It can be better to do that. I personally, “back in the day”, visited colleges and overnighted with friends from my high school that attended. It was a very good look at “normal life” and I never did an admitted student weekend.
Some schools will allow overnights anytime after acceptance, some anytime period, some will arrange a host, some require you know someone t stay with. It depends on the school.
My D did enjoy her admitted weekend at the school she chose. There were special presentations, a list of classes she could attend, and she got to meet other accepted students. She didn’t care much for her host - the girl said hi and disappeared for the weekend, basically, but that didn’t dissuade her. (In fact, she signed up as a host herself as a student, wanting to give other kids a better experience).
If a regular overnight is possible to do, then I think that might be ideal. It also helps to spread visits out over time since the month of April can be a busy one if more than a couple of schools are on the table.
There are pros and cons to visiting on the admitted day or on any other normal day. Yes, on a normal day they’ll see the campus “as is” but on an admitted day there are usually lots of extra presentations and workshops to learn more. One definite plus to going on an “off day” would be less crowds. The admitted days attract a lot of potential students (and their parents!) and makes the campus (especially a small LAC) look more crowded than it is. Ideally, one could visit on both types of days to get the best of both types of visits.
My kids did both, with a “normal day visit” before applying. One benefit of accepted student days was seeing the other students who were accepted. At one top school D2 got into, there were some groups of accepted students that were clearly thrilled by the prestige side of the acceptance, and they acted like real pr**ks. And the director of admissions was high fiving them and jollying them along in their bad behavior after they had been disruptive in his presentation to the accepted students. D2 was very turned off by both sides – the visiting students and the administration. Wouldn’t have seen that on a normal visit.
At some schools the clubs/EC groups were asked to have sessions/meetings that propective students could attend. That would be very hit or miss in a one-off visit.
Most schools offer some special presentations at accepted visits that you can’t get on a one-off visit. We went to thugs like graduated student panels, current student panels, faculty presentations, lab tours, administration presentations, and lunches with faculty members.
As I said earlier, I preferred the low-key visit rather than the admitted student days. I think you might, too. The timing just never worked for us, and I didn’t want to see the school when it was “on.” Also, just because there are other admitted students doesn’t mean that a single one of those students will choose to attend. One of those merit scholarship weekends sound like a good compromise – fewer people, personal attention, etc.
I learned from a kid on here that sometimes you can ask to be flown out on a different weekend if there’s a conflict. You could try that with GT/MIT.
How does a student win an airline ticket to a college, do you need to ask for it? My sons have not won that! I don’t know that they will. One is a junior at Case Western and Case does not offer airline tickets. We flew him there once for a horn audition and did no visit programs with him. My younger son is NMsemifinalist and could fly to Arizona State because of NM, but he did not apply. I see that kids get flown to schools, but I am not sure how to get that for my own sons. My sons have not gotten into so called elite schools so far though! Older son got into Haverford, CWRU, Younger son is a high school senior and got into GT, CWRU so far, waiting to hear from RPI, CMU and MIT. So its not my son who had this problem is another kid on CC who was admitted to MIT and is a Presidential semifinalist at GT. My son was deferred by MIT! . Not surprising, given the sort of accomplishments and package needed to get into MIT today. You would think that as an EC I could have coached my sons, but in fact I could not! Very few EC children get into MIT. Its sort of embarrassing, but what it is today. Legacy does not count for MIT. MIT has a process thats wholistic, and I have heard of MIT flying minority women to check out MIT. Not sure if white boys can get that airplane ticket even to MIT, we are not in a position to know, my older son did not apply , younger one, deferred so not clear if he will get admitted.
As ClaremontMom says, there are pros and cons. As in many things, you know your child best. My oldest D did both the accepted student weekends and independent visits. Both were helpful. I would lean towards the weekends if at all possible, though. I went with D1 to Wildcat days at NU a few years ago. There were so many talks given that she wanted information from, so I was given the lower priority ones to attend and get notes for her, and she went to the priority ones. I remember I attended one given by the career center, and I know it was a lot of good information she would not have gotten otherwise. I believe she attended seminars on the science honors program she’d been accepted to, and a service group she was interested in. There were talks in the particular schools, and meet and greets with professors and heads of depts. I agree with intparent that these weekends offer a complete idea of what is available for the students that no other visit could offer. We never felt a hard sell at all.
However, D2 is going on two independent visits soon. It works best for her schedule, and she will be able to stay overnight with a student in each place. In those two cases, D2 is looking to see herself there. Considering that one offered her substantial money, and the other a substantial opportunity, it is well worth making a careful and informed decision. Plus, there may be some other schools she would want to consider in RD, that may require a third visit later on.
OP, you’ve mentioned MIT in each of your posts. If you are traveling to Boston, then I get your hesitation, because it is really expensive to stay in Cambridge. You don’t want to shell out money for that trip unless it will be useful.
Have you shopped airfares recently? Because there are really good airfares right now. There are ways to make a trip to Boston more affordable.
We are thinking about RPI visit in Albany NY, not Boston. My son is much more likely to get into RPI than MIT.
He was deferred by MIT. Troy may not be very expensive for hotels so I should just plan it and take him. There are no direct flights so I feel I should go with him to Troy. Troy is also not that safe and may not be easy for him to negotiate the bus from the Albany airport on his own, although clearly he will have to figure this out if he attends RPI, and RPI may not give him a dorm room before their visit days, if they even have visit days, I think they do. He has a scholarship to RPI but not admitted yet, odd situation, but he got a FIRST scholarship at RPI applied in junior year of high school. Anyway, not all kids get plane tickets or chances to stay in dorms. With CWRU, my son stayed with a Colorado student, he arranged it on his own, not sure CWRU would have helped, I think students must stay in hotels, as I understand it.
We actually prefer admitted students visit days because we like listening to others’ questions, and also feel a little less in the spotlight, so to speak. My kids and I tend to be introverted types that like to hang back and look and listen rather than make small talk with tour guides
I do get a little annoyed with specific mandatory visit days for scholarship interviews. Sometimes it means missing a significant senior year event (like a sports championship for an athlete)with generally no guarantee of a scholarship for making the sacrifice. In our case, there is significant travel costs too, as we are a plane ride from everywhere. Eh, the schools can do what they want obviously, but I reserve the right to grumble about it quietly
My daughter was invited to a scholarship weekend that was the same weekend as our all state music festival. She contacted the college…and the arranged a “private” scholarship weekend visit the following weekend. They arranged the same interviews, and same tours and student contacts. They even kept her little “gift bag” and gave it to her when she arrived.
Talk about excellent customer service!
It ended up being her number two choice…but really…they showed they cared.
OP, perhaps you should have your kid visit without you if cost is a big concern. He should stay on campus to get the most out of it. The school should be willing to arrange a host. One plane ticket and transportation from airport to campus is all it should cost you. My parents didn’t come to any of my college visits when I was young. If that is too scary to consider at a school you are looking at, then how is it going to be ok 7 months from now? Maybe it’s not the right school for your kid.
The admitted student weekends my kid attended were for the kids. There were some presentations and activities for parents but the kids were meant to be touring independently and their organized activities were largely separate.
Being able to visit colleges is a luxury and I appreciate we were able to do them. We drove to most of our college visits (I wanted my S to be able to ‘feel’ how far away he may be going ) but hotels and food add up. Prior to applying I saw it as a journey - each visit elicited new questions and helped my S to make the final decision. Initially I had thought that the overnight visits to the top 2 or 3 would be a good idea - but many of them were in April - right before critical classes and studying for AP exams (he had 7). Additionally, I felt that the overnight would just be a ‘snapshot’ of the university and possibly an inaccurate one at that. Based on our initial visits and other research, I felt we had enough information to make an informed decision (okay, we did a little help from a private college counselor).
Back to one of the OP’s points (I think) - is these expensive weekends put on by the universities do add on to our tuition tabs and they benefit mostly the ‘1 percent’ who can afford the higher tabs anyways. It’s part of the same argument about the abundance spent on marketing materials, fancy libraries and rec centers instead of what really should be spent on resources such as faculty or labs.
We did fly to two universities which were farther away (whirlwind ORD-BOS-ROC-ORD) - used a combination of frequent flyer miles and dollars to make the cost affordable. Again, I realize how fortunate we were to be able to do this.
I can tell you that RPI will gladly schedule a visit/shadow any time that is convenient for you and your son. My daughter, who applied and was accepted ED1, spent a day there before she submitted her application since she was obligated to accept them if they accepted her. It was very useful for her to sit in on classes, talk to students, and eat in the dining halls (on RPI’s dime). She felt by the end of the day that these were her kind of people. That being said, she is still excited to go to accepted students day to meet some of her future classmates. I hope that your son gets into the college that he feels fits him the best. (BTW, my husband is an EC for MIT in our town. I think it was 17 years of watching amazing students interview and rarely get in that influenced her not to apply… )
@Coloradomama: That sounds like a good plan. I do think it is helpful to have parents along, if you can talk to Financial Aid, or get other information while he’s at class or meeting kids, that can really help you to build a picture of fit, the financial situation, and how the college will help him meet his goals… Hopefully your S ends has options that make sense for him. Good luck!
If your son wants to visit, he should contact admissions and find out what they are willing to arrange. You should not have to “take him” there because there is no direct flight. Yes, he can manage to change flights without Mom walking him through the airport (check with the airline about unaccompanied minors if he isn’t 18 yet). I think you need to start thinking of him as a grown up person, not a child who needs you to hold his hand everywhere he goes.
