Many families are starting to make plans to visit colleges over the course of their child’s eleventh-grade year. It is a smart strategy to have a working college list at the start of the junior year so you can map out a plan for how you are going to visit all of the campuses.
Spoiler alert: it will likely be more challenging to squeeze multiple visits into your schedule than you imagine
You will want to see a campus in action, with students on the quad and in the classrooms, as alive with activity as possible. That rules out holidays and summers, and with the elimination of the entire week of February vacation at many Connecticut public schools, the only full week off is April break. For students participating in spring sports, this makes it even more difficult to find the time. Layer in other elements of your family’s schedule- siblings’ activities, work trips and responsibilities, exams, etc. - and finding the time becomes a real challenge. In fact, the majority of the families we work with opt to start the college process sooner with their second child, even though they have much more information about the process having been through it once before. This decision is made, in large part, by the realization that narrowing down the college list by visiting campuses takes much more time then they anticipated. So, make sure you budget enough time to get on the campus; it is well worth your time. Besides, who doesn’t relish a good road trip?