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A campus visit is one of the best ways to help your teen choose well — if you play the right position. Your job is to support and observe, not to run the tour or pick the school. Here’s how to help your student get the most from a visit while letting it be theirs.
Let your student lead
It’s their college, their four years. Let them check in at the visitor center, ask the questions, and set the pace. Hang back enough that the tour guide and reps talk to them, not you. The visit is partly a rehearsal for the independence college requires.
Watch what they react to
You’ll often learn more from your teen’s body language than from the tour. Where do they light up — the labs, the dorms, the student union? What makes them go quiet? Compare notes afterward instead of steering during.
Own the money questions
This is the part that’s genuinely yours. Ask financial aid about net price for your family, scholarship renewal requirements, and what’s NOT covered. Getting real numbers on a visit prevents a painful surprise after an acceptance.
Use the financial aid office while you’re there
You can often meet with financial aid on a visit. Ask the questions a website won’t answer: what would a family like ours actually pay, what does it take to keep a scholarship, and what costs aren’t in the package? A 20-minute conversation can be worth thousands.
Do current students seem happy, and are they willing to talk candidly?
How far is it really, and what does travel home cost a few times a year?
Are the advising, tutoring, and health/counseling resources easy to find?
Does the financial aid office answer your questions clearly, or dodge them?
It’s easy for a parent to love a campus — the brochure-perfect quad, the prestige, your own nostalgia. But you won’t be the one living there. Keep your reactions in check, ask your student what they thought first, and remember that the best-fit, affordable school matters more than the one that impressed you.
Keep going: use the student-facing college visit guide, help your teen choose a college, and see how parents can help.