At Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., my family, including our son, prospective applicant Seth, enjoyed the natural history museum and spied on swim team practice. At Colby College in Waterville, Me., we appreciated the colonial architecture and the modern art collection. At the University of Chicago, we loved the Hogwarts-like reading room and the pierogi truck.

So it goes with college campus visits, a mix of research and entertainment through which high schoolers shop for their academic future.

As college applications have grown — up 6 percent in fall 2015 over the prior year, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling — so have campus visits. Boston University had nearly 80,000 visitors in the last year, up from about 65,000 in 2011. The University of California, Berkeley, reported a 14 percent increase in visitors in the last year. This year, the Ohio Independent College Visit Days program grew 30 percent.

“If you have the time and the money, I think a campus visit is a good idea,” said Lynn O’Shaughnessy, a higher education consultant who writes the College Solution Blog. “You get a sense of the school, and you can meet people and ask them some questions.”