they visit schools nearby, within a couple of hours drive. I live in the Northeast, where there are a lot of colleges in a fairly concentrated area. My daughter and I visited 23, but quite a few of those were drive-throughs, or “X college is nearby, let’s take a look, just because.” In contrast, my son, a junior, has visited 6 colleges (not including the one his sister attends) and isn’t likely to see many more. Different kid, different priorities. Plus, I learned my lesson the first time!
We live in the NE as well; metro Philadelphia area. There are so many terrific and diverse options within a three hour drive north, south, and west of us. We also began visits in sophomore year since 8 schools that interested us were within a 1.5 drive from our home. We also have family to visit in the NYC area, making more college visit trips convenient. Depending on where you live, 22 schools is not so many to visit if you start early. I’m not necessarily recommending that it’s a good idea for all prospective students and families to do this much touring. I wanted my kid to start reflecting on the possibilities out there before junior year. I was also obsessive about learning as much as I could from first hand experience before sending her away to college.
We did info sessions and tours of 19 colleges, in the Northeast and on the West Coast, as well as DC area. We did not venture to Chicago or Midwest area. We did this twice in 3 years for both students, many were the same colleges, some were different.
For first student, we did most of them in one spring/summer, which seemed like a lot.
For second student we were more organized and started earlier winter of Junior year (Feb) instead of Spring and took scheduled info sessions and tours on Fridays during the summer, trying not to see more than 2 schools in a day or 3 on a single weekend trip. In the DC area, we hit, JHU, Georgetown, GW, and William and Mary all in a long weekend.
I’d advocate to start as early as Sophomore year and take your time.
“I’m not worthy”…in awe of your efforts and organization. I guess you are correct about near-by colleges: We only visited 1 of 5 that are in our county. He quickly ruled the others out. Looking within his 250 mile radius, it probably would have been possible to visit 20+.
“I am amazed by the number of schools some of you visit: 19, 22? Where do you find the time (and travel money)?”
Each of our kids visited around 18-20 schools (they had some overlap in schools but visited at different times). They had a 3 week March break so some of that time was used and we also visited some at the end of summer before the went back to school in September. Cost-wise, we did it pretty cheaply, choosing to drive and bidding for great hotel deals on Priceline. We kept a cooler of drinks and snacks in the car for both convenience and $ savings. We had a sit down dinner every night but it was often places that weren’t expensive as one goal was to check out things near campuses. We’d often eat at places recommended by students working in admissions offices - that ramen joint, thai, or indian joint a few blocks away. Good reconnaissance, too. 
We often saw 2 schools per day so it was possible to squeeze in 8-9 in a week. It was actually pretty fun and good parent/child bonding time. I feel like I learned a lot about my kids through the process.
As a parent, our visit to American University was a bit underwhelming. Told us there were no tour guides since it was first week of classes. Gave a cartoonish video presentation in the admissions office, that gave us the feel that they needed to sell a bit too hard. Location was nice, but the school itself, was left with no information nor desire to return.
Did not rule out due to the DC location but our tour of GW was much more informative, and the school seemed more serious of an academic institution.
Many years ago as a student myself, flew to WUSTL for an interview regarding a full scholarship.
Was pretty turned off to the point did not want the scholarship. The students I met just seemed all work, no play.
Just didn’t feel excited to be there. I hear great things about the school, but it wasn’t for me.
The outcome can be major specific too. Visited SUNY Binghamton with my prospective engineering student,
and the building looked like it was stuck in the 1960s. OK that the library was so old, but the engineering building ?
Too small a part of the school, appeared to get insufficient funding as is needed at an engineering school.
So while one kid was considering going there for liberal arts, the other ruled it out for engineering immediately.
Rice University - Paid $25 to park for a 2-hour campus visit which consisted of a very unanimated admissions officer giving a 1-hour powerpoint that I could have viewed on my computer in 20 minutes. Then a tour through the beautiful campus but the only building we got to go inside was a single dorm room which was completely bare except for the mattress leaning against the wall. Oh, they did give us a bottle of lukewarm water after the tour in July heat. Their marketing materials consisted of 2 pages of white paper stapled together. DS response “this place looks boring”. DH response: “they are resting on their laurels”…followed by “I hate Houston”.
parking at Rice is $12 per day max, you should ask for a refund. Too bad on the visit Rice is an amazing school, in a great part of Houston.
Probably a repeat comment for me…but I care more about what happens in the classroom than is the food good/are the dorms new/is the lawn pretty. The former is for the kids; the latter is mostly for the parents. Mediocre food and cramped dorms are frankly part of the bonding experience at college…gets them ready for their next phase where they now make their own mediocre food in their cramped apartments. 
@Stuffedquahog I’ve been on a Masters Swim Team at that same Falcons school for the last 15 years and always know a couple of their varsity swimmers each year. Really great kids…and they go on to really good things after graduation.
We did 15. The key was setting a criteria first (what part of the country, what size, etc.) There are so many good schools out there. You can’t see them all. Live in FL. Basically planned a Boston trip (originally from there, vacation there so just made it part of our vacation- saw Harvard, BC, BU , Bentley in 3 days). VA trip saw UVA, Richmond, William and Mary in two days and stayed in Williamsburg for 2 days than off to DC for the rest of a family trip. Then did a separate NC trip where we saw Duke, UNC and Wake Forest on our way to a mountain vacation. So we combined most of it with family plans. Made a separate quick trip to Philly to see Lehigh and Villanova. (That was the only trip that was just me and my son)
I planned it all out about 6 months ahead of time. It was actually pretty fun. My wife and I want to go back to college now.
“It was actually pretty fun. My wife and I want to go back to college now.”
I think you may have gotten off on the wrong floor. I suggest that you find a more cheerful thread before you start infecting us with optimism. You may also want to consider some light reading to help you with that attitude. How about some Dante? Perhaps, Candide, it always restores my equilibrium.
@SwimmingDad - you’re not the only one that feels that way, but we might be alone in our thinking. It’s funny to read the descriptions of why someone didn’t like a college and realize people truly are considering things like how long the grass is or whether the architecture is a style they prefer. Guess we all pick for different reasons and that’s probably a good thing or everybody would apply to the same place.
@milee30 my kid puts a priority on a pretty school. The high school he attends has fantastic teachers but it suffers from decades of physical neglect and really ought to be condemned and torn down. He has a bit of the artist’s soul. He really wants something aesthetically pleasant in his environment. And honestly, there are enough good schools around that filtering out the ones that he thinks are ugly is as good a way as any to narrow down the search.
Definitely not buying the lousy food/bad dorm makes for a better bonding experience. Bad food is just bad. In my W&L days the spaghetti was more like a soup and it in no way helped my experience. If there was a college that charged less because it had crappy old dorms and hideous food but had the same level of academics we would’ve looked at it. In fact I’m surprised that some institutions haven’t tried to corner that market.
I’m sure everyone here agrees that the class experience and learning is far more important than cafeteria food and dorm luxuries. But for us during our tour the lectures were minuscule or non-existent samples and we had little or no way to grade. They all say it’s intellectual and demanding and awesome and kids go on to do great things, and extrapolating from one hour in the classroom is optimistic. For my kid just going from a first semester 101 to a 2nd semester 271 course has been an enormous jump in terms of intellectualism and intensity. Had he sat in one rather than the other during our tour we surely would have drawn wildly different conclusions about the institution. We assessed those things largely through the data (grad rate, majors bestowed, placement, etc.) rather than the tours.
I do believe that a great campus - dorms, food, general aesthetics - can help bind a potentially wayward kid to the school and help to keep them on the right track. For some very together kids that probably isn’t necessary. But for some (okay mine) it’s another reason to work hard and earn another day there.
Anyway, back to bitching. UMBC, York, Stevenson: Blech, blech, blech.