If time and distance will allow, the ideal visit sequence will include at least three visits to the colleges on your “short list.”

When to visit
Plan to visit colleges as early and often as possible. Talk with your parents about combining college visits with business trips, family gatherings, and vacations. See as many places as possible early in your search. Even if a college does not appear on your list, spending time on its campus will give you valuable perspective for more informed decision-making later in the process. Besides, the things you discover at a previously unknown college may impress you. More than a few students have chosen colleges that emerged from such random visits. 

Look/see
This is the initial survey visit. Take a tour. Attend an information session. If the college is far from your home and an interview is offered, take it. The purpose of this visit is to determine if you want to keep the college on your list. Visit as many colleges as possible. Resist the temptation to make emotional commitments right away.

You may find yourself falling in love with a place, but there is much more to learn before you are ready to rule out other options. The best time to make this visit is during your junior year or the summer prior to the start of your senior year. 

Investigate
When you have determined your short list of colleges, begin planning a second round of visits. The point of these visits is to learn as much about the place as possible — from the insider’s perspective. Visit when the college is in session; you want to achieve immersion. Become a student on that campus for 24 hours. Talk with students, meet with professors, and, if possible, stay overnight. Get inside the culture of the place — especially those elements of campus life that are important to you (athletics, music, theatre, volunteerism, etc.). 

If the cost of attendance will be an issue, you and/or your parents should meet with a financial aid officer. Many financial aid officers will review costs as well as sources and methods of payment

Time to buy
You have been accepted — hopefully, to several colleges — and now it is time to “buy.” Assuming you used your priorities and the five points of a good fit as a compass bearing thus far, you need to rely again on your gut feeling. Attend programs for accepted students. Stay overnight — again. Imagine yourself in the classroom, the resident hall and the dining hall. How does it feel?