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There are two kinds of college visit, and families mix them up constantly. The difference comes down to one question: who pays. That sounds small. It changes the timing, the rules, and what the visit actually signals.

Get the two straight and you can use the cheap one early to build your list, and read the expensive one for what it really means.

The unofficial visit

You pay. Travel, hotel, meals, all on the family.

There is no limit on how many you can take or when. A family can drive to a campus freshman year, walk the place, sit in the stands at a game, and meet a coach informally if the timing works. The cost to the program is zero, which is exactly why it is unregulated.

Use these early and often. An unofficial visit is the cheapest way to learn whether a school feels right before anyone has made a commitment, and it is how smart families trim a list of twenty schools down to the few worth a real push.

The official visit

The school pays, in whole or in part. Transportation, lodging, meals, and entertainment within NCAA limits are covered by the program.

Because real money is involved, the NCAA regulates it. Official visits generally cannot happen before August 1 of junior year, the number is capped, and the school can only host a recruit it is seriously pursuing. The rules shift periodically, so confirm the current limits with the program.

That regulation is the signal. A program does not spend its visit budget on a kid it is lukewarm about. An official visit means you have moved from a name on the board to a recruit they want to close.

How to use each one

Lead with unofficials. They cost you only gas and a Saturday, and they let your kid stand on a campus and feel whether it fits long before the pressure arrives. Build the list this way.

Treat an official visit as the closing stage, not the opening one. By the time a program offers one, the conversation is serious, so go in ready to evaluate hard rather than just be impressed. Save the limited official slots for the schools genuinely in the running.

The trap families fall into

Waiting for an official visit before showing interest. Some families sit back assuming a program will eventually fly them out, and the recruiting cycle passes them by.

The unofficial visit is your move to make, anytime, at any school. Make it. Coaches notice the recruit who showed up on their own, and an early unofficial often plants the relationship that leads to the official later.

The bottom line

Unofficial means you pay, unlimited, early, your initiative. Official means the school pays, regulated, later, their commitment. Use unofficials to find the fit and officials to confirm it.

The visit you pay for is the one you control. Use it first.

Last updated June 2026.