Sideline to this: Find out if he even needs a car. At an urban campus, you usually don't. Between the public transportation system, maybe a bike, and your own two feet, you can get around well enough. Even on a more rural and spread-out campus, a bike may suffice.

If your (or spouse's) chapter is on campus call ahead and see if you can take a couple of the collegiates out for a casual lunch or dinner. This will give your child some time to ask as many questions as he can think of in a relaxed atomosphere. If he wants to go greek it could help there too. ;)

In addition to what SoCalGirl said, if you have a coworker or friend who has a child enrolled at a school that you are visiting, make arrangements with that student for coffee and a chat. That really helped my daughter to get the real opinions from current students that were not filtered through the admissions office PR machine.

Read some issues of the student newspaper while you are on campus. Many prospectives find the student newspaper provides a good wrapup of what was going on at the school as well as the political and philosophical leanings of the student body.

It may sound odd, but look at the school calendar. If the school starts classes after Labor Day or has a very lengthy Winter Break, the Spring semester may not end until late May or early June. Many employers and internships want the students earlier rather than later. If the school has a huge winter break but expects the students to do something related to their field during the time, do they help place the kids into positions for that month in January.

Thanks to everyone who's made suggestions, but a huge Thank You to aephi alum for this one. He won't have a car but it's a great idea to think about transportation options.

Also don't forget--if financial aid is even the slightest concern, going Early Decision will require you to commit to a school before seeing what they'll offer you. Also, most of the ED schools that I'm familiar with do not offer merit scholarships, either. I did Early Action back in the day (and was accepted!), but my alma mater has switched to ED.

If at all possible, see a dorm other than the one that's featured in a campus tour. I know at Brown the nicest freshman dorm, smack in the middle of campus, is the one they feature on tours. Unfortunately, a ton of first-years come in and expect their dorms to look like that one.

If school will be far from home, see how easy it is to get to the train station or airport without a car. A few weeks ago, I visited a friend from college who's getting his PhD at Stanford. It's not that easy to get to the campus to the train station, and even then you have a few transfers from the train station at Palo Alto to SFO. Also, shuttles and cabs can be less than reliable. In college, I almost missed flights waiting on a shuttle that was late, full, or never came.

Speaking of transportation--are there shuttles around campus to pick up students late at night from the library or other campus places? Especially if you're thinking of an urban campus, or one that's really spread out, this can be a huge safety issue.

Finally, let your child make the decisions! I know it's easier said than done, especially when you're the one paying. I really like how my parents stood back and gave me food for thought, but they didn't dominate campus tours or anything like that. Basically, they held their tongues until the admission letters came. I really appreciate that now, especially since I do college interviews for my undergrad and end up dealing with helicopter parents! :)

On the first part, don't you then incur fees to all the schools you don't go to? Unless you have wads of money, it seems like a poor idea.

The second part... so did you write your kids' applications? Why did doing the applications take you any time at all?

I actually don't think writing the actual applications is a big deal. I did them all by myself, and finished them all in the course of about 3 weeks and had them in by the end of September, except for the last one which I didn't decided to apply to until November (I applied to 6 schools for undergrad).

One thing that I didn't think about when I was looking at schools is whether they are on a semester system or a quarter system. I think most schools are on semesters now, but I ended up at one that wasn't and hated it. Now, being at school on semesters, I realize how significantly different my education would have been.

Read the paper for the local town/city and get a feel for the area or neighborhood. Not only can you get the dirt on relations between the school and the town, but also find out about activities and services. Even flip through the phone book while you're visiting or go online.

For example if your kid has a medical issue is there a doctor that specializes in it, and if not is there a traveling clinic for a rural area? You can also read about crime off campus which certainly affects students. Also look at the housing dates because sometimes there are extra fees for staying for part of a break even if a student is required to be there for an activity, or housing shuts down completely and you need to make other arrangements ahead of time.

My sister and I visited a school on just a regular day. No big open house and for one school, we didn't even have a tour guide, we just walked around. It was helpful to see what things looked like without being scrubbed and scoured because guests were coming. Also, when you eat in the cafeteria, don't be shy about approaching a table of students and asking them how they like it. Most of them will give you a REAL review of the school and what the atmosphere is like. A tour will tell you the technicalities, but if you want to know what it's really like being a student, then get out and talk to people. Ask them about the weather, the teachers, the neighborhood and the city. A lot of students will not mind answering these questions and one or two might even be willing to keep in contact with you in case you come up with some more questions later.

Lisa Birnbach's College Book.

If Greek life is something you are interested in, don't assume anything about the housing. Ask if it's on or off campus, how the students pay for it, if you have to live in the houses etc. This varies WIDELY from campus to campus.

Go eat at the cafeteria on a non-visit day if at all possible.

Very good advice! Don't eat at the nice restaurants in town or even any fast food places/cafes on campus--eat where you will have to eat your freshman year if a meal plan is required!

And, if you're staying a few days, order delivery from a few places one night. When I lived in the Gamma Phi house it was 8 girls to one normal-sized kitchen so I lived off campus food and delivery!

Another thing I would ask, if you/your kid is interested in athletics: what is the team travel schedule like? When I was on the track team we were away every weekend - but the nearest school in our conference was at least three hours away by bus. It was really tiring to leave at 4 a.m. on Saturday and get back at 3 a.m. on Sunday.