College Tour -- VIrginia/NC
 

My son (junior) and I are planning to visit some colleges in March. I welcome any advice you can give. I thought we might see some schools in Virginia -- Richmond, Wm and Mary and U Va. Could we also take in some NC schools -- Elon???, UNC and Duke, maybe Davidson? Or should we plan those separately. We also want to see Emory, but I don't see that happening now. Am I forgetting any schools you would recommend for a good student? I don't want to overwhelm him so wonder about just doing VA now and maybe NC in the summer. We also plan to see New England/NY schools in the summer and probably plan a trip to Chicago. Feel free to e-mail, too at [email protected] Thanks!!

My DD (senior) applied to many of the schools you mentioned.

Regarding the NC schools, you can realistically do two a day. Davidson is the orphan in Charlotte, which is a couple of hours away from the others. I'd do UNC and Duke one day and Elon and Davidson the next.

Most (and all of the ones you've mentioned) schools offer both information sessions & tours with the tours being the big payoff for look and feel of university life. I'd definitely recommend doing the info sessions at Chapel Hill and Duke because both of those are so fiercely competitive and you do get a sense of where your kid falls in the mix. If you had to skip an info session, I'd miss Elon's. It's the least competitive of the 4 you're looking at and you can go back at a later date.

For the VA schools, Richmond is about an hour from both Cville and Wmbg so you could probably fit W&M or UVA in with whatever Richmond school you're looking at. You could see the third the next day and then travel on to NC. Or any of the VA schools could be a day trip.

How many days are you planning to be on the road? I think it would take most of week to see what you've listed if you're planning on doing the official tours. They seem mostly to be scheduled in the 10am and 2pm range.

Good luck. And remember, you can always visit fall or spring of senior year.

Just a general hint - have your son keep a notebook and write down what he liked and disliked about each college after visiting. When you do a lot of college visits in a short amount of time, they all begin to blur and you start to forget who said what, which had this or that, etc. My son used to rank each college based on factors he felt were important. He is now a senior in college and has never regretted his choice. Have fun - by the third or fourth college, you'll be able to give the info session in your sleep!

Hi burry - that is a lot of schools! Does your son have any idea how large of a school he'd like to attend? There's a huge difference in size between UNC and Elon or Davidson, for example, so that might help you narrow down your list and save some time. If he's still undecided and you're looking for an overview, that's a list of some great schools (except Duke, of course... says the UNC alum ;)).

I'm inserting my personal preference here, but if it were me, I'd prefer to spend more than half a day at each school. I'd like to get a feel for the different towns as well as the campuses. Just a suggestion. mma's suggestion about keeping a notebook is a great one - she's right that the specifics will run together after a day or two. Good luck - it's a big task!

Not sure of your requirements for schools, but in the same vein as U of R you might look into Randolph-Macon in Ashland which is just north of Richmond. For reference, it's closer to the size of U of R (and probably Davidson) than UVa or W&M.

Look into Guilford College (Quaker college near Greensboro)? Not same level as Duke, etc., but a very specific experience.

It is diffficult to decide what kind of college touring experience is going to be best for your child. You would think that it would be better to research schools online first to narrow them down but my daughter really needed to visit campuses before she could even decide large vs small. Elon was too small for her, UNC Chapel Hill too large. You might want to include Wake-Forest in your NC tour. It isn't far from Elon.

Good luck to you daughter, Obxgirl, with the college responses.

Check out Roanoke College in Salem, VA for a high quality, small college, liberal arts experience. A little out of the way for your VA visit, but worth looking at its information before you finalize your trip.

Thanks for all the hints. I definitely will get him a notebook to keep track of his experiences. I know we have many different kinds of schools listed, but my son is pretty wide open right now so I think we need to see a few to decide. After further research, I think we will skip Elon (although I hear it is lovely). I was thinking of U VA first, then U Richmond, then maybe Wm and Mary. We might want to see Washington and Lee but that is totally in the other direction! Then I think we'll head south to UNC and Duke-- and maybe Davidson. I think Wake has too many core requirements for his taste, but other than that it's a great school. The question is should we spend more time at fewer schools? Or at least the ones we think are more important to him. So maybe we would spend a day at UVA, then 1/2 days at U Richmond and Wm and Mary. I guess we could go over to Washingon and Lee if he thinks it would be a decent fit. Then we could go down to the NC schools. Just thinking on paper here.......all suggestions appreciated.

I don't know how you plan to schedule these college visits, but the way the Admissions Offices schedule the information sessions and the campus tours, I don't see how you could visit more than one college a day unless they were in the same city (or within a few miles of each other). I've heard of some families just walking around the campus on their own and calling that a "college visit", but I think it's really important to go to those information sessions because you WILL learn a lot about what they are looking for in an application--stuff that won't be on the website or in the literature. In addition to the admissions info session and the campus tour, your son might want to consider arranging a visit to the department where he intends to study. For example, my daughter is a theatre major, so we arranged to meet with the undergraduate advisor for the theatre department at each college she visited. They welcomed these visits and were more than happy to explain their program and show us around the various theatres and technical departments. My son intended to apply for an ROTC scholarship so we arranged to meet with a representative from each of the ROTC departments on campus. Likewise, he got a lot of good information on how to apply for a scholarship and what kind of cadet they were looking for in awarding a scholarship. Thus, our campus visits generally turned into an all-day affair but it was time well-spent. (BTW, we visited a lot of the same campuses you intend to visit--UVA, W&M and UNC.)

My advice on this is always wait and see where your son gets in and then visit the schools before deciding. Of course, schools that require an on campus interview, require an on campus interview if you are serious about them and you have to go. All colleges (even the ivies) look the same after awhile.

Good luck. With our first child, we went to many schools for tours and info sessions. After a while, he didn't want to go to the info sessions, just the tours. Looking back, the college trips were great.

Our second child, after one trip to see 6 schools, decided that was enough and she would see the schools when and if she got in. Well she's gotten in to quiet a few and now the plan to see them seems overwhelming, so we are waiting to see what the schools offer before looking. The trouble with this is that the schools are far apart and the time to look is getting short. It was a bit of a mistake to let her loose with the common app and a credit card. Some of the schools don't charge an application fee if done online. I think she applied to all of those.

We did this 2 years ago - same schools/same area. (Dtr is a very happy freshman at Elon). We took a week in the summer and visited what felt like every college in the same area you are visiting. We did a DC/Baltimore segment, then headed to western VA and up to Pennsyulvania. I agree with some, disagree with others in the advice you have been given.

First - I think it is a good thing that these schools are very different in size, competitiveness, etc. The best advice we got when both kids were applying to college came from the admission officer at a very competitive school - "the most elite, most competitive school your kid can get accepted by may not be the right match". See a variety of school types - it will help you add or eliminate some later.

We visited 2 schools/day - and for us the fact that it was summer did not greatly detract from the experience - there were still some students around and seeing young adults in jeans carrying backpacks did not give us a great deal more info. Neither did the tours - which all became a blur - see a classroom, see a dorm, see the laundry rooms (they for some reason always show you these). The admissions talk was usually informative - gave you some idea of competitiveness and what was important in application (best advice there - one admissions person said "I have never read a bad letter of recommendation - they all say your kids are wonderful" so don't sweat these as much.

Start collecting stuff in an organized way - I was the trip and paper organizer for both my kids but after that stayed out of the process. I used plastic holders - this becomes important later. Get a map of the area and mark off locations of schools - I am a visual person so geography started to make sense only when I saw it on a map.

See how much time you have - and map out a route. Avoid saying "but we are so close, we have to go see...." You can go back later. A few schools for us ended up being drive-bys and we actually left a tour after 30 minutes because we both hated the school. We never felt the need to spend more than a half day at any school. It is usually possible to see one school in AM, one in PM. Keep notes, stuff them into those plastic folders. If by chance he is able to fit in an interview at any school, you can haul out the plastic folder as you drive there and he can learn a little about the school so he sounds intelligent.

GET A GPS if you do not have one. It allowed us to ride/wander around the college area and case the surroundings and then still find our way back to the school.

Remember where you parked the car - seriously. After a few days of this I had no memory of where in a garage we parked our car at a big Virginia school and found myself wandering around using the clicker to try to find my car. My daughter was not amused, but she didn't remember either.

Get hotels with breakfast - eating out gets old really fast on these trips and it will allow your son to sleep in a little later on some days.

My daughter started the trip certain she wanted to go to one school, ended up not even applying there, and fell in love with 2 very unlikely schools. It was an exhausting bittersweet trip that I am glad we made.

And after seeing a zillion colleges and me telling her I was DONE - we were not visiting any other schools - she convinced her father to fly with her for a day trip to Elon, loved it, applied early decision. But if not for seeing so many schools, this would not have been possible.

Good luck.

If you can handle the time and money, your son may well end up visiting some campuses more than once. Nothing wrong with a jr. year go-see drive-around, but if he gets serious about any of them, he really does have to spend time on campus, sitting in on classes, talking to people. Our son ended up visiting his eventual choice 4 times - and until the 4th visit, it wasn't even among his top 3 schools:

1st visit, the walk-around. 2nd visit, the official tour and interview. 3rd visit (when it was down to a choice of 3) to talk to students and faculty instead of admissions office people. 4th visit - the official "prospective freshman" weekend when those who'd been admitted came to stay for a weekend and really see who'd be their classmates, etc. That 4th visit was crucial - if your son does little else, he should do the "prospective student" weekend, even if he thinks he's pretty sure of his choice. It's also a great bridge toward arrival in the fall.

About interviews: 1. Some colleges no longer consider them required. Fine. Not having one with therefore not hurt him at all. But particularly with smaller schools, contact with people on campus - esp. in the admissions office - MAY make him more memorable when the towering stack of applications pile up on their tables.

2. Campus vs. alumni interviews.

Campus 'pros': your son may be talking to a voting member of the admissions board. If he does well, it has to help (see 1 above). Also allows him to ask questions right as he's seeing the campus and thinking about it. Campus 'cons': Campus interviewers see hundreds of kids, and if your kid has a mis-step or doesn't shine, he could be forgotten or it could even work against him.

Alumni 'pro' and 'con': Alumni interviewers only see a handful and tend to get very invested in "their" applicants. However, if it's a particular kind of interviewer, sometimes that interviewer may feel a little too powerful re: people he/she doesn't like. Alumni, esp. older ones, may be out of touch somewhat with what campus life is really like; on the other hand, your son may get a glimpse of what graduates think about their school with a longer perspective and what they've done with their education.

I agree with Lauren. College visits to schools that are within driving distance OR that are in an area you will be visiting anyway are great to get the student excited or a feel for colleges.

My dh and stepson are in Austin as I type - he would have never thought of this school but through a variety of circumstances it came up and he applied. He did some college visits - mainly when we were already in an area - but one last summer for a baseball camp.

He ended up applying to about 7 I think and of the 7 he had only visited one that was out of state. He will go to the others as the appectance letters come in if need be.

You are better off saving your money for when you son IS in school with all that comes up... jmo of course :)

>>My advice on this is always wait and see where your son gets in and then visit the schools before deciding<<

Sorry, totally disagree. That would be like accepting a job without having seen the work site or getting feel for the work environment. Possible but not optimal.

Six months ago my dd had George Mason high on her list because she it would take her back to the DC area and because she had been recruited for a sport. The school got x-ed from the list after a campus tour. She liked nothing about it.

I do agree that a kid doesn't HAVE to see every place he/she is interested in. Visits can and should continue 1st and 2nd semester senior year. But to never visit a campus before being accepted? Not smart in my opinion. Yes, travel costs are a consideration. But in the case of the OP, they're within easy or easy-ish driving distance of the schools mentioned.

Getting accepted does not equal going there. It means that you save the money for where you get accepted to and then go to visit. In my experience with two different children - they change their mind often between their junior and senior year on a variety of issues.

SS applied to around 7 schools - and so far has received acceptance at 3 or 4 - and based on the funds offered by said schools and location he will go to visit. San Fran state was a school he knew he would get accepted to - we have not visited. It is low on his list (and ours) for a variety of reasons - If he ends up wanting to go - we will take him prior to him deciding to go.

FWIW, I was disagreeing with Lauren's statement, not the sum total of your post. I agree with much of what you say. I meant "applying" not "accepted" with regard to the feeble job analogy. (Please come back soon edit/preview.)

No need to set foot on any college campus before engaging the application process is what I took from Lauren's post. Apply and then visit after you're accepted. I disagree that all campuses look and feel alike.

I wouldn't port my kid across county to visit a low interest school either. But I would go -- somewhere in the process -- any place that was feasible (time, distance $) to visit.

We agree. I realized after I posted as well that we were agreeing. I totally think one should go to schools that you can drive to or that you are going to be in the area anyway. For a variety of reasons.

In my case, my first, who had excellent grades and was a Merit Finalist, applied to 6 schools or so. Going out of state/private was contingent on her receiving a generous financial aid package. Since we had too much money and not enough to pay for a private school, we sort of knew she would end up going instate. We visited William & Mary and UVA. We did not visit the other schools. She ended up at William & Mary (she did get in to UVA, but W & M gave her a small merit scholarship [had nothing to do with the National Merit program] and we liked the smaller size.

While we visited William & Mary we sort of stumbled into their drama department. Drama was what our son was interested in. When it came time for him to apply, I went to talk to the guidance counselor at the high school and she told me he could get into William & Mary because it was easier for males (They try to keep the number of males up and he was a sibling in addition). Our son's grades and test scores were good, but nothing like our daughter's (really stratospheric with good AP exams, etc.).

With the above information, I went home, and handed DS an application for early decision to William & Mary. He was dumbfounded and didn't think he would get in. I said to him, "If they are dumb enough to take you (and the guidance counselor said they would be, remember?), that is where you are going. DS got in and really flourished at W & M. No one in my house has any complaints about the quality of education there. Best thing? William & Mary is a VA state school, so we got a good deal.

We didn't visit any colleges with DS but, then, he had seen plenty of W & M because his sister was going there at the time.

Both kids were grateful, by the way, that they ended up owing NO money for undergraduate school. DD (the one with the test scores) never went to grad school after college (although there have been occasional courses). DS did (MFA in drama with and emphasis in playwrighting). He got a generous scholarship for that and borrowed only a relatively small amount (good idea given his choice of career).

There is no way I wanted to saddle either of my kids with mega amounts of debt to go to some name school. Just because the ivies cost 4x as much as most state schools doesn't mean you learn 4x as much. It ends up all about paying for elusive prestige--and some state universities are just as good.

By the way, before someone tells me I don't know what I am talking about, I went to a state university for undergrad and "prestige" expensive place (with scholarship) for grad school. I ended up not owing much either. I still believe for most kids that a state university is the wisest way to go for undergraduate unless money is no object. I never visited the prestige place, by the way, until after I was admitted. I then went there on my own and stayed with a friend who was an undergraduate there to see the place.

When it comes time to apply and money is an object, you do have to let your kids know that some private schools may not be options--if financially that is the case.

Parents drive themselves into tizzies about college admissions. It does get easier after the first kid.