Already looking ahead to the fall… we’re planning to go up to New England to visit/ interview, probably last October/ early November. I have a few questions I’m hoping someone may be able to answer…
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How early is it okay to call to schedule an interview / tour for the fall? I’m assuming we should wait at least until after April 10th, but is May too early? Yes, I’m a planner…
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I have friends with current boarders at a school that I know allows overnight visitors with permission. Would it be weird to arrange to have our kid stay with one of them the night before the interview? I’m thinking it would help him get a better feel for the school and what it’s like to be a boarder.
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Can we ask to make an appointment with the FA folks during a visit?
Thanks!
I remember that I called one school pretty early and they told me to call back after Labor Day to schedule our interview.
I was kind of afraid of that. Darn!
I too am a planner and tried to schedule our tour / interview visits early in the process. Several involved a plane trip and I was anxious to get the tickets purchased, etc… I was told basically the same thing as @busymommyof4 - wait until late summer to make the call. As for overnight visits, my (limited) understanding is that many schools don’t like to offer this until revisit day for a few reasons: 1) sheer number of applicants interested would disrupt the flow of school, 2) liability issues appear mitigated when only those students / families who have already been through the admission process and have been accepted are allowed. I think it is certainly worth a call to the school to see if it might be an option at your initial visit, but be prepared for “not yet.”
I LOVE hearing from fellow planners!!! But alas, BSs don’t. After the first week of school is pretty much what we’ve been told. However…if you are from far away like we are, summer visits are able to be scheduled a few months in advance. These, however, do not involve seeing campus when it’s at its best with kids around.
Overnight stays are not very common before M10 for reasons stated above.
You can definitely meet with FA during your visits. We’ve even been able to get questions answered during some of our summer visits.
FYI, DS has already planned a Spring Break 2020 tour of colleges…they appear to be a little more accommodating with their schedules.
Thank you both! I wasn’t thinking of going through the admissions office for the overnight; just see if I could arrange it with a friend. But I don’t know if the AO would think that was weird.
How about classes? Is it ever possible to sit in on a class or two during a visit? Or is that just for revisit days?
Fortunately we’ll be driving - long drive, but manageable - so we don’t need to worry about plane tickets. So I’ll do my best to be patient until school starts…sigh…
@JustWinginIt I’m not sure about overnights with a friend. Some schools allow students to have friends stay with them in the dorm, some do not. And I bet none do on weekdays, when there’s class les the next day…but you never know. A look at the handbook should answer that.
The school does allow friends to stay overnight, at least on weekends. (Yes, I’ve studied the website… 
) I was thinking of trying to schedule the interview for Saturday morning…
We scheduled a lot of our interviews in August. I thought interviewing early was helpful. Things were calmer.
We contacted schools during the spring and were told by all, but one, to call back in late summer. Also, almost all of the NE schools we contacted asked us to first complete their online information form before they could schedule an interview or formal tour. A couple of exceptions were made for golf because it’s a spring sport and we wanted to explore programs during a visit. We had an interview later in the year.
Keep in mind hat if you do visit schools in August, the students are not on campus and it’s a different vibe. Also, not everything may be open. Do inquire about this before you schedule a summer visit. A couple of the schools were hosting camps for younger students in early August.
I should have been more clear. We called and emailed in August to schedule interviews. All our interviews took place very early fall, during the school year but before the crazy interview crush. All the schools we called did not conduct tours and interviews in the first week or so of school to allow the current students to settle in.
Unfortunately it looks like the earliest we could go is late October, so it sounds like we’ll be hitting the crazy time. DS’s class takes a big trip in early October, and they have a lot of work to do to prepare for it, so it’s better if he doesn’t miss any time before the trip. But I will be sure to call in August to make sure we can get on the calendar. Thanks for the advice!
We applied to 10+ schools but were only able to visit a couple before applying. We used our travel budget to re-visit the finalists instead. Most of our daughter’s interviews were via Skype and doing interviews remotely did not affect her admissions results…
So don’t worry if you can’t visit every single school you are interested in. Even just visiting 2-3 will give you a sense of whether you prefer large or small, urban/suburban/rural, formal/informal, etc.