Tips for Using Spring Break to Visit Prospective Colleges

With Spring Break approaching college students' thoughts turn to sun and sand and, of course, bathing suits. Families begin to think about family fun vacations like Disney or a cruise. But one place parents and children may not be thinking about going during Spring Break is back to school. However, Spring Break offers the perfect opportunity to visit those colleges and universities that your son or daughter is interested in.

Why is Spring Break the perfect time for college visits?

For the entire week, your high school aged child is out of school and before you hear one word of "I'm bored" or "Can I borrow the car?" leaving you to wonder how you are going to get to work that day, being your college visit planning schedule. This makes good use of the break from school as well as combining your "family get away" plans with the opportunity to visit the your son or daughter's prospective schools first hand.

Colleges and universities run on a different academic schedule, so while you high school aged child may be out of school, the university will most probably still have students on campus. But even if they don't, the admission and financial aid office doors will be open making this the perfect opportunity to not have to wait in line behind enrolled students in order to get your questions answered.

Spring Break also offers the opportunity to visit the colleges and universities of choice as a family. Often parents have many questions regarding the process, housing, programs and most importantly the finances of their child's education. This way parents can attend the workshops and programs and get their questions answered too.

But your Spring Break college visits don't have to be all work and no play. Often schools offer on campus housing for visitors, but if that is not available your family can stay in a nearby hotel and visit the area to find those items of interest available nearby. As a student you want to encourage that! After all, you don't want them to be hanging out in your dorm room the next year waiting for you to get out of class do you?

Planning your Spring Break college visit

First, contact the schools that you are interested in and schedule your visits. Make sure to order any information regarding your visit ahead of time and use it when planning your trip. You may only have a few hours or one day on the campus, so it is important to make the most of it. It is also important to double check to see if the professors for specific programs of interest will be on campus and available for your visit, as Spring Break is also a popular time for academic conferences and presentations.

Next, plan your trip so that you can "make the rounds." With one whole week you may be able to visit at least three universities that you are interested in, unless of course you live in a big state, like Texas. More students are choosing to attend college a little closer to home and staying in the state of their residency in order to keep tuition costs down, so you may be able to make your visits into a week long road trip, as you visit one and then the other. But leave plenty of downtime, you don't want to have to drive through the night and show up in your pajamas to your campus tour. Wait until you attend college to show up in your pajamas for anything!

Find out what restaurants, museums or other places of interest are near the college you are visiting. Often, the admission office has a packet of information available to visitors that includes this information, but should you need additional help try an online website like Trip Advisor or Wcities to help you with planning your family's other activities off campus.

A visit to your child's prospective college doesn't have to be hard work or inconvenient. Using your child's week of Spring Break offers parents the chance to get involved in the college planning process by making the most of a long weekend or the entire Spring Break week to find out where your hard earned dollars for tuition are going to go.

Sources:
10 years experience at the University of Dayton and University of Tennessee
Personal experience with my now college aged child