<p>The moral of 3inCollege’s son’s predicament is to do EVERYTHING possible to at least visit the colleges you apply to (even if you can’t make it to a big recruiting weekend event). Colleges tend to have a certain vibe that is a combination of the architecture, landscaping, students, pace, and dozens of other mysterious factors, and you can’t sense the vibe without actually being there. Considering how much blood, sweat, tears, and $ goes into applying to college and getting through 4 years of it, I can’t imagine a better investment than SOMEHOW giving the student the opportunity to stroll the campuses he/she is applying to. </p>
<p>It’s amazing to me that one of the thousands of wheeler-dealers on collegeconfidential who says he’s going to major in business and take Wall Street by storm doesn’t get his hands on a van, some tents, and a couple chaperones and start a business in which he takes kids from cash-strapped families on bare-bones tours of areas where there are a lot of colleges.</p>