College Tour Planning in 5 Easy Steps

Originally posted Jan 2019 and updated July 2020

You did it! You survived childbirth and the first year, where the primary goal was just to keep your child alive and breathing. Then you survived toddlerhood, where you needed to learn the value of putting yourself in time out. Next, you survived elementary school where you learned the importance of restraint when your child’s feelings got hurt by another kid. The tween years are finally over and you made it…barely!

Now it’s time to think about sending that precious bundle of joy off to college. The first thing you need to know is, if you are not ready now, you will be. Remember when you first got pregnant and the thought of delivering the baby and taking them home was terrifying? And then, by the beginning of the 9th month, you couldn’t wait to get it out of you? This is how it will be by the time your teen leaves for college. If you can’t fathom it now then by August of the summer before college, they will have driven you so crazy, you will be VERY ready for them to go. Of course you will cry like a baby and embarrass the hell out of them when you drop them off. But, a teeny tiny part of you will be happy to be rid of your pompous, all knowing teenager for just a little while.

While we wait for that to occur, there are a few roads to travel. One of those roads includes that 12 month period where you expose your teen to the colleges on their (or your) list to see if it sparks any interest. Some parents find the process overwhelming and dread it. Some parents get really excited about the opportunity to spend some quality time with their teen on the road visiting schools. In either case, College Tour Planning in 5 Easy Steps is meant to help you organize the process and even have a little fun!

1) Create a list of schools

The first step of college tour planning is to create the list of schools. Creating the list is probably the hardest step of all. Most teens have no idea what they want to do. Start by trying to narrow down the region of the country your teen is interested in. First explore the three biggest factors – weather, community, and size.

I like to begin with what type of weather they want to experience. Do they like the cold and snow? Or do they want a warmer climate? How important is climate to your teen? Next we start to explore what type of community they want to live in. Do they want a school with a lot of school spirit? Sports? How important are fraternities/ sororities? Are they looking for homogeneity or diversity? Is a green, leafy campus important? Finally, size matters. Do they want a big school or something small? A school with 14,000 kids will feel very different from a school with 6,000 kids. Compare it to the size of their high school as a reference.

There are some great guide books that can really help with the process. I love the Fiske Guide to Colleges because of the frank descriptions of life on campus. I really like the Overlap section which tells you which schools are similar to the one you might be interested in. If you are lucky enough to have a child who knows which direction they want to go, there are some very useful lists in the front of the guide. Another guide I like is The Princeton Review’s Best 385 Colleges. I like that is gives you 3 different perspectives. One from Princeton Review, one from the school, and one from the students.

Start with a very comprehensive list and add to it as you talk to others. People love to recommend other colleges and universities. Look at them all – there is something out there for everyone. In my opinion, far too many people focus on the same 20 schools making it much harder on themselves.

2) Organize your list geographically and by size

Now that you have completed the first draft of your list, it’s time to start your college tour planning. Since the development of the Common App, most students today begin with a list of about 20-30 schools to explore. That is a much larger number of schools than we looked at when I was going through the process! As you learn more about each school you can add or remove them easily. By the time you are ready to apply, try to narrow down the list to 10-15 applications.

Start by mapping out your list of colleges using Google maps or an online college tour planner (I haven’t yet found one I like). Determine which schools are nearest to one another, keeping in mind that they may not be organized by state lines. For example, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA is actually only a 2 hr drive from Case Western in Cleveland, Ohio, so if you are interested in both, it makes sense to see them on the same trip.

Determine which schools you will drive to, and which you will use public transportation. Schools in and near bigger cities might be easier to get to using public transportation. I also like the opportunity to use public transport so I can let my teen lead the way in figuring out where to go.

If you are seeing more than one school in an area, try to choose starkly different atmospheres. For example, on an upstate tour, you might want to see Syracuse University, and then drive the one hour trip to the much smaller Colgate University, for a very different picture.

3) Planning each College visit

The third important step of college tour planning is timing. You don’t want your child to miss too much school for these trips, but you do want to be there when class is in session. It will be easier to get a good feel for what the campus is really like. School breaks make the most sense, but be careful that the school you are visiting isn’t also on break. Most colleges don’t take February break, but do take spring break sometime in March. Check each college website before scheduling any meetings.

Start by signing up for the general info session and a tour, and drill down from there. You may have the opportunity to also book a one on one meeting, your child may be able to sit in on a class or even attend an overnight. Only consider these options if the school is among the top 5 on your child’s list. There will not be time to do that for all of them. In fact, I found that most of the time, my teen knew within the first 15 minutes if the school was for her or not. It’s a great opportunity to discover what you don’t want. For the teen who is having trouble narrowing down colleges, a list of “don’t wants” is usually more useful than a list of wants.

Next, look for accommodations. Ask for college rates – especially in small towns. There is an adorable franchise of boutique hotels in many college towns called Graduate Hotels. If you can, book a night at one of these. Every site celebrates university life in fun and quirky ways.

Try to make the trip a mix of both research and entertainment. Adding on a few extra hours to do something fun will be well worth the time. You are experiencing forced alone time with your teen – take advantage of it and make memories. We love to use college trips as an opportunity to see a little bit of a place we wouldn’t otherwise visit on vacation. Get creative and search out that unique little spot.

4) Make the most of your visit

This is the most important step of the college tour planning process. When you arrive on campus, leave time to hang out at the student center, have a snack in the cafeteria, visit the library, or read a school newspaper. All of these things are less stressful ways of getting a sense of the environment. It may make sense to do some of these things before the tour, so your teen can get comfortable in their surroundings and think of a few questions they might want to ask.

After your campus visit, separate yourselves from the space so your teen can process. Don’t rush to get their opinions. Have him or her sit down and write first impressions in a notebook. This is super important and every small detail helps, even the fact that the library had glass floors! After a while all the schools will start to blend together so little pieces of info will help separate them. This information will come in handy later when your teen is writing their supplemental essays. Schools really want to see that you demonstrated interest and if they can reference something about the visit in an essay, that helps. After you jot down first impressions, explore the neighborhood a little bit and do something fun!

5) Let the experts help!

Torly Travels loves the organization and coordination parts of travel. Coordinating college tour planning is right up our alley. We would love to help you organize your list and manage the complexities of coordinating visits. Just send us your list and let us do the work! As part of our package, we will provide info and help you arrange for lodging, dining, transportation, logistics, and entertainment. For a fee of $200, we will make sure your trip makes geographical sense from start to finish and covers as many schools as possible in the process. Email us at letsgo@torlytravels.com to get started today!

Want help with the rest of the college process? Abby Siegel is a star! Abby Siegel & Associates is a boutique independent college counseling firm that offers up-to-date college admissions counseling. Founded in 2006 by a former school-based college and school counselor, Abby makes applying to college exciting and fun for her students. The primary goals at hand are to find the colleges that are the right “fit” so students have a successful and rewarding post-secondary experience and to help reduce the anxiety and stress families feel during this time. Abby works closely with students and their families to make sure deadlines are met, goals are set and achieved, and that students are happy with and excited about the colleges they choose to attend. She offers several options that range from a One Time Consultation to a Full Package that includes assistance with every aspect of the college admissions process.