Are college local information sessions worthwhile?

<p>I don't go to college fairs because they are a waste of time and just tell me what I can find out on the internet. However, in Sept. there is an MIT info session relatively close to where I live and a H/S/ and other colleges info session close as well. Will I learn anything there that I won't learn on CC or their websites? For the record, I already went to H and M info sessions in Boston and found them mostly uninformative.</p>

<p>One of the info nights we went to featured MIT. It was nice to hear some personal stories, campus lore, traditions, ect. You did leave with a “vibe” from each school. They had a session afterwards for specific school related questions. There were many alumni interviewers in attendance to ask questions to as well. Ours featured 4 schools and the whole thing was less than 2 hours.</p>

<p>I know the common app asks where you learned about particular colleges including asks if you visited or attended an info night. Doesn’t hurt. If it’s something you don’t want to do, I don’t suspect that’ll hurt either.</p>

<p>For colleges that care about demonstrated interest you need to go. Doesn’t matter if you benefit or not. They look to see if you were there.</p>

<p>MIT not being one that cares about demonstrated interest… stay at home. Save the gas.</p>

<p>The tours are useful but the info sessions are generally not. I’ve been to a bunch with my son and my daughter. You can easily get all the information on the school’s website. They are not giving out any secrets at these sessions. Some schools would like applicants to visit but I don’t think the info session is crucial.</p>

<p>If you have already toured the schools I don’t think it’s really worth your time. If its a school you are really interested in and can’t visit the campus, I feel it’s better than nothing. IMO the ones where 5 schools are presenting are somewhat like the college fairs (not enough information to make it worth the time and effort) but the ones that are just one school can help you get a feel for the vibe of the school (but it sounds like you already visited these two so I personally wouldn’t bother).</p>

<p>MIT and Caltech local info sessions were helpful to my son. They had both young and old alumni working in the local area to make him feel excited. The alumni provided personal experience and other aspects that we did not hear when we visited Caltech and Stanford. Stanford visit was duller than Caltech visit.</p>

<p>UPenn presentation in our local school was helpful to my daughter.</p>

<p>We did not have other info sessions besides the above mentioned ones.</p>

<p>Are you going to “find” new information that you can’t find elsewhere? Probably not. But, as the story goes, colleges might look at sign-in lists to gauge interest. I don’t know how true this is, but I only went to one info section and didn’t get into that college. However, info sessions offer you the opportunity to ask questions - about campus life, about recreation, about anything that you want to know about that isn’t in published material. For instance, you can ask about personal experiences and thoughts or about intricacies in the admissions process.</p>

<p>to 93tiger: “MIT not being one that cares about demonstrated interest… stay at home”</p>

<p>to T26: Insight gleaned from accounts of personal experiences and case-specific questions could still be enlightening for the OP.</p>