Map Out College Visit

A personal visit to a campus is preferred.

With AAA TripTik Travel Planner

After the holidays wind down, millions of students will
prepare to travel to college campuses throughout the country.

Choosing a college requires doing a good deal of homework. School websites and other online college search tools give students a great starting point by providing a wealth of information on everything from academic curriculums to food plans and financing. These resources allow prospective students to narrow their possible choices by filtering out the institutions that don’t meet their desired preferences.

While the Internet offers all the need-to-know content, the best way to actually gauge an appropriate student/school match-up is to personally visit the campus. AAA can help students and their families plan and get the most out of their trip.

AAA’s TripTik® Travel Planner is a comprehensive online trip-planning tool that does much more than generate driving directions. Handy drop-down menus provide complete school listings by state so you simply click to select colleges or universities to add to the route itinerary. The location listings save a lot of time and legwork as you don’t need to know the school addresses to create maps and directions.

TripTik Travel Planner allows multiple stopovers within each route itinerary and provides estimated driving time and mileage to each stop. A color pin on the map indicates each stopover, and these icons can be used to determine the most efficient route for visiting multiple campuses.

TripTik Travel Planner also allows you to locate AAA Approved lodgings, restaurants, and other places of interest along the route. The AAA.com trip-planning tool also identifies gas stations along your route, complete with up-to-date fuel prices in close proximity to the campus.

Once your student chooses a school and heads for campus, consider adding a AAA Associate Membership to the list of essential items to take along.

The student cardholder also can take advantage of AAA’s top quality travel services for planning spring break trips, visits home, or a summer getaway, and use AAA financial services for auto loans and more. AAA membership also provides your campus-bound teen with thousands of money-saving opportunities at shopping and dining locations throughout North America and through online retailers—a key benefit for a college-student budget.

Preparing for college requires a lot of time, research and planning. AAA, with its wide array of member products, services and exclusive benefits, helps take care of a lot of the homework.

Other things to keep in mind when you’re planning college visits:

• Don’t wait until senior year of high school to visit colleges. There’s a lot to see and many people to talk to, so maximize each visit.
• If application deadlines are not a factor, apply to schools after you’ve had a chance to visit the campuses.
• Schedule your campus visit when school is in session to get a better feel for the overall college experience.
• Schedule a guided tour and check the school’s website for any planned activities going on during your visit.
• If you are planning to play an intercollegiate sport, plan to visit when the school is having an open tryout or evaluation for the sport of interest.
• Check with your high school, as many offer an excused absence policy to allow upperclassmen time to make college visits.
  
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