Posted on January 20, 2023

College visits are an important and exciting milestone in the college admissions process. For many students and their parents, stepping on a college campus as a prospective student makes this new chapter in their lives feel real for the first time. Meeting current students, lounging in the quad, sitting in on a class, and perusing the library can help students identify what they want in a college and tailor their lists accordingly.

At the same time, for all their excitement, college visits are a significant financial undertaking and require intentional scheduling and forethought. Parents should start their planning early to relieve some of the stress and ensure that the visits won’t cause too much disruption to their student’s other important commitments. As you begin to plan your visits, here are 5 important things to keep in mind:

1. Aim to visit colleges during junior spring

The ideal timing for college visits tends to be the spring semester of a student’s junior year. While students may choose to tour a college before this point, they will have a more accurate sense of their test scores during their junior year and thus be able to create a balanced college list on the basis of how their scores compare to the average scores for applicants admitted to schools they are interested in. Students may have a couple of high reach schools on their college list, but it is not generally the best use of time and resources to visit schools where your student’s grades and test scores fall below the 25th percentile for admitted students.

While it may be tempting to use the extended summer break for college visits, students will get the most out of their visits by touring the school when students are present on campus. Consequently, spring break or a long weekend during the spring semester are prime opportunities to travel to prospective schools. This will not only give your student a better sense of the school’s culture, but also provides them the opportunity to sit in on a class and get a more organic experience of the school’s academics.

2. Be strategic with your budget

Traveling for college visits may feel like an intimidating financial prospect—however, with the right planning, you can make the most of your budget. First and foremost, it is important to discuss and allocate a specific budget for college visits and communicate that to your student. You can mitigate some of the cost by organizing family vacations and other trips in the locations of the schools on your student’s list, particularly if they intend to visit schools a bit further from home. It can also alleviate some of the burden to visit a few schools that are within a reasonable distance of each other so that you do not have to plan multiple trips to different regions. While the schools in the vicinity of one of your student’s top college prospects might not be as exciting to them, visiting is still worthwhile to get a sense of different types of campuses, student bodies, and programs. Encourage your student to keep an open mind and perhaps compare some of the features of the college to another top school on their list.

3. Visit a variety

A balanced college list typically includes 12-15 total schools, and it is almost certain that your student will not have the opportunity to visit all of them prior to submitting applications. In light of this, when selecting which schools on your student’s list to visit, try to incorporate a wide variety to help your student get a better understanding of their preferences. Plan to visit schools of different sizes, settings (rural/urban/suburban), and types (public/private, liberal arts/research institution). Before and during campus visits, encourage your student to not only consider their overall impression of school itself, but also identify what specific attributes of the school they like and dislike. This will help them to hone their list and have a more clear sense of what they want for their learning environment over the coming four years.

4. Prepare questions in advance

Once on campus, it is easy for students and families to get caught up in the sheer amount of activity and forget some of the important information they wanted to acquire while on the visit. In order to stay focused, plan to write out your questions in advance and bring them to any admissions Q&As or one-on-one meetings you may have. Students should also bring a notebook and their questions with them as they sit in on a class or converse with students in the dining hall or on their campus tour.

5. If you can’t make it in person, explore virtual tour options

When it comes to schools that you will not be able to visit in person, many schools offer sophisticated online resources to give you and your student a taste of what the campus experience is like. Many top schools such as Harvard, Columbia, and Dartmouth offer live Q&As, synchronous and asynchronous campus tours, and information sessions. In addition, students and families can check out www.campusreel.org to attend virtual tours of hundreds of colleges guided by current students. Students can also reach out to admissions representatives to inquire about meeting alumni in their area—getting together with an alum or a current student can help to bring the valuable insider perspective of a student-led campus tour to their own hometown.

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