Hi. Am trying to get a feel for best way to visit campus. Went to sign my son up for an Accepted Students Day event and the only Saturday left is April 25th. Kind of late, but might be okay.
That said, it looks like the event is a half hour information session, tour and lunch. He’s already toured and I wonder if this event has any more value than a campus visit and talking to some of his friends who are already there. I know he has DUS questions and general curriculum questions. We’re in NY and it’s hard for us to get to one of the weekday DUS sessions.
Has anyone been to one of these? Any thoughts or feedback?
@ncny215 After posing a similar question we opted to wait for the NSO (New Student Orientation), which is mandatory and has a lot more built-in information components (i.e. meeting with a DUS advisor). I think, personally, that Accepted Students Day events are more for fence-sitters trying to decide between colleges. If your son is committed to Penn State, then my suggestion is to get the ALEKS done so he gets assigned an NSO date and go prepared with questions at that time.
Thanks, @brucemag. He’s still deciding but you’re right–NSO sounds more like what he’s searching for. I think he wants to visit one more time before making the decision so just trying to figure out if it’s worth it to wait until April 25th or if we might be equally served coming another time without the event.
It’s interesting, he’s still waiting for one more school and probably won’t make a decision till sometime in April, but the system definitely seems to favor those who can decide earlier–better housing, moving forward with scheduling orientations, LEAP registration. He can’t make his decision till he has all his results and I won’t rush him, but there does feel like a bit of pressure/incentive to move forward. I know there’s never a perfect way to do things, but it’s slightly unfair (I know people don’t like when we use the word “unfair” when it comes to these things).
@ncny215 - My son still hasn’t heard from what was his top choice (UDel). But he was very excited about being accepted at PSU and I opted to ‘invest’ the $330 to secure housing to be safe. He then posted PSU Class of 2019 on Facebook, which is more of a commitment than the $330! That said, if he is accepted by UDel there is a slight chance that he’d change is mind. But I kinda think the circus already left town and he’s mentally a Nittany Lion. He has registered for LEAP (his choice was ‘sold out’ within 24 hours), but we don’t have a say in scheduling NSO – they send him a postcard with assigned date (which can be changed if a conflict). Also, having heard about the hotel crunch in SC during prime events, I’ve already booked hotels for move in day(s) and parents weekend. And a football game! Figure I can always cancel, but might not be able to get if I wait too long.
@brucemag You’ve given me some things to consider. He’s not nearly as far along in the process as your son (and certainly not FB announcement ready–which we know is the big thing!) but maybe he should consider depositing. I’m really trying to give him space on this decision but wouldn’t be terrible to present him with the facts like LEAP sections filling and housing priority and see if he wants to put the deposit in. Thanks for the advice.
Good advice from brucemag about hotel reservations as they will completely fill!!! If your son is considering PSU I would go ahead and make a reservation for move-in day and parent’s weekend now- you can always cancel if he decides otherwise. State College is sort of isolated so when the hotels in town fill, there is no place else to go. Graduation is even crazier- start looking at hotels a year in advance!
We attended an accepted students day yesterday for DUS even though she has already committed. We felt it was worth it for us, but we only live 2 hours away. (Although we drove up Sunday night during a terrible snow storm so it took us 3+ hours!).
The entire event lasted from 9:30am-2:30pm. The only thing that was really a ‘repeat’ was the tour. But even that was different as my D has never done a tour while school was in session. It’s a very different “feel” when all of the students are on campus. She also was able to eat in a different dining hall than on previous tours…which was good information for deciding on where she wants to live. The DUS presentation was good and all new information. It was reassuring for my D to hear about the way DUS works. They also had a panel with reps from housing, financial aid, orientation, food service, police, international students, and student reps available to answer questions from the audience.
Approximately half of the students in our group had already committed as well…The others were evaluating their options. Many of the topics addressed and more will certainly be addressed at NSO, but we were glad we went.
If you have any questions abut the program feel free to ask! Maybe I can save you a trip if you have a specific question that they answered yesterday!
Glad you made it safe and sound, @jlhspu! Did you happen to see the renovations in the HUB? Time did not permit when we went to see son in a concert last night. Am looking forward to seeing the improvements when we go back up this Friday.
@ncny215 – wonderful that your son has friends who can provide some insightful inside information. You’ve gotten some great advice/info from @brucemag and @jlhpsu. I will second the housing deposit “investment” if you can swing it. Housing at PSU can be a game changer.
Lastly, as a quick aside on decision-making. Non-PSU daughter: She had narrowed her decision to two very similar schools with all variables being almost equal (including the nebulous “fit”). In fact, extensive wheel spinning, projections, research created an exhaustive list of pros and cons, but she still found the two institutions in a dead tie with May 1st fairly looming. In the end, we were able to back-to-back visit schools on Admitted Students Day, with the consecutive visits being the primary variable that allowed her to finally compare and contrast/produce the tie-breaker. My father contends that he could actually see the decision taking place. Funny man. Just a thought …
@ncny215, the only other suggestion I could think of was to keep checking the portal for earlier days you think you might be able to make. We wanted to go March 2nd, but it showed as full when I went to sign up. A couple of days later, we went back in and saw that the full status was not showing on March 2nd and we were able to sign up for it. I’m assuming somebody had changed dates or cancelled their reservation so spots opened up.
As @jlhspu had mentioned, the individual college sessions after lunch were very helpful. My D is looking at Graphic Design which is not very mainstream, so there was only our D and one other girl in our afternoon session. There was a lot of one on one attention it felt like our own private tour of the studio space.
She is down to PSU and Florida and the accepted student day definitely helped improve PSU in her looking at the two programs. We just have to convince her it isn’t always freezing and covered in snow!
Thanks to all. I really appreciate the very good advice and insight. @jlhpsu I think the DUS session would be much better than a generic weekend session. I signed him up for April 23rd, but as @DadinMD suggests I will keep checking for earlier ones. He’s going on a school trip April 2-11 so that eliminates some earlier dates.
@DadinMD given the winter we’re having, I’d like to go to U Florida myself! My daughter goes to Wisconsin, so a Penn State winter doesn’t seem that intimidating to us.