he next few weekends are booked with Admitted Students Day Visits and aside from working through the cost and logistics, I am beginning to wonder how much value can be derived by such a visit.
While I understand their ideal purpose - for the university to make themselves irresistible - I am curious if the days help parents and students in a real way. I have been to one thus far and it was more pageantry than substance. The overriding fear is that most will be more of the same.
My older son hadn’t done visits at the colleges that actually accepted him - so visit days were crucial. He was able to overnight with kids on campus - they had a lot of activities so you could meet other actual students - everything from ice cream in the evening, to visiting clubs to just having lunch with students. He sat in on several classes and at most schools the various departments put on some sort of presentation as well. At Carnegie Mellon there were some extra tours specifically for the School of Computer Science - including one of the Robotics facilities. My younger son found out about the Global Leadership Institute at Tufts from the Accepted Students Day presentations. (He may have seen it on the website - but it’s quite different when the charismatic leader of the Institute presents.)
They may have programming for the parents but the Accepted Student days are for the Students. If you didn’t find value n the one you went to just send your child alone on the others. The things the students do can help your child make a decision.
If overnights in the dorm are offered for the student, you should try to do that. DS1 went to three Admitted Students Days as he was undecided down to May 1, and spending time with current students definitely helped him decided which U he liked most.
DS2 has already attended one AS Day and we have two more coming up, also with flights, so I can sympathize with how you feel. You would think your child would have a good idea where they want to go by now, but for some, like my son, that’s not the case. It is a big decision, so the more information you can get, even if slickly packaged, will help. At least your child will get an idea who they will be attending college with should they decide on a particular school. Also, sampling food, seeing dorms, touring the surrounding neighborhood, and listening to the department heads speak can help shape decisions. My plan is to see as much as possible so we have a good sense of how four years at each place will be.
Even though my DD thinks that she knows her school preference, I am making her go to revisits at 3 of the schools that accepted her. All of her initial visits to these schools, before she applied, took place in the summer. I think that it’s important for her to experience the actual school-year vibe, stay overnight & go to some classes. If she had a very clear preference from the start, and had had meaningful visits at that school already, I probably wouldn’t be pushing it.
We did a few accepted students visits and they were valuable for my S. Definitely helped to solidify his top choice and gave him great peace of mind when he send in that deposit. Although we visited the schools before, i think he looked through a different lens when he was accepted. He also got to see all of the freshman dorm options which was helpful as he did find he had a definite first choice so he filled out his housing form immediately and got into his preferred dorm.
Can’t imagine it being valuable for a parent- it’s designed for the kids.
Mine found them incredible helpful. Once the anxiety of “am I going to get in” is over, it allows you to critically assess what you’re looking for in a campus and an education. Plus the U is going to be helpful if there are departmental concerns, issues around double majoring, etc. where you tend to get platitudes during application season “interdisciplinary work is always encouraged” vs. Accepted students meetings where you can meet actual students who are working in the precise area you are interested in.
If your student is 100% set on particular school, I would skip it. But if you are still trying to decide I think it is very important to attend. One of the schools my DD loved and visited twice, came as absolutely no based on admitted student visit.
As a parent, I found the 3 admitted students days that we attended very valuable. We were able to learn more about housing, meal plans, and academic/club opportunities that help us to be more informed when we advise our kids. By “advise” I don’t mean tell them what to do - when they ask “what do you think?” or maybe need some encouragement with something, we came away more informed. Plus they were fun! One of our kids was already decided by admitted day, but the other went to 2 and came away with a strong feeling that one was the right one for him (which surprised us a bit).
If you’ve already visited a school, you might not get much out of this second visit, but if you haven’t yet visited, well, we and our kids couldn’t imagine attending a school not even visited once (though I know it often happens). But I second overnight visits, even after a day visit.
Our son first saw University of Chicago on admitted students day. The next morning when I asked him how he liked Chicago, he answered “This will do.” And it was done. Called off a couple of other visits to colleges he’d been admitted to.
This is what I expected. He hadn’t wanted to visit colleges prior to applying (except the large state institutions in our state).
If your child has a clear college of preference that is not significantly more expensive than any of the other options open to them, it’s easy, you don’t have to go to admitted student days, except perhaps for that one school (just to get in the spirit of the place).
If, however, there is a choice that has to be made, with no clear preference, because of finances and/or because of other significant difference between the schools, then attending admitted student days for the main contenders can probably help in making the decision.
For us as parents we found the parent programs (as well as the student programs) at the admitted student days very helpful in understanding the significant differences between the two schools that were under consideration for our son at the time. And the differences were stark, and helped make the decision an easy one.
We have been to three so far and found them incredibly helpful. They helped solidify my son’s first choice and eliminate the others. He also chose a new major he is excited about based on a presentation we attended! We actually have one more Accepted Students day on the schedule, but I think we will most likely skip that one now.
For D1, we took our time and roamed from dorm to dorm, and she was able to narrow down her top choices for housing and LLCs. She was also able to meet with an advisor. This was her #1 choice.
For D2, her school allowed students to register for classes and get a student ID, without officially committing to the school yet. It was well-worth it for her, as she did end up matriculating.
My D2 did her top 3. That was a lot (3 different parts of the country, but not near our home). But it was very worthwhile. Her top 2 choices going into kind of stepped in it — 24 hours on campus can be VERY revealing. 3rd place going in did a superb job and she decided to attend there. I wouldn’t do more than 3. And I would skip ECs, school, etc if needed. This is an important choice.
Our daughter was vacillating between two schools, and attending Accepted Students Day at both helped her decide. She skipped the event at a third school because by then she had decided it appealed to her less than the other two.
We as parents found it helpful to be there as well, as it made us better able to converse with her about the pros and cons of each school. The decision was hers, but we agreed with her final choice.
I’m a believer that more information is a good thing, so even through my kid knew where she was going, she went. Every time we were on campus, we learned something new - for a large school, it can only help her.
My daughter and I went to three. They were very useful and she made her decision based upon these three days. She had already visited all of these schools before but at admitted students day she was able to really see what the schools were like and who her classmates would be.
Accepted students days/weekends are definitely designed for the students though they sometimes have sessions specifically for the parents. Harvard famously gives parents a map of Boston and tell them to leave the kids alone - though they do have one session for the parents to ask questions and get an overview of things. (I was underimpressed by the head of the kitchens who talked about healthy breakfasts of waffles and bagels - when a parent of an athlete was asking about protein!)
Very valuable. My son went to three. In addition to staying in a dorm, hearing the president speak (in two cases) and also meeting with the heads of the Disabilities Services office changed the ranking. 1, 2, 3 became 2, 1, 3. He was so turned off by the students at 3 that he wanted to leave before attending class or meeting the head of the DSO. At 1, the president was deeply inspiring (former head of Partners in Health, now head of World Bank) and my son said people were ready to sign on after listening to his speech. The whole weekend event was uplifting. But, the meetings with the heads of the DSO were absolutely dispositive. Partway through our meeting with the Dean of Freshman and the head of the DSO at number 2, my son leaned to me and said, 1 wins on form but 2 wins on function. No need to look any further.
Incidentally, I stayed off-campus and came in only to meet heads of DSOs.