<p>calmom,</p>
<p>I think if I was interviewing caldaughter, age 17-- and she'd managed to set up the interview, find her way there on planes, trains & buses, & show up on time, she'd already be on my short list before we started talking!!</p>
<p>That is really one competant kid! Bravo.</p>
<p>SBMom, yeah I agree. Can caldaughter please plan my S's college visits in a couple of years? Aludaughter wiped me out.</p>
<p>Calmom, I do agree that most admissions interviews end on a positive note and this can be misinterpreted. I also agree that just demonstrating interest is not likely to accomplish much for the very top selective schools and maybe not even for schools which are considerably less selective.</p>
<p>Sometimes I think an admissions interview can be really positive and can make the difference in being accepted. It is much more likely for that to happen with a faculty interview. My wife has taught at several colleges and was involved in selecting students who had interests in specific majors. The faculty recommendations were often the deciding factor for applicants who were otherwise qualified. This also is not very likely to happen for the vast majority of applicants to the ivies. When almost all of the applicants are gifted it is much harder to make an impact on the admissions process.</p>
<p>I hope your D's trips are successful and valuable. You should indeed be proud to have a D with that level of determination and self confidence.</p>
<p>SBMom, thanks for the compliment. One reason that I am supportive of my duaghter's travels is that for HER, it is the best way to show off her strengths-- her test scores are mediocre by CC standards and certainly by the standards of the reach colleges she is interested in. But she is so much more <em>capable</em> in every way than her high-scoring brother was at the same age. Part of this is her personality - she has always been a little mother hen acting as the confidante and problem-solver for all her friends. </p>
<p>So maybe part of the college-visit thing is that it really depends on the kid. I didn't have the pleasure of sitting in on my son's college interviews, all local... but if the conversation was anything like what I got at home, I doubt it would have won over any ad coms. (Mom to son communications: "Where were you?" "At the place." "What place?" "You know, the PLACE." "What did you do there?" "Nothin'" "Did you have a good time?" "I guess." Imagined interviewer to son communications: "What are you interested in studying?" "I dunno." "Well, what do you like to do in your spare time?" "Read" "What do you like to read?" "Books." "Well, what are your favorite books?" "I dunno."). </p>
<p>Basically I've had one kid who looks a lot better on paper than he presents in real life, though he is really very capable; just not always communicative. And I've got another who will dazzle in a conversation but is not-so-impressive on paper. So it is also an introvert/extravert thing -- the introvert probably would not get nearly as much from a college visit (feels overwhelmed, can't think of questions to ask at info session, uncomfortable talking to students and faculty) - whereas the extravert may really need to interact with the people and get a feel of the place. I think that's why my daughter was so insistent that she needed to visit while school was in session-- she refused all offers from me and her father for summer college visits.</p>
<p>One thing we did that no one seems to have mentioned yet is to try to stay at a bed and breakfast near the college rather than a hotel/motel. Last summer/Fall we had lots of good conversations with inn owners and guests about the colleges and even about particular professors they knew. Most of the info was positive, some kind of "look out for this or that"....but you could see what colleges people were really emotional about. I also think its a good idea to spend at least a day or 2 with your favorite couple of colleges. I had lunch with my tour guide at one school because I ran into him in the snack bar etc. ..we went to a play at another school , talked to people duing intermission and went out for coffee with a faculty family after the show.sticking around also takes the anxiety edge off the visiting tour if you have time. I also pretty much limited the number of schools i visited. word to the wise: Keep it simple.</p>
<p>Though I never got to plan college tours due to S's decision to apply to college early, 24 hours before winter vacation, I think this thread offers many wonderful possibilities. I realized how some of the summer programs can be so useful. Spending time at Duke (with TIP) and several large U's can help a child adjust to a college campus, and give them a feel for rural/suburban/ & size. I also think a week in NE or central E with a parent with a shy child can be helpful, then child is more prepared to go alone for subsequent visits.
The learning curve is quite rapid. I would have child do first interview with a school that is not a dream, so they lose their shyness. I doubt my S could initiate contact with profs via e-mail, but once he sat in a class, he would be able to follow up. Visiting for him would have been helpful.
For some kids, the strength of the dept is top priority, and for others, it will be the campus feel.</p>
<p>** edad, **</p>
<p>These are great ideas. Unfortunately, for some folks, this type of visit is realistic and for others it is not. </p>
<p>Since my S is in the process of applying, I can't say what will work best in terms of upping his chances at admissions, since he obviously hasn't been admitted anywhere yet! I do know that the most "helpful" thing so far has been the time our S spent on two college campuses these past summers taking credit and non-credit classes. We looked for programs in microbiology, which is what he has an interest in. However, in making our final choice of where to go, we purposely chose institutions where S thought he might want to apply for undergrad admission. </p>
<p>The extended stays on campus (2 weeks, 4 weeks) gave him the chance to get a very good feel for those colleges and their dorms and also a basis of comparison to use when visiting other schools. In one case, he earned credit the equivalent of two courses and a promised recommendation from a professor at the school. These programs are not cheap but he helped pay for them by using a chunk of his own resources and foregoing some other activities in summer and during the school year that would have meant an additional expenditure of funds on our part.</p>
<p>Our greatest frustration is that we had to do most of the other visiting in the summer. We are from Texas and the schools son is interested in are scattered over the east coast, midwest, and southeast. Given the crazy crammed schedule son has (especially with theater involvement) and the cost of plane flights, it was not realistic to do individual visits to each college once school began, especially since that involved missing classes. Instead we opted for the summer route. We did an enormous amount of research ahead of time and then took off on a two week car trip. We spent at least a day at each college and did as much as we could. We knew that it would be difficult to set up visits with students or faculty in the summer or to get a feel for campus life, but that was simply our most realistic option. </p>
<p>Different strokes...different folks. There's no one forumula that will work for all of us, but a reminder of the benefits of extended campus visits is most welcome.</p>
<p>Well, my daughter flew off to Boston this past Thursday. All plans for college visits on Friday and Saturday simply didn't come to pass, as she has essentially been rained out. Fortunately, she had previously cancelled the only interview she had set up. She plans to take the bus to Providence to visit Brown on Monday and is confident that she can visit all the other Boston area colleges she wants to see on Tuesday & Wednesday (she'll be flying home on Thursday) -- I'm not sure what her "list" has come down to at this point. </p>
<p>Anyway, I'm not sure what point this illustrates, other than it isn't fun to visit colleges in the midst of rainstorms - and the best laid plans sometimes go awry. At least this trip doesn't involve any plans to drive any great distance.</p>
<p>Yes, calmom. It has rained so long here now that our puddles have run together to create ponds and the ponds have become lakes and the lakes.... well, you get the idea. A visit over the past few days would not have been a Good Thing. She was wise to reconnoiter.</p>
<p>I'm just hoping that the rain lets up enough by Monday so that whole trip doesn't turn out to be a waste, at least in my parental eyes. At last report, daughter has managed to see a little of the city and is going to a party tonight, so I think she'll survive the wet.</p>
<p>calmom writes "I'm not questioning the fact that campus visits and interviews can help demonstrate interest to a college -- but the point is there are other ways to accomplish the same."</p>
<p>I hope people use the visits/interviews in the way that edad and others have suggested, to learn more about the college and college life. There is simply so much about college that I never suspected back when I was a HS student; from the mechanics of registering and finding open classes, to preparing for tests, to meeting new friends, finding places to live, the list goes on and on. I think the in-depth approach can be helpful to kids who don't have much exposure to colleges from their HS activities (eg haven't participated in camps, etc) to start to make the place seem real and the distinctions between various campuses apparent. You see lots of posts that have a theme something like "A LAC would be perfect for you" as if all LACs fit in the same bundle; serious visits as opposed to the walkthru can help show some of these differences to the kids who are visiting.</p>
<p>Mike, my point is simply that the visits aren't absolutely necessary for everyone. Many families simply can't afford to travel - or even send their kids alone as I am doing -- and not all kids will get the same benefit from seeing the campus. Kids have different learning styles and orientation -- for some, it is very important to get a sense of "fit" --others are far more focused on the academic end of things and really wouldn't care what the college is like, as long as it offers the obscure major they are interested in. Still others simply are very resilient - they could do well anywhere. And the vast majority of college bound kids -- believe it or not -- simply have little or no choice. They are going to their state university or the local community college because that is what their families can afford.</p>
<p>I think it is very valuable to talk about how to plan the college visit and to share different experiences -- but we should also remember that this is something that adds to overall stress and cost, and for some families is very difficult. I think a thread like this can be very intimidating for a parent or kid who isn't going to have the ability to makes such visits, so we need to keep in mind that even the "in-depth" visit gives a very superficial look at the campus. I visited my intended college and met with a prof in the department where I planned to major... but by the second semester on campus I had completely changed my focus and I never saw that person or even the inside of the building where we met again. Every "reason" I had for choosing my campus evaporated -- and I had a very productive and happy 4 years including a unique and memorable learning opportunity with a student-initiated project that could neither have been predicted nor replicated anywhere else.</p>
<p>So hindsight teaches me that in the long run it doesn't make a lot of difference.</p>
<p>I've got to laugh about the idea of meeting a faculty person at a school you are touring..D1 had a talk set up for her with a faculty member in her major (music) at a school that recruited her.If she had based her decison on that meeting (I sat in for part of it) she would never have enrolled there..the person was disinterested,distracted, and frankly,pretty boring!Fortunately the rest of the visit went extremely well.
In another instance,D had arranged a "lesson" with a music professor at a well known conservatory.While waiting in the hall for her, I observed another student visiting with an oboe faculty person.He suggested to her that she play for him..she didnt have her instrument so they borrowed.She hadnt planned it(according to her parent) and was petrified,looked like a deer in the headlights.I wonder whatever happened to her!</p>
<p>On the other end of the extreme, from a parental perspective, going from in-depth to the most cursory inforation possible, is the text message college report.</p>
<p>From today:
Me: "Did you visit Brown today? If so, how was it? "
Kid with cell phone: "It was really good"</p>
<p>D & I are limited to text messages because there is a 79 cent per minute roaming charge for all cell phone calls she makes to me. Fortunately I'm not the one going to college; I'm just the one who pays the cell phone bills. I think d. is very determined to keep the overall costs of this particular trip down.</p>