visiting colleges

[luvmyfam444]

DD is just a junior - but I have seen some of her friends already visiting (even a sophomore friend).

I know we get 2 days off of school to visit as a jr. Just not sure if it's time. maybe I'm in denial.

I just figure they don't want to talk to us until her senior year.

I also don't have a clue what to expect....since she's my 1st.

 

[mamamary]

We waited until my son was a senior to look and we regret it. My DD is a sophomore and we will start soon with her.

 

[Pigeon]

We did it on weekends and over the summers. I wouldn't leave it to senior year. Most kids do it earlier. We don't get excused days for college visits.

 

[NHdisneylover]

DD is a senior now.

All of her applications were in in August (and for the best scholarships MUST be in by Dec 1) and she has already been accepted to one of her top pics.

She would have been a mess of worry if we had waited until this year to start looking.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

DD is just a junior - but I have seen some of her friends already visiting (even a sophomore friend).

I know we get 2 days off of school to visit as a jr. Just not sure if it's time. maybe I'm in denial.

I just figure they don't want to talk to us until her senior year.

I also don't have a clue what to expect....since she's my 1st.

A coworker of mine has a HS JR who is already signed up with a scholarship to play Lacrosse.

My youngest is a SR and we did not tour like crazy, however her list is short. We have done 3 so far. Looking to do one more tour.

So it will depend on your dd and how many colleges she is going to look into. If you are looking at a bunch of schools you do need to start sooner. There are only so many "college tours" available throughout the yr.

Has she taken the PSAT/ACT/SAT yet? That really helps you gauge which colleges are her "reach schools" and which are her "safety schools".

If she is going to attend college it is certainly something worth looking into. Go to a couple of college tours this yr so you can get an idea of how you want to proceed.

Keep it mind that you need to sort of have an idea of some of the schools by a certain date of your SR YR if you are looking at scholarship or merit money.

Here our "deadline date" is Dec. 1st to submit an application to qualify for scholarship money at most of the schools dd is applying for.

 

[Hrhpd]

DD is just a junior - but I have seen some of her friends already visiting (even a sophomore friend).

I know we get 2 days off of school to visit as a jr. Just not sure if it's time. maybe I'm in denial.

I just figure they don't want to talk to us until her senior year.

I also don't have a clue what to expect....since she's my 1st.

Many early decision application deadlines are Nov 1 or earlier. Our son applied to 6 schools, all 4 of the top tiers had an early decision deadline of Nov. 1, one Nov. 15 and his safety school, Dec. 1. So a senior had better have a good idea where they want to go by the time they start their senior year if they want to take advantage of early decision.

We did our visits junior year. I cannot imagine doing them during the senior year. That would be way too stressful. Our kids were much better going into senior year already having a good idea what their top choices were. If you already know where you want to go and the requirements, you can make decisions whether to take the ACT/SAT one more time, to do early decision and a host of other decisions.

 

[Newsies]

Hi. Current HS senior here.

I just went on my first college visit last sunday. The school I was visiting (PACE University) was my top choice and was right in NYC, so it was really close and we knew we had to go to the open house. Honestly, I don't regret not going to visit schools sooner. I had a list of colleges I wanted to apply to, but some of them were further away than we'd like to drive out to for visiting. Our philosophy was to wait until I was accepted to a certain college to visit if it was xx amount of miles away. For example- I'm applying to URI for the curriculum and programs, but Rhode Island is a 3 hour drive. If I get accepted and I still want to go, we'll take a weekend trip down. I also want to go to a school down the shore that's a couple of hours away- I'm visiting this December just because we'll be down there for the weekend.

Sorry for the long tangent. Just wanted to put my opinion into this.

 

[luvmyfam444]

I want dd to look into more schools than she wants. She has in her mind her degree & there are only 5 schools nearby that offer it. So she is limiting herself to those schools for now.

I need to figure out how to broaden her thinking. Cause I'm not sure her degree is one that she will stick with - but I don't want to tell her that.

We have discussed all kinds of degrees out there -but she sticks with her original thought.

 

[luvmyfam444]

what is the difference between tours & preview days? Is there a time that's better to visit or does it matter?

 

[sam_gordon]

Don't feel bad OP, my junior DD also hasn't visited any colleges. She know what she wants her degree in, but I don't get the feeling she knows what colleges she's interested in.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

what is the difference between tours & preview days? Is there a time that's better to visit or does it matter?

Colleges call it different things.

I was here last weekend for a tour. They call it "Saturday Showcase Visits".
http://www.truman.edu/admission-cost/visit-truman/showcases/

Look up the visit schedules of the colleges with the majors your dd is interested in.

 

[elgerber]

We did all our visits Junior year, and she had selected her choice by the end of that school year. I am so glad we didn't wait until senior year. It's much easier and less stressful to have it all done by then.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I would say if your child is not expected to get much scholarship-wise (average or just above average student) is not being recruited for athletics or musical/acting ability, or some other talent, then waiting till Spring or summer before senior year is fine.

If your child stands a chance at some scholarship money or sports/music scholarships, you would want to start earlier narrowing down your schools.

 

[wishesuponastar]

What does reach or safety school mean?

My daughter is a Junior and we started looking this Summer. It seems less stressful to start early.

 

[sonnyjane]

What does reach or safety school mean? My daughter is a Junior and we started looking this Summer. It seems less stressful to start early.

Safety school: A school, often in-state, that you're essentially guaranteed to get into. So if all else fails, you'll be able to go there. In HS I lived in PA, our typical safety school was Penn State.

Reach is the opposite. A place that you have maybe not the best chance of getting into but will try. For example, Harvard or Yale were popular reach schools when I was applying 15 years ago.

 

[wishesuponastar]

thank you Sonnyjane.

 

[mom2travel]

Safety school: A school, often in-state, that you're essentially guaranteed to get into. So if all else fails, you'll be able to go there. In HS I lived in PA, our typical safety school was Penn State. Reach is the opposite. A place that you have maybe not the best chance of getting into but will try. For example, Harvard or Yale were popular reach schools when I was applying 15 years ago.

I would add to the safety school definition to say that it is also a place you can afford - either the tuition or meet the criteria for a guaranteed scholarship

 

[DisneyNutMary]

My DS is a junior, we just visited our third college today- with one in Sept and one in Oct. The group today was a 50/50 split juniors and seniors. This was a specialized college geared toward Engineering majors.
This is my second time down this road, my older one is a college senior. With him we did a major college road trip during his spring break of junior year with smaller trips throughout the summer.
I like starting early, getting a feel for what he likes and going back for a second visit to the schools he liked. I learned a valuable lesson with my older one...there will be a campus that will feel like home the minute he walks into campus- that will be the school for him! It took us a lot of visits with the first, but the "one" was a dark horse, we went there on a whim, it was low on his list. But he knew from that first visit, and four years later he is still there, still happy as a clam to be there and I have seen him grow and gain confidence in these four years.
Go with your gut. If you think you will need to see a lot of schools to find her match, start early. If you think a few will do, then start later so you can schedule application interviews and get the whole process done in one visit.

 

[czycropper]

I have a DD who's a Jr. and we've gone to 5 college visits (one was an Open House) and have 7 to go. We told her to pick 12 colleges that she's interested in looking at..basically it's 3 colleges in Boston, DC, NY & here in NJ. It was my DD's choice to start now but some of her friends haven't even started and aren't planning to start until the summer.

 

[aprilgail2]

DD is just a junior - but I have seen some of her friends already visiting (even a sophomore friend).

I know we get 2 days off of school to visit as a jr. Just not sure if it's time. maybe I'm in denial.

I just figure they don't want to talk to us until her senior year.

I also don't have a clue what to expect....since she's my 1st.

My daughter started 10th grade this year and so far we have visited/toured 3 colleges, Dartmouth, Columbia and NYU. We are driving cross country in July so I told her to figure out what other places she wanted to see and we would stop at them on our road trip. Her heart is really set on NYU but they have a low acceptance rate so she has to have some fall backs- Columbia is even less, I think they said 13%. She didn't care for Dartmouth.