<p>During the past year we visited about ten of my daughter's top college choices. We covered reach, match and safety schools. We took the walking tour and sat through the info session and registered each time. Now that she is a senior, we are getting postcards in the mail asking us to come to presentations in our area by admissions officers from the colleges we visited. Would there be any advantage in viewing the local presentation? The college tours were very crowded. Would we be able to make some sort of connection with an admission officer locally? Do colleges consider student visits in their admission process?</p>
<p>We did the same thing you did over the spring of junior year and during the summer before senior year. We have also attended a local college fair held at our high school with 4 schools represented. We found the event to be very useful and effective. There is something very different about the dynamic when the admissions rep is on your turf. Sorta like a home game. We got to spend a lot of one on one time with a rep from a school very high on my D’s list. The reps were really forthcoming with “real” information. They were also very generous with their time. We are going to two more this month. Definetly worthwhile.</p>
<p>It depends on your kid. My D1 is pretty outgoing. We went to one for the college she ended up attending (college president was actually the presenter). It was fine. The biggest thing she got out of it was meeting a couple of other students who also ended up attending the school. My D2 is pretty introverted and wouldn’t have talked to anyone anyway.</p>
<p>I didn’t feel like we learned anything in the one we went to that we didn’t already know from going to the college.</p>
<p>If this is a college where “demonstrated interest” is considered in admissions (you can tell by searching for the Common Data Set for that college and looking at it), then that would be another reason to go.</p>
<p>Defiantly go because colleges want to see you are interested and by showing up at one of these shows you are interested. If you end up going defiantly sign up/ sign in when you get there do the school knows you attended. Also you are very likely to learn some new things about the school and personally meet someone from the school either before or after the main presentation.</p>
<p>^not necessarily true. Most Ivy League schools and other highly selective schools do not care a whole lot about student interest. Now that isn’t to say that you may not strike up a conversation with an admissions officer, but these programs are generally large, and there isn’t really enough time to speak to someone and impress them to the point that it works in your favor.</p>
<p>My D is interested in a school that claims that demonstrated interest carries no weight. We’ve done the college tour and met with the rep twice at local events. As we were leaving the last event he told my D he was looking forward to reading her app as it is always nice when you can put a face with the app. So…in the end the college app process is still a human event. If the AdCom knows your kid and likes them, that has to be a slight advantage.</p>
<p>I think the local information sessions are great for sophomores and juniors beginning to explore colleges and making their initial lists. I don’t think listening to an introductory talk in a hotel ballroom with several hundred other students is very useful for a senior who has already visited.
If the admission rep is visiting the student’s high school, where she will have a chance to ask questions and have personal contact, that is important to attend.</p>