I’ll be doing an east coast road trip next week. When I tried to sign up for an info session/tour at Penn, I found out that the next couple of weeks are all booked (I know, lesson learned).
Is it possible if I just showed up without registering? Will the admission officer sign me in? I’m sure they track interests so I really want to let them know that I did their campus visit.
Thanks.
I very much doubt that Penn tracks interest based on attendance at info sessions and tours. Do a self tour. Walk through campus and the surrounding neighborhood etc.
Penn does not consider demonstrated interests in its admissions
As an interviewer for Penn, we are asked to ask the applicants how they heard of Penn and if they have been to the campus. Although the interview results are seen mainly as “in case of a tie…”, certainly someone who went on a self-tour would have a similar experience to someone who registered for a tour. And if you are far away (more than 2 hours), people can understand you can’t just pop over when there is a spot open.
I do think you could glom on to a scheduled tour perhaps, if they are running the day you go. Make believe you’re a sibling 
We did this at Stanford. I looked online and it said everything was booked, but when we got there and asked about self guided tours the kid at the desk said there are no caps for tours. So in retrospect I think the site was indicating that the info sesh was full and they assume that everyone at the info will be everyone on the tour, but we were encouraged to just hang out until the info was over and everyone came outside, split into groups, and we got an awesome tour of an amazing campus! I think Penn tours would have as many interested students, and even if we hadn’t asked prior to joining I don’t think that anyone would bat an eye at a couple more people jumping in the tour cluster haha.
Demonstrated interest is not a factor in admissions to Penn but if you want to go see the school why don’t you call admissions and ask if they can squeeze you in?