Summertime Is College Visitation Time

One of my favorite outings over the years was taking our college-bound kids on college visitations. We would pack a lunch for the car (as always), and head out for a scheduled visit to this college campus or that. If you have a recent high school grad in the family, you may be making such trips during the “Frog Days of Summer”.

Being on those college campuses made made my wife and I wish we could go back  to  college. Sometimes, when you book a scheduled tour, the students get to meet one another and start those lasting friendships. Maybe some of you have college-aged kids who will be making the trek this summer, or maybe they’ve been accepted at a school and you’re heading out for summer orientation. I recall some of those college orientations required an overnight stay, with parents and students staying in un-air conditioned dorms.

So, having done the college visitation drill a few times, here are a few tips for parents:

1. Don’t be upset if after driving 200 plus miles to that college campus, the first words out of your son’s or daughter’s mouth are: “I don’t like the looks of this place”.

2. Bring bottled water for the car trip.

3. Try to go to the workshops for parents, especially the ones about financial aid so that you can be as confused as your kids about the subject.

4. If they offer a meal, the food is always better at the food courts than in the large dining halls (how the cafeteria can cream a pizza I’ll never know).

5. Be patient. You don’t buy the first car you look at, so be prepared for your student to want to “kick the tires” of a number of colleges.

6. Ask questions, because once your son or daughter gets accepted at a college, the answer you will get from them about the fall semester is usually, “don’t worry, I know what I have to do”.