After receiving my June Lsat score, I would like to visit some my contending schools. I would like to visit UT, Vandy, Cornell, UCLA, USC, and Georgetown. I live in Missouri.

I will start out by driving to Vandy, up to Cornell, then drive back home. A different week I will go to UT and back home. I plan on flying to L.A. and staying with some family. I have to go to D.C. in November anyway so no big deal on GULC.

Is it feasible/legal for me to sleep in my car at various points in the trip?

Should I worry about going to these schools now, or wait until I get acceptances (hopefully).

Thanks.

It's easy to find $19 motel rooms off of any highway in this beautiful country. I would suggest doing so. Alternatively you could bring a tent and plan your trip a bit more carefully so that you stop where you can camp every night.

I'm not sure about the legality of sleeping in one's car, but if you're planning to introduce yourself to any faculty or administrators, you really should be fresh. Also, you really don't want to be arrested for vagrancy while on a law school tour. That's like a shitty Alanis Morissette lyric.

Edit: Many typos

With Vandy you can set up an interview now. When you do, let them know you'd like to stay the night if you can find a place. They may be able to put you up with one of the current students in town... try and plan on a Friday so there's a better chance someone will take you out. And if not, there's plenty of hotels nearby, including the Music City Hostel if you're aiming to travel on the cheap. You'd likely meet some interesting bands in town for a show (though in my experience groups on the cheap tend to prefer camping outside the city... we actually almost let a group stay in our backyard back in November, but they insisted on having a campfire and we figured that must have been illegal without a permit).

I would advise looking for cheap motels rather than sleeping in the car, but Walmart does allow anyone to sleep in their parking lots overnight.

Maybe I am weird, but I much rather sleep in my car than in a $19 motel room (unless I slept in my sleeping bag and the motel had cable).

I am going to L.A. at the end of the month, but should I wait until I start getting admits/rejections/WL to visit the rest. I am obviously on a budget and it would also suck to go to a school and love the place just to get rejected.

Does visiting a school increase your chance of admission in any way? If so, would it have the same effect if I waited until I was waitlisted?

No

I have visited UCLA and USC, be prepared to pay for parking on campus. They wouldn't comp or validate it. I believe it was 9 bucks a place. Even I talked to people about it, and they just shrugged their shoulders. In L.A. 9 dollar parking is apparently cheap!

UCLA is nice, the people seemed a bit snobbish to me, and being from the Midwest you might pick up on that. Nice facilities, beautiful campus.

People in L.A. also bitch about USC being in "a bad neighborhood" while i suppose if you live in Bel Air and such S.C. LA is bad, but USC is very sheltered and its right on and off the highway. Having lived in Detroit for a couple years, this place was a walk in the park!

For the record I loved USC and would chose that any day over UCLA.

Enjoy your trips and let us know where you liked the best.

Maybe try Couchsurfing.org? I have friends that have gone on there and have found awesome people to stay with while traveling.