<p>JHS, I think you’re right to a degree – whatever they see and experience may well not be representative. We’re seen stories on CC of a kid having a poor match for an overnight host, and that turning them off on the college. But what else can you do? There is no objective right or wrong answer for most kids who have multiple suitable choices. Once you’ve looked at the list of classes and majors and minors and breadth and depth and the rankings etc. if you still don’t have a clear favorite, it seems worthwhile to experience some classes, meet some students, check out some clubs of interest, etc. If it helps the student make a decision he can feel comfortable with, that would seem to be worth the time and money to me.</p>
<p>I agree with MathMomVT–We’ve visited most of the schools once, and this will be visit #2 which will hopefully help solidify information and fill in gaps we didn’t explore on first visit. It’s going to be interesting. I started this thread to get ideas on things to look at during the visit and thanks to everyone I now have some excellent advice and many areas I hadn’t even considered checking out (career center, for one).</p>
<p>We are lucky because all but one of the schools is within driving distance for us, so the cost of these visits is lower than for some who have to fly. I’m looking forward to watching my DS make some important decisions over the next month and if I can help him out with these suggestions from others, then we will be that much more informed after the visits!</p>
<p>Thanks again for everyone’s imput! I look forward to more suggestions.</p>
<p>The important thing on college is to understand that many things (like a class visit) are just a sampling. But a student gets enough samplings at different places, he/she can start to formulate general priorities as well as specific school opinions. </p>
<p>Our son liked MIT when we visited in the summer before senior year. When he was in Boston for a different college event, we arranged a Friday visit where he shadowed a student for classes and lunch. After that he was not nearly so interested in MIT. Just didn’t like the vibe as well as other places.</p>
<p>If you’ve the time after visits please post your info in the Campus Vibe portion of CC…so others can see your opinion of the visit and any helpful hints for travel, lodging, etc
Thanks!</p>
<p>Will encourage D1 to travel solo for any more follow up visits. But I’m glad we had the time together for the schools/places so far -okay, well sometimes it was just a leetle too much time together but… ;)</p>
<p>We are in this same boat - waiting to schedule some visits/re-visits after final decisions come in. I think I have to agree with JHS to some extent - there’s so much information overload and these visits will only add to all that. I don’t know if D will feel like one school is the right place for her - am hoping she will at least find out if a school won’t work for her. I keep stressing the “bloom where planted” idea and am hoping that will be true for her, no matter where she goes.</p>
<p>That being said, I have a feeling that she has a priority list for the schools in her head at this point and I highly, highly doubt that she can go visit/revisit a school without being biased to some degree. It would have to be something incredible or something disastrous to change that preformed priority list!</p>
<p>I think the most important thing to come out of from these visits is for the kid to feel in his/her gut that this school will be fine for them. So if they have a list in their head and the visit confirms that list, then it has served its purpose. </p>
<p>Avoid over-analyzing the decision. If the kid feels that school A is what they want, and there are no obvious red flags, then go with it.</p>
<p>Yes, try to talk to students and profs in your major. It helps to try to set something up in advance if possible.</p>
<p>Don’t be overly impressed with the food they serve you on the special Accepted Students Day. They probably make special efforts that day. (Oh, we have lobster every Saturday).</p>
<p>You can also get a sense of the school spirit by how many students volunteer to help on Accepted Student Days. I imagine some schools pay the students a token amount, while some use volunteers.</p>
<p>Look at the class size data on the “Common Data Set”, which is usually available for each college on the web. You can usually find it on a google search. That also tells you how many students graduated in each major, plus tons of other information.</p>
<p>I imagine there is something to be said for walking around the college and the adjacent student neighborhoods on a Friday night. I personally judge a college by how many kids are out drinking on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and don’t mind seeing students out having a good time on a Friday and Saturday night. </p>
<p>Look at the list of required classes. Some colleges are overly strict in the number and type of required classes that a student is required to take, including classes for which the student may have little interest.</p>
<p>^I’ve never found the food to be better on accepted students day - especially when there wasn’t a special meal - just tickets to the dining hall. And at least one place - CMU -(which my son attended and got off the meal plan ASAP) had pretty terrible food.</p>
<p>S2 thinks the food at his school is just fine and htat they really do make an effort to satisfy a lot of different tastes – but his complaint is that after a while, it gets boring. He REALLY misses access to a functioning kitchen.</p>
<p>Referencing another thread - </p>
<p>Depending upon your child’s interests, or if they are undecided, it might be productive to explore both school policies and the attitudes of professors towards double majors, majors and minors, self-designed majors, dual degrees, or changing majors mid-stream. Sometimes school policies permit double majors and such, but professors and advisers discourage this. </p>
<p>Other schools are more likely to help an undecided student plan carefully to accommodate varied interests while still developing or maintaining a focus that will lead to a worthwhile capstone project or senior thesis.</p>
<p>If your child is considering a school or major that requires a senior project, you might also want to look ahead to the quality of projects produced by students. At some schools and in some majors, it is easier to develop worthwhile projects than at others.<br>
Many schools schedule undergraduate research poster sessions during accepted student days, and prospective students can learn quite a bit by visiting these and talking with current students.</p>
<p>One of the schools d is considering requires at least a minor in addition to a major. So yes, there are different focuses in schools. I went to a college (one of the most selective) that had a rather small major requirements. I think it would have been better for me to had a minor but no one suggested it and I don’t even know if it was possible. The advisors, who weren’t professors in your department but just college guidance counselors, were worse than useless.</p>
<p>As promised, here are my reflections, albeit random… I was really surprised to see a huge crowd, especially since that was an honors college day. Right away my S got nervous, since up until now he thought that he is pretty exceptional to get accepted into the honors program. As a result, throughout the whole visit, he was not enthuastic to walk around and mingle and ask questions. Overall, I would do a few things differently such as call and schedule an appt. with the department to get a feel for the major and whether they are truly enthusiatic about what they do. S did not want to stop by randomly since he was absolutely sure that nobody would take walk-in appts. We did walk in the FA office, and they were very helpful. </p>
<p>The open house for the selected college that houses one of the majors that are on the S’s list was what you would expect when they are really trying to sell you the goods. I did ask the students “If you could do something differently, what would you do?”, which almost prompted a total panic since they were clearly unprepared for that. Clearly, that would be my standard question for the future.</p>
<p>This is not S’s first choice, he is holding his breath for the 30th but it was a good exposure.</p>
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<p>Great question. Not to put them on the spot but just to see about what they learned in hindsight that could help your kid. I always ask this when I am an evaluator at presentations. I am always just genuinely currious as to what they answer and the reasons why they would or would not do anything differently.</p>
<p>I often ask the similar “what do you wish was different?”</p>