Anyone been there/done that? Some of these schools require travel and an overnight and we are just plain tired and broke. Will we be missing a lot if we don’t go? Will going really change her mind?
More info: The “prospective student” events were usually day long things, like “Women in Engineering Day” etc. Most of them involved food and tours and info sessions with the departments as well as admissions. Worth the revisit investment? There are 9 of them, mostly on the safety side (she hasn’t heard from her reach schools yet). But I’d like to get them out of the way now if we are going to do them, since the RD results will be in with a new set of schools to revisit come April.
I think they are quite different. We found prospective student days often had a shortage of classes in certain subjects to attend, and were typically day visits (not overnights). A lot of the students there aren’t actually very likely to be admitted or very deeply interested in the schools, too. My kids got a lot out of their prospective student visits. My D2 went into her 3 accepted student visits with an order in mind (college #1, #2, and #3 in her mind). #1 and #2 were really pretty terrible visits. Examples:
1 host slept through "pickup time" and did not come to the designated location. Then wanted to take kid out to the bars (kid is not a partier...). Kid got locked out of dorm when host and her roommate disappeared. Kid went to a few activities planned that evening for students, but they were lame and not well run, even the one that is kid's favorite activity in the world. Kid got BED BUGS from sleeping on the floor of the room (bites, clothing and suitcase and sleeping bag had to be treated or bagged to get rid of them) Administration could not answer basic questions about some services on campus at desks set up to do so. Some prospective students behaved really badly in presentations (and then were high-fived by the dean of admissions on the way out the door). Kid attended a class in her possible major and found the prof to be terrible (at least at teaching). This is a school where you would be AMAZED that this happened, I suspect.
At school #2, many students bragged to kid and in separate session to parents about how they had come into the school with major X (something fairly practical), but had ditched that and now were going to start their own NGO doing X. It was amazing how many different times we heard this story. Hair of many parents was standing on end… Admin/professors could not answer question about funding for research (amounts, sources, plans to secure funding for future). Lunch that was supposed to have profs from all departments at it had none for kid’s major. Kid did enjoy a game played at night in the dorms, but said it was not enough to overcome the sort of insane “how far out there can we be?” attitude on campus. She said, “It might be an interesting place to go to school, but only if you didn’t have to go out in the real world after all.” Again… this is a very highly ranked school. And like with School #1, this was not very much in evidence on the day visit D did before.
School #3 - Smaller and a bit lower ranked than the other 2. They put on a great accepted students weekend. The kids got a very clear view of what academic and social life is like. D sent me a few photos from her phone in the course of the evening, I could tell she was enjoying it and this was probably “her tribe”. The parents were very well treated, with talks from alumni parents, professors and administrators, student panels, lab tours, etc. Everyone there really WANTED these accepted kids to come to their school (really couldn’t tell that at the other 2). They had a great product, and did a very good job of showing it. Also… current students were strictly instructed to NOT party when “prospies” were there (it is also strictly banned during orientation days).
D was quiet for a few days after finishing our cross country marathon to these 3 schools. Then she announced she wanted to attend #3, and has never looked back. It has turned out to be perfect for her (current sophomore). It was worth every penny to fly to all 3 schools for an in-depth final look.
The food’s better on Acceptance Days! Seriously, you’ll get a better indication of what kind of students will be your classmates and even a few months prospective can make a huge difference by the May 1 deadline. One of D’s top choices fell out of the running when she visited a second time on Accepted Student Day and found it lacking in areas she hadn’t noticed the first time around as a prospective student. To save $, we did not fly to any schools more than an 8 hour drive away until she was accepted to them and we had seen the financial aid packages.
Yes, we just narrowed down to top 3 once acceptances were in.
You really shouldn’t attend 9+ accepted students days… There must be some preference as to schools your daughter wants to attend. If she can narrow down her top three or four choices among her affordable acceptances, attend only those. You can certainly wait until RD acceptances come in- there are almost certainly accepted student days at most (EA and RD) after all acceptances are in. I believe these are important- you are in the drivers seat at these and have a chance to stay in dorms, meet other incoming students, ask specific questions, sit in on classes, meet department heads, etc…
My daughter went to three- she could (and I thought would) have happily attended the first after accepted students overnight, the second was quickly discarded, and the third blew her away… She found her place and asked immediately if we could make the deposit… I’m not absolutely sure this would have happened if she had not gone back- she is now a very happy sophomore…
My S went to four accepted student days. We did not go to all the schools he was accepted to – we only went to the schools that he was very interested in. I would wait until all the acceptances are in and you can narrow the list down to schools that are affordable and that are top choices for your child.
The programs vary widely from school to school and many put up their lists of activities online. Some have overnights, some allow them to go to classes and spend time with students, and another felt pretty similar to the first visit. The biggest difference is that when I went on these visits with my S his perspective shifted from “should I apply here” to “do I want to spend the next four years here”.
Like the poster above, my S finalized his decision based on these visits. One school was immediately tossed, another moved up on his list, and one school emerged as a clear favorite – we sent in the deposit and never looked back – and he had a fantastic four years there!
It really depends on the school.
My daughter’s top choice had the students “pre-register” for classes. Go, if you can to the top 3 schools, or if you have a friend who is going to accepted students day, have the friend pick up an extra bag of materials. They almost always have a bag of materials.
I can’t think of a thing in the “bag of materials” that made a difference in my kid’s decision. There is no substitute for being on campus for almost 24 hours when you really have the option to attend the school. Obviously there are conflicts (tough thing is when accepted student days for 2 of their top choices conflict!). Although some larger schools offer more than one accepted student days option, too. We scoped this out ahead of time, and she went ahead and registered for accepted days on the days for her EA school that did not conflict with the accepted days for any other school on her list.
I have entered them all on the calendar and am going to try to get to a few of them this month. Some of them, she wasn’t that interested in, but they gave good merit aid and invitations to the honors college, and those two things did make a difference, making us feel like we should at least check them out.
@intparent that 3rd school you referred to in post 2 was Dickinson, wasn’t it!?! Their admissions staff, events organizers, and marketing people are really top notch. Probably the best we saw, and we looked at a LOT of schools.
I agree with posters above. 9 is too many… it is really hard for a kid to decide between 9. Can you narrow it down to one she likes and one you like at this stage? And plan a couple more once the final decisions and offers come in? 9 accepted visits seems like a recipe for crazy, we were wiped out after 3 (to be fair, we had traveled for spring break and she also had Quiz Bowl Nationals during that same 6 week window).
No, the 3rd one actually wasn’t Dickinson, it was Harvey Mudd, where D2 attends. But D1 went to Dickinson and LOVED it. It was perfect for her. She did go to accepted student days there and had a good experience (but I didn’t go, I popped her onto a plane and she went alone – she had done a fair amount of international traveling by then, so it felt okay. D2, not so much, so I went with her to hers… But I visited the campus with her the first time around, and of course many times since then. I think DIckinson is a gem. My D got in EA with merit money. She got into some higher ranked schools, but decided in the end she liked Dickinson as much as any of them, and it was less expensive. She had really good experiences on campus, is still in touch with some of her professors a couple of years after graduating, did two different study off campus semesters junior year (one abroad, one a semester internship in DC), worked in the writing center, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She also got a job after graduating through an older Dickinson student she knew, and is still with that company and moving up. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience for her, honestly.
Yes, even I agree 9 is too many. Luckily most of them are within a couple hours of us, but we do need to pick and choose.