Families with high-school-age children often find themselves making travel plans this time of year, but sunbathing and sightseeing aren’t the top priority. They’re hitting the road in search of the perfect college.
Traveling halfway across the country through dozens of states can lead to some significant expenses in gas, food and lodging. With a little planning, some of the colleges may be able to make your journey a little less expensive.
“During the summer, colleges are usually more than happy to put you up in residence halls,” says Donna Epton, a college and career consultant working for High School District 211 in Schaumburg. “Clearly, it’s more profitable for them if they fill up the dorms. Schools today run a lot of summer programs for kids and many have year-round classes.”
You’re more likely to find free room and board at a private rather than a state school.
“We have specific guest rooms in dorms that have pairs of beds where parents can stay, or visiting students can stay with a roommate,” said Susie Nauman, a freshman at the University of Dubuque in Iowa who conducts campus tours and offers advice over the telephone to prospective students. “We also offer meal passes for the student and any families members. All of this is provided free.”
“I personally think the best college visit experience is when the student can stay here and see what the school is really like,” adds Shane Besler, assistant director of admissions at Dubuque. “We try to provide as much personal attention as we can to any visiting student and his family.”
Besler said some parents of visiting students prefer to stay at a nearby hotel. If you can’t find lodging on the campus or want more privacy, it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.
“We have an arrangement with the Best Western in town that gives visitors to the college 50 percent off,” Besler said.
John Johnson, an assistant director of admissions at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona, said his school also works with a local hotel to offer parents special rates.
“We’ll put up a visiting student with one of our student ambassadors, which is a program I oversee,” Johnson said. “We have two Chicago bus trips we schedule each year, but if students can’t make either one, we’ll make arrangements for them to stay here and get their parents a special rate at a hotel just a quarter-mile away.”
At the University of Dayton in Ohio, campus visit coordinator Carin Andrews said free accommodations are provided for visiting students on school nights from Monday through Thursday.
“We’ll set up each student with his own host, and once his visit is confirmed, we send his family a hotel and restaurant guide to places within a two-minute drive from the campus,” she said. Families can eat free at the school cafeterias.
Beyond meals and lodging, a number of colleges offer campus preview bus trips for little or no cost. Johnson said the two Chicago-area recruitment trips offered each year to St. Mary’s cost just $45 each for a two-day visit. Students are picked up in Alsip, Hinsdale and Des Plaines.
At the University of Dubuque, Besler says there have been instances where a number of students within a three-hour drive of the campus have been picked up and brought to campus for free.
“Some kids just don’t have transportation or their parents’ work schedule doesn’t allow them to get away,” he said. “We attend these college fairs in the Chicago area, and if we learn there is a lot of interest, people in our admissions staff have helped to get those kids up here.”
At Valparaiso University in Indiana, admissions director Karen Foust says the school offers another option for visiting families who cannot stay on campus.
“We provide free housing and meals for any prospective student, but for the family members, there are two alternatives,” Foust said. “One is to direct them to local hotels that are reasonably priced. The other is to work with a local chapter of alumni known as the `Valpo Guild’ who offer bed-and-breakfast service.”
Foust said the cost of the alumni-sponsored B-and-B service is just $35 for one person, $40 for two.
Some of the colleges you may plan to visit won’t rent rooms or serve free meals in the dining hall, and if your family is traveling by car, another wave of expenses awaits you.
But Norma Cooper, administration manager of public affairs with the AAA Chicago Motor Club, says there are a variety of ways for motorists to save money.
“For some folks, the cost of traveling and visiting schools is really an issue. There’s no doubt it involves a pretty thorough investigation about where you’re going to find the best deals,” Cooper said. “Fortunately, there are ways to save on food and lodging if you’ll do a little digging and make a few adjustments.”
Use Internet sites or toll-free numbers to check out hotels in the area you’ll be staying. Cooper says that way you know about things like free continental breakfasts, which may be all you and your family eat anyway. Hotels frequently offer so-called “affinity” programs, which can save you money.
“One of the best tips we give people is they should recite back every group and organization they belong to when asking about room rates,” Cooper said. “You’d be amazed how many discounts are offered if people would go through the litany of groups they belong to, either from work or their community and then say, `What kind of discounts am I entitled to?’ “
Cooper said Holiday Inns offer a Priority Club where reduced rates are offered and that membership in groups like AAA Motor Club or the AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) are examples of other ways to save.
In 1999, the Travel Industry of America estimated the cost of meals and lodging for a family of four to be $210 per day. Cooper said a way to save on meal costs is to make lunch your main meal.
“Generally restaurants charge up to half the price for lunch entrees and give you nearly as much food as the dinner portion,” she said. “It’s probably better anyway for you to eat a bigger meal earlier in the day.”
Other ways to shave food costs are to check out hotel suites with mini-kitchen facilities or consider carrying along foods in new containers that plug into cigarette lighters and later into AC power in your hotel room.
Other ways to save money on campus visits:
– Hotel rates are “sensitive to the season” Cooper said, so expect Wisconsin hotel rates during the summer, for example, to be higher than during the off-season. Experts recommend colleges be seen when they are in full session so a spring visit could be cheaper and more revealing.
– Epton says: “Planning to see schools in the area where you’ll already be vacationing makes sense. Another option is checking out places where other family members may live. But get a tour arranged and never walk in cold.”
– If colleges don’t provide transportation for preview weekends, use the buddy system. “Think about putting two families together in a van, if you’ve got one big enough,” Johnson said.
