<p>DD has been admitted to her top two choices and has a real apples-and-oranges choice ahead of her. Complicating matters, both schools have Admitted Students Days on April 12th. She's trying to get a handle on whether attending ASDay is even the best use of her time or whether they are formatted much like the Open House events she attended last year. She would prefer staying over in a dorm, preferably with a student from her major, attending classes, and getting an idea of what campus is like during the school week, rather than attend a structured PR event. Would you share your Admitted Students Day experiences here? Did you find them helpful? What else did you do/are you doing during that all-important April before the deposit check is due to help make your choice?</p>
<p>i would say go to the school that she is feeling the less and see if it changes. or she could always schedule an overnight visit at the other school on another day.</p>
<p>My d found Accepted Students' Day helpful, as it gave her a feel for her potential classmates. At one school, they had a reception for the admittees to the honors program. She met a number of kids and said, "They're nice enough, but I really didn't have anything to talk to them about." </p>
<p>She also arranged for the overnights to be in conjunction with the Accepted Students Day, staying over that night and going to classes the next day. That worked well for her; evening activities weren't "orchestrated".</p>
<p>She also found that even for sessions that were similar to the ones during Open House, she was different. Rather than being concerned with "Can I get in? What do they want to see from me?", she looked at the school as a consumer: "Does this school really have what I want? Does it feel right? Can I see myself here for four years?"</p>
<p>The answers surprised me; she ended up where I didn't think she'd be. And she's very happy about it, too.</p>
<p>My son also attended AS Day at one of his schools. He narrowed down his choices to 2 schools and decided to attend AS Day at the school he had only visited in the summer. (The other school he had visited numerous times.) He arranged to spend Sunday night in the dorm and attended events on Monday. He found the process very helpful and chose to attend that school with no regrets.</p>
<p>Thus far, I've gone to two Admitted Student's Day. I won't lie, I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, and I followed the itinerary to the dot. Because of that, I found it incredibly bland and generic. The dean gave us an incredibly dull and scripted speech. I got free food, which was cool because they made me stir fry. Then they broke us up by major and brought us into our departments. Which I figured would be cool, but it ended up just being full of parents asking financial questions. Eh, I wish I had stayed over night and just foregone the cheesy events they had me attend. </p>
<p>With my experience in mind, and the two above me - I'd heavily suggest organizing an overnight experience and not bothering with the "Official Day."</p>
<p>I'd definitely recommend staying overnight. I stayed overnight at Berkeley last month and the students I met squashed many rumors that I've heard. IMO if the admit day has a lot of student involvement (i.e. at MIT, the whole campus gets together for their Campus Preview Weekend), it should be a lot of fun and will help with the difficult decision.</p>
<p>(Side note to express my angst: MIT, Berkeley, UCSD, and Davis all have admit days/weekends at the same time. Gah.)</p>
<p>Although the planned student day is fun and gives you some information about the people in your class, an overnight stay not during those planned events is probably as helpful if not more. That way you get a sense of how the campus really is.</p>
<p>Note: There is usually info on the college's websites about overnight stays- it varies from college to college and some don't even offer it (or at least you can't get an 'official' one).</p>
<p>I appreciate all your helpful responses; thanks! DD is spending today on the phone trying to arrange overnights at both schools, preferably with someone in her department so she can attend classes, etc. I feel for DD; she's a little freaked out thinking about her future at all, let alone having to choose one school over the other and wondering about "the road not taken." Hopefully, these overnights will clarify things for her.</p>
<p>Thanks Ryanwaslike for confirming what I suspected--that AS Days are probably pretty canned and similar to Open Houses/Tours.</p>
<p>Diffy Q, sounds like you should be making some travel plans too :-).</p>
<p>Gotzsoymilk, start by calling the Admissions Office; if they don't make the arrangements, they can refer you to the right place.</p>