All the campus tours in the world won't tell you a thing about what the college has to offer you. Georgian architecture and big trees, nice as they are, don't improve the mind. So Mom and I traipsed around the Northeast. We went in August after I had written in April to arrange on-campus interviews. Mom refused to accompany me to my interviews, a decision for which I thank her and which I recommend.
Parents are woefully prone to forget who is applying to college.
This can only help you in the process, since colleges are looking for independent, confident people, not momma's boys and girls. I went into most of my interviews sweating like a dog, but generally came out laughing. They can be a lot of fun. They can be. At Williams I told the interviewer I was interested in Williams because it was sort of like Amherst.