I was hoping to get an idea of what to expect for the upcoming Accepted Students Day at Storrs. My daughter has attended a couple of these at other universities, and I wanted to get some opinions/reactions of the presentation at Storrs. If you are a student or parent who have attended Accepted Students Day in the past, how did it affect the student’s decision? Did you find it to be worthwhile? What things did you like/not like and how did it compare to presentations elsewhere?
Any information you could provide would be appreciated.Thanks
We did not attend Accepted Students Day at any other school, so I cannot compare. I can tell you a bit about our experience at UCONN last year. 1st there is only 1 day and 1 time for thousands of students, thousands of cars. We live over 3 hours away. We went the night before and stayed over. Thank goodness we did…what should have been a 15 minute ride from the hotel took almost an hour…traffic was backed up onto the highway(84). There are some back roads that we have since learned about that could help a little with traffic….such as route 44 or route 6. So before going my husband and I still felt Penn State was the best place for our daughter…for almost every reason, campus, housing, program, location. 1/2 way through Admitted Students Day we were sold on UCONN. The campus is as beautiful as PSU, just different…in some ways more beautiful. The school spirit is as evident, the staff and students are so friendly, so helpful. I can’t speak for other departments, but the presentation given by the head of my daughter’s department was the best presentation I have ever seen at any school, or even in the professional/business world. In my opinion the dorms are average to below average…I only went into 1 building, because it was supposedly the nicest of frosh dorms…I was so unimpressed I did not want to see worse…I just spent the next few months praying she got into the one I saw. Now having used the phrase " frosh dorms" …there really is no such thing. Some dorms are strictly for upperclassmen, as they may have suites. But honestly my daughter has friends in every single non suite/non apt building…she has friends in North, NW, McMahon, Alumni, Shippee and Towers. Are most Freshman in North & NW? That is what I have been told. Allow me to go 1 step further…to Orientation. Because compared to where my daughter’s friends went, UCONN’s orientation was above and beyond most. Some are not over night, UCONN’s is. Some others do not have you select classes at Orientation, but rather at home alone(UVA). The head of the dept sat with my daughter during Orientation to help with class selection. Some are the end of Aug…leaving you no opportunity to meet people before roommate selection. Having orientation in the spring allows you to meet a possible roommate, not just on FB, before selecting a roommate or going random.
That reply was great. Thank you for posting that. We do not plan on attending accepted student’s day. D has already committed to Uconn and we felt like it would be just like the open house we went to. We are looking forward to the orientation though!
Thanks for your very helpful response, TLD1267. Can I ask if your daughter was undecided before she went?Also, did the parents attend the same presentations as the prospective students? In other words, were the parents and students separated or did you attend everything together?
My daughter was not undecided. She feel in love with UCONN as soon as she visited and committed in March, prior to Admitted Students Day. It also had a minor that Penn State did not offer. See this website for a schedule….http://admissions.uconn.edu/content/open-house. Click on the blue tab…Explore the Days Events. I brought a notebook with times for all the presentations. We all got to Gampel right at 9…once we were dismissed after the introduction and general speech we all went to the presentation for her major. After that we split up. My daughter had no interest in seeing a dorm room, she said she was going no matter what so it didn’t matter. Her and a friend from home went down to the farm(they are pre vet) for about an hour. That was when I saw the dorms. We met up again to walk through Gampel where all the different clubs etc had set up tables. Very helpful! She gets allergy shots…the health center nurses were there, Campus police had a table set up, spoke with them. All kinds of free stuff being given away by different clubs Also a table for some academic questions…that is where I learned about the different English classes…and got the answer about which to sign up for. The school will not split you up.
@greenhk just a note on orientation…the earlier the better , for 2 reasons. #1 by June classes may possibly be full. #2 they walk alot! It was hot in enough in May, and there no AC in the dorms.
Our daughter had no intention of attending UCONN (she had already decided her personality would be better served at a smaller campus - fearing that she would be lost in a campus of UCONN size), but she did get accepted and visited on Admitted Students day. It didn’t take long for her and I to fall in love with UCONN and by the end of this day, her decision changed and UCONN moved to the top of the list.
She is now in her freshman year and doesn’t regret her choice for a minute. UCONN definitely has something for everyone - there are so many different opportunities to become involved.
The admitted students day event was by far the best of any schools she visited. It was exciting and UCONN’s program for welcoming students is second to none in my opinion.
Good luck!
Thanks for the helpful information. We are looking forward to attending. If there is any other tips or suggestions that any of you can think of, please post it.