While flying home from a meeting with my business partners this week, a parent sitting across the aisle from me was flipping through pictures on her iPad. I’d typically avert my eyes and not be the creep who looks at someone else’s photos over their shoulder, and I didn’t look for long. But the photos were of college campuses, obviously taken on various visits this family had done together. The Collegewiser in me just couldn’t help myself.

What I appreciated about this was the way she was looking at these photos as if they’d been taken on a vacation or some other family adventure together. I could tell she was enjoying viewing them. That’s not just the best way to treat visits—it’s the best way to treat this college admissions process.

This mother will go through this entire experience once with her daughter. So why not enjoy it? Visiting colleges and searching for the right fit where your son or daughter wants to spend the next four years — this is a big deal. There’s no reason to ruin it by focusing only on the outcomes (or by visiting only prestigious colleges, a mistake this family did not make).

It’s an adventure. Why not treat it like one?