Quote:
Originally Posted by stomachmonkey
We are doing the tour because environment is important to my daughter. It's rather "sterile" around here.
If it were just about going to a school where she gets a good education she could stay home and commute to SMU.
She wants a bit more out of her college experience and you really have to see it first hand.
Last summer we visited Rice, it was on her top 3 wish list.
After the tour, it was not even under consideration.
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That's what everyone wants.
But an application costs $75, and most schools are on the common app these days.
Just apply to all that she is considering, see where she gets in and does not get it, then go and visit in the spring. There's plenty of time.
This is especially true for high academic numbers students. Because no matter who you are, at the very top schools (e.g., schools that have an admissions rate of 15-20% or less) admissions is very unpredictable. And the schools applied to are going to be the "usual suspects" anyways. So pre-admissions visits don't do all that much.
I think you'll find that once she has actual admissions in hand, 80%+ of the schools she visited will have been a waste of time.
Finally, visits can be helpful, but also can give very bad data. I've seen many crazy decisions made on the basis of things that happened on a visit. The weather was bad that day. The student volunteer tour guide was bad. Etc.