<p>In planning fall visits, I noticed that one of the schools my son put on his short list has a special visit day designated in a couple of weekends. In your opinion, is it better to go to these types of events, or should we aim for a regular tour on a non-special Saturday instead? I am concerned about too much hoopla/crowds distracting from a more normal-paced look at the college.</p>
<p>This would be his first visit to this particular school.</p>
<p>We did both for my two kids. Just the way the schedule worked out. The regular school day was always more informative. Go do the tour. Talk to an admissions counselor. Have lunch in the cafeteria. Just walk around and soak up the atmosphere.</p>
<p>With the special visitation day they always have a dog and pony show. We felt it more important to get a feel for the school on “just another day”.</p>
<p>This was for schools they considered as serious contenders.</p>
<p>If a college is not too far away, I’d go to the regular admissions tour, and then go to an accepted student day or similar special event later. </p>
<p>If you have a choice between a regular admissions tour or an open house for your major, choose the open house for your major. </p>
<p>If a college emphasizes “applicant interest” in admissions decisions, then you definitely want to try to make a registered visit before they review the application.</p>
<p>If a college is far away and does not care about applicant interest, and you can only make one visit, then save it for an accepted student event. The accepted student events are typically much more tailored to individual programs and more detailed than the regular admissions tours. </p>
<p>In any case, try to research the dates for these events and work them into your schedule. If a student is still trying to decide between multiple colleges that provide admissions decisions in March, then you should set aside multiple days in April to attend accepted student events.</p>
<p>There are some universities that get overrun with huge crowds during some of their special events days, and in that case, another day may be advisable. However, usually the crowds are worth the extra information and experience.</p>
<p>Also, many colleges do not let regular admissions tours into the residence halls, but do let students see various residence halls during accepted student events.</p>
<p>We did the regular tour on a Friday at S2’s school. Tour group was about a dozen or so people. Tour guide was very relaxed/not in a hurry to get to the next tour group. He had plenty of time to answer every question. Nice to see all the current students out and about all over campus which you might not see on a special weekend hoopla tour.</p>
<p>We did both and preferred Fall Preview Days. They were more informative for parents and student.</p>
<p>In all of our (tons) of college visits for 2 kids, we only ended up at one on a “special visit” day once. It wasn’t a great visit – mostly because of the way they distributed seats in classes. They had a board with slips of paper for the classes available. I think there were only half a dozen slips total for all the science and math classes! They were snapped up in a hurry. Tons and tons and tons for foreign languages my kids don’t and won’t ever speak… My D (who is interested in art & physics) ended up sitting in on an English class. Which was fine, but if she had come on a regular “school day” I suspect she could have attended any type of class she wanted to (was never a problem to do that on any other visit).</p>
<p>We did find Accepted Student visits to be very informative, those helped change D2’s mind about her preference among her top 3 schools. They tend to be smaller and more controlled, I think, as only accepted students are attending.</p>
<p>We’ve done both ways, and pros/cons to each. If you are able to do both before decision day… all the better.</p>
<p>If your visit on a “regular day” is a Saturday morning, they might not get enough of a feel for what the campus atmosphere is like on a day to day basis. While I agree that “special visit days” may be a bit of a dog and pony show, two of the campuses we visited on Sat left my son unimpressed (two vastly different campuses) and I realized that there were so few students up and around that it felt like it had no energy!</p>
<p>The best way for my D was regular visit and tour + overnight/class observation for schools she got acceptance w/good finaid package</p>
<p>We found on special days it was easier to talk to more people because they ususally had a room set up with tables from different departments, clubs, etc. The rest of the campus was just as it always was - it didn’t seem to affect anything else. I would imagine a very small campus that could be different but especially at some of the larger school the “special day” was just a small part in a very big puzzle.</p>
<p>We visited 4 schools over the Summer and then one school last weekend for their special day. The 4 visits in Summer at different schools are very similar in format with a session on admission and a little bit about financial aid, then another session for the specific school (engineering in our case) within the university, and finally a campus tour (sometimes with 2 tours). The special day we went last weekend is much better organized as they have more visitors at the same time. The program was divided between prospect students and families. Obvious I went to the parent’s sessions and we have a very thorough presentation plus Q&A about the school, the admission process, and the financial aid options. There are exhibits arranged that we can actually talk to the current students and learn what they do in school other than going to classes. In a way, it is like a pre-orientation as we seen many student organizations there. Of course, the schools cannot afford doing that for many days like the regular tour. So the special day does provide additional information. For the schools we visited in the Summer, they actually sent us invitation to go back to visit again on their special day. Since we have been there already, we are not going to drive several hours to look at that again. I guess our next visit may be right before we need to make the final decision where there are only 2-3 schools left on the list.</p>