<p>I want to take my senior son on some college visits. How do we know that he's been registered as having visited the college? The major point of the visit to each college will be to show interest for scholarship purposes, so we want to make sure they are aware he did visit the college. Is it a good idea to visit any dept in particular or request an appt. with the honors dean, etc? If a student met someone on an official visit day (at an info. session not by appt.) is it a good idea to write a thank you note thanking them for the time they took to explain things? I'm thinking this would be seen as brownnosing, but am not sure. Any ideas to keep a fast cover three colleges in two and a half days tour, not counting the one day drive to the area and again back home, from being exhausting?</p>
<p>A lot of schools have “information and tour” sessions almost daily during the week. Usually you can register for one in advance online. When you get there, you check in and maybe fill out another form. At 3 places where we did this, we were in a small group and one of the admissions personnel had time to talk personally with us. </p>
<p>If you are writing notes afterwards, I would go with emails to the admissions personnel reiterating your interest in and enthusiasm for the school (maybe include something specific you liked about it) and save the trees.</p>
<p>Many schools also have on-campus interviews, you should try to schedule them.</p>
<p>First of all, make sure to get a good idea of how scholarship money is distributed at the schools you’re looking at. At many schools, scholarship money is not linked to interest student shows in the school, but rather in their academic merit (test scores, GPA, etc), their financial need, and/or their athletic ability. If he’s going out for an athletic scholarship, he should make sure to arrange a meeting with the coach of the sport he wants to play during his visit. </p>
<p>It is a good idea to show interest just generally, it can provide another data point for schools to look at when evaluating his application. If you sign up on line for a tour and info session, you will be counted as attending. If you don’t sign up on line (some schools are more drop in) they’ll ask you to sign in when you come for the tour and they’ll probably have you fill out a paper detailing a little bit about yourself (name, intended major, extra curricular activities, high school, etc). </p>
<p>If you know he’s interested in a particular major or department, see if it’s possible for him to sit in on a class and/or make an appointment to meet with a professor in that department. If there’s a chance to do an on-campus interview, definitely spring for that, if you dont have time, see if you can interview with an alum when you get home. All of that information gets filed so that i can be re-pulled when the applications arrive. </p>
<p>Thank you notes are a nice touch if you have done an interview or met with a professor or dean. Not sure it will make a huge difference, but it’s polite.</p>
<p>I have something of an issue that the ‘major point’ of each visit is to show interest for scholarship purposes. How about actually wanting to learn about the school and its facilities, maybe sit in on a class and interact with some students, and figure out if the majors offered make sense for your son?</p>
<p>If you schedule a day at the college that covers HIS interests, work through the admissions office on scheduling the various things you want to do, and make sure he signs in there when he goes on the tour/info session, you are covered for “showing interest”. If he interviews well (one of my kids did, the other probably won’t), then schedule an interview. The types of things D1 did on campus included: tour, info session (which we sometimes skipped), attending a class (contact the admissions office, they can usually help you figure out options even if you end up working directly with the prof on location/etc.), visiting with a coach, interview, eating in the cafeteria. That took most of a day. When we visited in the summer, we made appointments for her to meet with a prof in her major area if there were no classes to attend. She ended up with a solid list of schools she really wanted to attend AND got a very good merit scholarship to the school she now attends from this approach.</p>
<p>For additional “showing interest” points, make sure you are on the college’s mailing list (he can probably get on it at their website). And make sure your son stops by the see the rep at the colleges he is interested in at college fairs or if they visit his high school. Go to any local open houses with alumni or reps in your area, too.</p>
<p>I agree with sylvan, an email thanking them and indicating interest (if he really IS interested) is fine after the visit. I don’t think it will buy you any extra “interest” with the college, but it can’t hurt.</p>
<p>I do think admissions officers are very practiced at spotting phonies… people who aren’t really interested in their school. Good prep before the visit (read up on their website, CC, and maybe some books like Fiske before you go), and come up with some questions (maybe about his preferred major, housing options, etc.) helps make a good impression. And take notes during your visit (even if your son doesn’t) – if he needs to write essays for admission about why the school is a good fit, you will have more detailed material. And that might play into their merit scholarship decisions in some cases if his “why X” essay stands out.</p>
<p>It will be exhausting, but I think you are being smart to cover only 3 colleges in the visit. Some families go on a weeklong 6-8 college tour, and they all blur together after a few visits.</p>
<p>Definitely register for the visits. My D sends a thank you email to everyone who interacts personally with her on a visit: admissions staff, dept heads, whatever. I don’t think they see it as brown-nosing, just good manners. :)</p>
<p>The responses have been so helpful. Yes, I do want him to see if the school is a good fit for him. However, he has a limited amount of time on each campus and we have already checked out each school to see if it meets the basic requirements of what he is looking for. He is really going to sort the schools out more thoroughly after he gets his scholarship offers (hopefully there will be some). In the time we do have at each college he will try to meet with professors, sit in on classes, etc. The visit will give him material for essays regarding why he wants to go to that school - good point.</p>
<p>I like the email idea. So if he met a dept. head at an info. sessions it doesn’t look like he is selling himself too hard to email that person a thank you and I was interested in what you said about your dept. type note? We have toured one school so far and he did meet someone in that capacity and was impressed by what the person said.</p>
<p>OOOPS–cross-posted with the OP, so ignore…most?!</p>
<p>It sounds like you’ve never been on a college visit before–please forgive me if I’m incorrect–so I just wanted to add that in my experience, once you been to one “info session,” you’ve been to them all. Picture a group setting with an admission representative overviewing the highlights of the school and key points about their application process and standards. Then picture the Q & A session with parents asking questions that–almost 99% of the time–are “asked and answered” on the school’s admission website, in the packet of materials you will pick up, etc. If you’ve done your homework, you will learn nothing of critical importance in the info session. If you have a situation-specific question, there are plenty of ways to get the answer outside that session.</p>
<p>I offer this only in the event you discover planning around the “info session” is making it hard to schedule an activity that gives your son a more personal, substantive exposure to the school. I highly recommend a class visit–many schools detail the procedure on the admission website. You mention honors program–check their web page for specialized tours, visit information, making an appointment with someone to learn more, etc.</p>
<p>As interviews are mandatory or “strongly encouragaged” for many selective programs, consider the pros/cons of scheduling one or more during the trip. </p>
<p>Have fun!</p>
<p>Agreed about the info session IF you have done your homework. If we had to skip something, it was that. Just one more comment, even if you think you have already checked out the school to see if it meets your basic requirements, there is NOTHING like feet on the ground on campus to see if it is a fit. We were continually surprised by what we found/felt on each campus visit. Some colleges that seemed GREAT on paper were awful when we got there. And one we had only given a casual glance on paper turned out to be the ideal school (with merit aid)! </p>
<p>My personal opinion is that it is hard to short cut the process and get a good result. You (and your son) are making a huge investment (financial and time, so taking the time to visit and evaluate really pays off. My niece is a cautionary tale… she did not visit several of the schools she applied to (and for various reason then ended up living on the other side of the world for her senior year). When it came time to choose among her acceptances, she really hadn’t planned or thought enough about her options. She did not get into her “dream” school, and could not bring herself to attend any of her other options; some she had never visited, others she had only gone on the tour. AFTER she was accepted she realized that for various reasons they were not a good fit for her. She is currently taking a gap year, and will reload and apply to other options for next year. If she had visited more of her colleges before applying, I think it would have worked out better.</p>
<p>“He is really going to sort the schools out more thoroughly after he gets his scholarship offers (hopefully there will be some).”</p>
<p>Keep in mind that scholarship offers often come out at the same time as Financial Aid - spring of senior year. He may have to start sorting the schools long before then.</p>
<p>From my kids’ experiences, some merit scholarships came with or soon after the acceptance, with some of those being early action, or with a priority app.</p>
<p>When we were at one particular school’s scheduled group tour, we pointed to sidewalk and asked our guide why those used rubbers(not galoshes) were laying around.
I don’t recommend this question for all, but we weren’t impressed with the school at all.</p>
<p>Remember some schools consider EA binding. In those binding cases do your financial figuring before you promise to attend if accepted.</p>
<p>^EA (early action) is never binding. ED (early decision)* is *binding (though there are endless discussions on CC about how much wiggle room there is for disappointing financial aid packages).</p>
<p>We found some info sessions were great - with current students answering questions and at least one was so awful it helped cross the school off the list.</p>
<p>In any event you will probably want to stop by the admissions office to sign in - that will put you on their mailing list and will show interest at the schools that care. (Very few of the ones my kids applied to cared.)</p>
<p>I do recommend sitting in a on a class or talking to a professor, but remember that it’s just one data point.</p>
<p>thank you very much mathmom, for clarifying my error. You are absolutely correct about EA/ED.</p>
<p>At every college we visited and did a formal tour, they had the kids sign in and give their contact info. Believe me, they keep records if you have visited - don’t worry that they won’t know your kid was there!</p>
<p>Is your son applying to schools that have competitive merit or assured merit?</p>
<p>He is applying to schools with both. He should get free tuition at two schools but it would be nice to get more merit aid, which is offered competitively at all of the schools he applying to.</p>
<p>Just a note, there was another thread on here of a similar nature, about “showing the love” towards a school, that might be relevant to this. I agree with others, I think college tours and visits are more important in terms of seeing if you like the school’s facilities and general air then about value in admissions or scholarships. It obviously doesn’t hurt to send thank you e-mails to people you have met and the like, of course, if anything to reinforce basic manners, but I would be very dubious if going to a campus tour or the like is going to make much difference with merit aid or financial aid. Given the number of students applying, and then sorting through FAF’s and the like with each applicant to figure out financial and merit aid, I would be really surprised if they even looked to see if the kid visited. On the other thread some said (including myself I believe) that they might look for signs a student cares about going someplace, signs of interest, with borderline cases, but even then many were pretty sure it didn’t matter.</p>