Those of you with kids in or past college. How many schools did you visit
in person? Or, more accurately, how many schools did your kid visit live, but maybe you did some and SO did the others?
42 Replies
2y
see Brown, Dartmouth, Yale, Havahd, and MIT. Accepted at Dartmouth and waitlisted at Yale. Only ones to which he applied. Also visited Vandy. Had been to VT forever. Ended up at Rice Bioengineering. No clue why other than disliking cold. Did two yrs of research at MD Anderson after grad. Decided on Med School. Applied to VT ( Carrilion) and MCV. Wait listed in prestigious MCV combined degree program. In First class of VT Carrilion.
Now 8 yrs later … a Neurosurgeon at Lehigh Med, teaching and surgerizing peoples brains. Those that have them.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
her to Ohio for the weekend). That's the school she choose.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
which, based on your screenname, is your home state school.
(In response to this post by VermontHokie)
2y
I’m hoping making that trip once deters her from wanting to go there. I’ve been to Burlington and loved it, but it is not easy to get to from Colorado.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
for our tour, the Burlington Airport was mentioned, and it was noted that there was a direct flight to a Colorado city. Boulder maybe? Wasn't Denver.
A family on the tour with us said "Yes, there is". And they were from Colorado. I don't know if they took that flight, but they confirmed it existed.
(In response to this post by North Main Hokie)
2y
I think we already discussed this on this board.
There is a direct flight from Denver to Burlington, but it’s seasonal and ends after Labor Day.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
We made a point to drive around nearby college campuses wherever and whenever we were close to them. I don't have an exact count -- but it didn't matter anyway. He knew that he wanted to go to Virginia Tech pretty much from the time he was born, so when he was admitted early decision it was a pretty easy process.
My second born has been recruited by several schools to play soccer. If not for that his number would also be very low. He's a senior in high school now and has expressed no interest in visiting schools for any purpose other than soccer.
I've got one more in the house who is a high school sophomore. Tech is his first choice but he has also expressed interested in N.C. State. We'll see how that goes.
FWIW, I kind of mimic what my own parents did. Particularly during my high school years we visited schools up and down the east coast in conjunction with other travels. But Tech was always my first choice and that's where I ended up.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
could top a quaint university in Blacksburg.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
none
my kid was in high school in the UK…he applied to 20 schools and got into 19…bite me NYU…
Too hard to visit anywhere due to his location
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
My daughter has never spent any significant amount of time on any college campus, and really had no idea what she wanted in a school. So we decided to try to expose her to a variety of environments to see if anything stuck. This was more on our initiative than hers, so I certainly don't feel like I've been had. Mrs. NMH and I both like to travel, and I especially love visiting college towns.
If you think your credit card is burning up....we live in Colorado, and there aren't a ton of schools within driving distance. She's visited CSU, and will visit Boulder (where her mom went) but all the others have involved getting on a plane. Five of those were on one trip, which we combined into a family vacation and also went to the beach and a national park. Three others were a long weekend (wife and daughter) and two others were another long weekend (daughter and I). We're going to look at Oregon and Oregon St. over fall break (and also spending a few days on the coast) and might do another visit or two depending on where she gets in. And that could include a trip to Blacksburg, as she's applying to Tech and has never been there.
Hope this makes you feel better about the money you've spent. :-)
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
S
Sportn
2y
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
that she wanted to visit at the end of her sophomore year. No prodding from my wife or me required. She ended up narrowing it down to 11. We made 5 road trips (all schools were in VA, NC and SC). It was a lot of fun. My wife had a conflict on the SC trip, so my daughter and I made the long road trip from RIC to SC (visited Clemson and Furman). It was one of my favorite father-daughter times, which are rare once they become teenagers.
Her favorite campus visit to a school she had never been to was Wake. It was the only school that she asked to go to the bookstore to buy some gear before we left. Wake was extremely welcoming to everyone on the visit! Least favorite was Duke...during the intro they told everyone that 90% of you aren't getting in. Made you feel like they were wasting their time.
Ironically, she ended up graduating from CNU, which was not one of the 11 schools that she visited in HS!
She is currently in the last year of her third degree, a DNP (Doctorate of Nursing Practice) from VCU.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
We had been to VT dozens of times. A week before the matriculation fee was due, she flipped to VT. No drama for 2nd daughter, VT all the way.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
Middle kid really had no idea about college. All he knew is he wanted to swim, play water polo, and study mechanical engineering with swimming and ME being the two most important. He had official visits to five schools. He was not interested in going places just for the visit, which is totally his personality. He went to the last school he visited, a small midwestern school in the snow belt. It was 13 degrees and snowing. He loved it and enjoyed every minute he was there and got all three things he wanted.
#3 had a wide array of schools recruiting her to swim, and she narrowed it down to about 6. Due to covid, a number of the visits were us taking her to campus and looking around and virtual tours. Only one school had a real on-campus tour. That coach also gave a virtual tour that was him walking around the facilities on a Zoom call. That school was where she eventually went to, and we almost didn't even go on the visit. That said, he ultimately chose the school that he felt had his academic success most important.
You need to get out and see the different schools to get a feel for them. I believe that more than 5 or 6 is excessive and just creates more noise in the decision and is also not cost effective. I know people whose kids applied to 14 schools. That in itself is excessively expensive.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
In my day you picked a school sight unseen and prayed to God you liked it
when you got there. Kids today are spoiled!
(In response to this post by Happy Dog)
2y
and when she got in and got a scholarship that fully covered tuition, we were kinda done.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
excessive.
And my credit card bills this summer reflect the excess, since 12 of these visits involved overnight stays (hotel) and longer than 90 minute drives (gas) and therefore a lot of meals in restaurants as well.
And the leading contender at this point is likely to get a 2nd visit to see what it's like when students are fully on campus.
Visit expenditures are approaching the full cost of 1 semester at the 1 state school on her list.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
At that level of expense, it's cheaper to apply first, and then visit to choose from amongst those she was accepted at.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
** Edited by bigbadbird at 8/23/2023, 9:46:25 AM
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
know, actually paying for college?
(In response to this post by bigbadbird)
Our twins visited six between them.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
at least one more (JMU) to come. Second kid knew he wanted to go to VT or Syracuse - visited both and he graduated from VT last year.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
N
No Clue
2y
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
Since he had gone to boarding school for high school, it was a great opportunity for some father-son bonding.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
but probably visited 3 or 4 - one kid had two unofficial visits and the other had a prob 3- but both played sports- it just depends - we knew there were limits on where ours would fit and what we would pay so we didn't waste alot of time on schools i felt like were a stretch
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
In his 4th year, and could not be happier with his choice.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
William and Mary and uva. The uva tour guide says "most of you won't get accepted here but we will give you the tour anyway" and smugly chortled.
We looked at each other and left immediately skipping the tour and my friend still went there.
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)
2y
(In response to this post by Late 80s Hokie)