Incorporate College Tours Into Summer Vacations
A family vacation can be a great time for parents and students to gain exposure to college campuses.
- Some families add pit stops at college campuses during vacations they already planned, while others center trips around schools they want to visit. Parents and students can use this advice and follow the lead of the Twitter and Instagram users below for inspiration when planning their excursions.
- We went to D.C. For the 4th and stopped at @DukeU on the drive up and visited @HowardBison while on the trip with our rising 9th grader! https://twitter.com/alipannoni/status/883016983691890688 …
Starting our Summer Break with a #collegeroadtrip. First stop @KenyonCollege in Gambier, OH. #senior #Classof2018 @WCHS350 pic.twitter.com/WkvrLjJOc2- Sixteen-year-old Meredith Bailey, seen below, is no stranger to visiting college campuses while on vacation. Last summer, the rising junior at Greeneville High School in Tennessee made several pit stops at college campuses during a family trip through the Midwest. They drove around and hopped out of the car for some informal tours to get an idea of what the campuses were like. This summer, her family scheduled a guided tour of the University of Georgia on their way to a Florida vacation.
Bailey says having her family accompany her on the tours was valuable. "It was really cool to have my family there so they could could give me feedback on what they thought they liked too," she says. "I want my family to be OK with where I go."
She advises students to ask questions when visiting schools. - Students can use these 36 questions to get started.
- Dad Ken Bailey says that his daughter's college decision impacts the whole family. Hopefully, his other two children can use the experience they had with their older sister and the campus tours they did with her to help make their own college decisions, he says.
- Kevin and Sydney Armstrong, seen below, recently went on a father-daughter college road trip. The Tennessee natives – Sydney will be a sophomore this fall at Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet School in Nashville – visited colleges in Florida, while also getting in some leisure time.
- Sydney, 15, wants to study marine biology. She says the highlight of the trip was visiting a marine biology lab at Florida State University on the coast, about an hour away from the school's main campus. Her dad arranged the visit. "They showed me the different animals that they take care of and how they help them and what they do with the larger animals. It was really cool," she says.
- She advises families with students to start touring campuses early, so teens can see as many colleges as they want to. She also recommends including fun excursions during these trips. "If I just went on straight college tours I don't think I would enjoy it as much as I did," she says.
- Dad Kevin Armstrong, a middle school principal, says he tries to incorporate college visits whenever his family goes on trips. Sydney, his oldest daughter, has been visiting colleges since seventh grade. He says families only need to set aside a half a day to visit a nearby school between going on a formal tour and having lunch on campus. Often, tours can be scheduled online.
- Plan ahead & schedule a tour or inquire if a member of your network has a child at a college of interest that could be a guide for the day! https://twitter.com/alipannoni/status/883039188882522114 …
- Families may want to set a budget for visiting colleges, so that they aren't taking away from funds that could be used to pay for school. One Twitter user offered some additional tips below.
- @alipannoni @USNewsEducation Last summer, some colleges gave us vouchers/code to apply for free when we took campus tours Eat in the cafeteria, see Ss interaction & food
- Womble says to look for fee waivers to apply to college for free.
- But there are some drawbacks to visiting colleges in the summer. For one, there will be fewer people around than there are during the school year.
- @libcam @alipannoni @USNewsEducation In summer, Academia conduct research, take vacations and campuses are in construction mode, go to the beach parents!
- Families can still expect to meet some professors, admissions officers and these other types of people while on campus.
- @alipannoni @USNewsEducation @alipannoni. Don't go on "regular" tours as campuses are often dead. Check out special events. I highly recommend the Ohio Six College tour.
