<p>Everyone says that the best way to get a feel for a school is to overnight some time when the school is not putting on a show for students it wants to attract. This fall I will probably only be able to overnight at 1 or 2 schools. How do I decide which 2 to see? Do I pick two similarly sized schools (Swarthmore and Williams)? Do I pick large v. small (Brown/Williams)? I really don't have first and second choices yet, so that doesn't narrow it down either. (I am looking at Williams, Swarthmore, Brown, MIT, Yale, Harvard(?), UNC-CH.) How did y'all decide?</p>
<p>They're so different from each other! But the overnight is mostly about getting a feel for the campus culture, not the course offerings or curricula structure or anything like that. </p>
<p>Regardless of where you visit, if possible, I urge you go on Thursday nights - this will give you a feel as to whether you are falling into a "Thirsty Thursday" culture (and whether you like it or not).</p>
<p>s.pete, If you're considering ED or SCEA, you should definitely overnight at your top choice(s) before you apply.</p>
<p>If you're going all RD, then you can always overnight after the acceptances come in. </p>
<p>Aside from overnighting, you should try to at least visit all of the schools before you apply as this helps "demonstrate interest" which is especially important for LACs. </p>
<p>The schools on your list are quite different from each other in culture, personality and teaching style. It's possible, however, to like them all so at this point there's no reason to eliminate. After you visit, you'll probably scratch a few just based on ambience.</p>
<p>PS, I hope you have some good safeties as well as all these selectives -- or is UNC your safety because you are in-state? UNC is a wonderful school but again very different from many on your list, especially Williams, Swarthmore, Brown and MIT. If one of these turns out to be your first choice, you should probably find a safety/less selective/sure bet in the same overall "feel."</p>
<p>If it were me - planning for my daughter - I would prioritize the visits to her safeties. This is because (a) she would be visiting a college that she was sure of getting into, and (b) they can only be "safeties" if she is sure she is willing to attend -- so if not, better to find out in the beginning than at the end of a painful process when they end up being the only choice left. I wouldn't want my daughter visiting reach schools early on, except on a casual basis (not overnight) - because that would only lead to greater disappointment if she didn't get in, plus a tendency to compare the match schools & safeties unfavorably to the reach school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I don't think that all of the colleges on your list even offer overnight visits pre-acceptance unless you can arrange something privately with somebody you know.</p></li>
<li><p>I would only overnight at schools where you think you have a legitimate chance of acceptance (say 50%/50%).</p></li>
<li><p>If you are considering a binding ED application, then you should definitely overnight there first.</p></li>
<li><p>Another strategy would be to visit all of the schools and attempt to narrow your list of favorites first, then overnight. I think an overnight visit is helpful, but not really as a basic overview. More along the lines of getting an in-depth look at one or two favs. It is also useful to give you a first-hand feel for college life in general. Based on what you did and did not like at a particular school, you might have a better feel for what is important to you.</p></li>
<li><p>If you want to use overnights as a broader survey, then I would consider one small school and one large school.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Practical tip: you can do Philly to Boston or Philly to Providence round trip on Jet Blue or Southwest or Air Tran for about $100 - $120.</p>
<p>Students attending overnites need to be wary that they could get a very skewed view of the college. We have all heard the horror stories, so no need to repeat them here.</p>
<p>Our son spent weekends at several colleges BUT he spent them with hs friends he knew. He spent weekends at WPI, Amherst and our state university. He had fun at each and got to see a bit of what student life was like a 3 very different colleges.</p>
<p>He ended up applying to several LAC's which he likely would not have done had he not visited Amherst. He liked the size and "techie" nature of WPI and applied to both Case and Rensselaer. He didn't like the time spent at the state university as much and applied to it reluctantly as a financial safety.</p>
<p>In short, it may be better to spend a weekend on campus with a person your student knows in order to get a general feel for different types of colleges.</p>
<p>If your student does attend a standard weekend with unfamiliar students and has a poor experience, he/she needs to try and separate the personal from the institutional experiences.</p>
<p>thats true</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your responses. You are so great!
1) I have visited all of these schools and done the tour+info session, so I have gotten a general overview. I still like a lot of things about each of the schools though. (This is actually a revised list. haha)</p>
<p>2) I don't have a top choice at this time, so, unless I can find one, I won't be considering ED or SCEA. </p>
<p>3) Yes, UNC is my safety, and I know I could be happy there. I probably will also apply to NC State as a safety just in case, where again, I know I would be fine.</p>
<p>4) I am not sure how to determine if I have a 50/50 chance. My stats are in the top 25% of these schools, I'm a musician and an athlete(not recruited or anything!), but even with this, the nature of the schools makes it impossible to predict.</p>
<p>I guess what I'm struggling with is how to decide which ones to look at in depth, since I can't revisit them all, when I like each one pretty equally at this point. How do I narrow it to two?</p>
<p>If you like them all pretty equally, and you are already pretty knowledgeable, you could just pick a large one and a small one (or a rural and an urban one), just to get a feel for the culture.</p>
<p>And then you could wait until after admissions (and/or financial offers) before visiting again.</p>
<p>Sneakypete - Don't try to narrow it down to 2. Begin writing your essays, have some fun this summer, spend some time perusing the Livejournal for each of these schools, talk to your parents, your friends, neighbors, prior grads of your high school - just chat up college, everyone likes to talk about their experiences, file away what they say in your brain. In other words just mull things over in your head, try to imagine what life at college would be like, and what things you would or wouldn't enjoy. This process may lead you to having a single first choice by late August, or two, or you may remain torn. If you come up with a choice, great, if finances are OK apply ED. If you are still torn, that's OK, do your overnights after acceptances come out - the decision won't be easier but your choices may be fewer.</p>
<p>The other semi-quantitative thing I would suggest is make a list on your computer, and add to it as you go along this summer, comparing largest to smallest school, or urban to rural, or MIT (which is different from your other choices) to say Brown, perhaps even all three lists. Over the next few months, your perceptions and priorities may slowly change and become clearer.</p>
<p>Many kids don't think in depth about what they want at all. You have taken the first step by thinking some about your likes and dislikes, now give the process a chance to play out.</p>