<p>People always recommend paying a visit to your candidate colleges during the summer. I wonder how many international students actually did that. If you have never visited the colleges, how much would it affect your chance of getting accepted?</p>
<p>I’m not sure how much it’d affect your chances of being accepted, but as a student a campus tour is something I’d like to see if I’d be comfortable at that school, whether I like the people, general atmosphere and amenities… </p>
<p>But since I couldn’t do that for most of my schools and some schools like to ask ‘Why did you choose us?’ as a personal essay question I’ve had some admissions officers tell me that going to talks and speaking/emailing current students would give you just as much insight. </p>
<p>As for whether you can check the box on the supplements that say ‘how did you hear about us’ I think online tours, fairs and admissions talks count too.</p>
<p>I’m an international student who went on campus visits and I’ve only met like 10-15 international families out of like 400 families on the 8 schools I’ve visited (mostly met the international students at big name schools, particularly Harvard and Yale). So, definitely not a lot of international students during the visits.</p>
<p>Like ivoryis said, I go there mostly just to get a feel of the campus and I’m not really sure how visiting will improve your acceptance chances. Do the colleges keep record of who have visited? Do we mention that we have visited in the essays or somewhere in the application?</p>
<p>Many international applicants don’t visit because they cannot afford to. I am also not sure how much visiting really helps: I’d be tempted to judge the college by the architecture and the tour guide, both of which would be completely irrelevant to my college experience. [I have been on tours at my own college where I completely disagreed with the tour guide, so don’t give too much weight to their opinions and characterizations of the place.]</p>
<p>I personally went by criteria that were easier to check online: just how many classes (and what range of classes) are offered in my major each semester? Will the college fund a study-abroad experience (for financial aid recipients)? How annoying are the gen ed requirements? Is it difficult to get into the popular classes? Do current students like the housing and dining situation? Are the dorms quiet at night? Maybe more important for international students: can students remain in college housing during breaks, or are they kicked out and need to make other arrangements?</p>
<p>Retrospectively, I would add the following criteria to the list, but they are hard to check ahead of time:</p>
<p>Is there a critical mass of intellectual/geeky students?
Are the professors in my major department accessible, friendly and good teachers <em>by my standards</em>?</p>