<p>Wow, its been awhile since I started this thread… Glad to see many are utilizing all these resources. Please pay it forward. </p>
<p>@ thestakesarehigh, while it is good to hear other people’s experience at certain schools. I think the premise is for “You” the student to have your OWN experience and decide if you can see YOURSELF at that school. Again, these are very competitive so apply broadly and wisely. These programs help one to decide if they really like small type schools or not. Good luck all!</p>
<p>@thestakesarehigh. Bowdoin’s fly-in is amazing. Large percentages of kids who go to fly-ins eventually enroll.</p>
<p>@learninginprog Haha, you’re totally right, thank you!</p>
<p>Also, thank you @collegebound752. I’ve been hearing so many good things about Bowdoin and I’m itching to apply!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my (overprotective) mom doesn’t seem to be too on board with this. She was alright when I told her about Wellesley’s program but when I told her later I was applying to more…well, her reaction wasn’t the best. Bummer, I was so excited for these 
<em>sigh</em> I’m still going to at least apply to some since she didn’t actually refuse, and see if she’ll let me go…(def. still going to Wellesley’s though!) </p>
<p>@thestakesarehigh, Do share with your Mom that applying to these programs is like applying for actual college admissions. Nothing is guaranteed. One needs to apply to a few that they have researched and liked and see how it shakes out. </p>
<p>I’ve heard the food at Bowdoin is Awesome :-)</p>
<p>I stumbled upon this thread last year when S was a Jr. so he was ready to hit the ground running with applications this summer. This is a great resource.
So far he has been accepted at WUSTL, Macalester, Johns Hopkins, Williams, MIT, and Amherst. Applications are still pending at Colby, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Pomona, Whitman, Washington and Lee, and UPenn. He finally just stopped filling out the applications because he obviously can only attend a fraction of them, and so many of them have conflicting dates as well.
Just wanted to say thanks for the thread.</p>
<p>That is awesome planner03. Congrats to your son!</p>
<p>@learninginprog Will do. I’ve begun to see it myself! Trying to get recommendations and other requested materials in, accepting rejection (pun semi-intended haha), keeping track of deadlines – it sure is a bit to handle, but it’s all very exciting. 
</p>
<p>Yes, I hear the same! As silly as it may sound, food is important to me when considering colleges because 1) I’m a picky eater, and 2) I hear college food is usually awful and tiring. So that’s quite a bonus for Bowdoin!</p>
<p>@planner03, last year D3 did the same – overapplying to fly-ins bc she didn’t know how may she’d be accepted to. She had to attend selectively, because as incredible an experience as most of them are (and they really are), it can be exhausting to fly around the country by yourself visiting colleges and keep up with a rigorous schedule plus sports and ECs. D chose 5 favorite schools and politely declined other acceptances ( in plenty of time for the spot to go to another applicant!) and that # turned out to be perfect. In fact, when she came home from Pomona - her last fly-in - she was tired, grouchy, stressed and complaining that she wished she hadn’t done so many programs. Later, she decided that she wouldn’t have had it any other way and wouldn’t have missed any of the amazing people and places she was exposed to. But honestly her varsity cross-country season suffered and she had to bust her little tush to keep up with 5 APs.
D4 (current senior) seems not to have learned from D3 since she’s applied to 9 fly-in programs, but so far only 2 acceptances, and I may tell her she has to cap it at 5 based on her sister’s experience, if she has too many acceptances. </p>
<p>One thing to be vigilant about is that once the travel plans have been made, you are committed and usually have to reimburse the college for the cost of the ticket if the student doesn’t attend.</p>
<p>We discovered an extra wonderful feature to the Colorado College program; when D4 was admitted, they notified us that they would also fly a parent out for the weekend and put us up at a hotel – while the students do their thing, they have programming for the parents! A nice little early birthday trip for me I think that Bates also welcomes parents if you are interested in either of those schools. </p>
<p>In general, though, the independence and life skills acquired by attending the fly-ins solo is as valuable for the kids as the campus experience. D3 had to navigate numerous big airports, delayed and changed flights, lost luggage, missing her ride to campus etc. and just generally dealing with the world by herself at 17 – she grew up a lot during those 3 months. This was a a great extra benefit that we hadn’t anticipated.
I hope your son has a great time on his chosen campuses!</p>
<p>@thestakesarehigh, Bowdoin is always a favorite fly-in, and my D had a fantastic time last year. It’s one of the longest and best organized programs - Claudia Marroquin is amazing – and yes, the food is incomparable. D3 is at Williams this year and whenever I eat there and say how great I think the college dining is, she chimes in with: “this is NOTHING compared to the food at Bowdoin”! But there are many other wonderful features of Bowdoin, the super friendly and active students, gorgeous campus, and you will get a chance to visit their marine lab at the ocean! D brought her sister a souvenir from Bowdoin - a bottle of water from the Atlantic ocean :). </p>
<p>@honeybee63 Oh, it sounds so amazing! I’ve heard Maine is very beautiful too. I’ll be crossing my fingers so that I get to check it out for myself 
</p>
<p>I guess we must not meet the criteria for any of these diversity fly-ins, because we’ve yet to receive anything,</p>
<p>@schoolhouse What do you mean? You have applied and never heard back from any of them? Many of the decisions have not come out yet, but the ones that have already sent out decisions all let students know if they are not selected from what I have read.</p>
<p>maybe it’s the selection of schools, the application information and what they are trying to achieve in the pool of candidates…a few of the listed schools had been in contact with my son for program related reasons or for visits unrelated to the fly-in program. But, we’ll see.</p>
<p>@schoolhouse Do you mean that you never received invites to apply, or that your S applied and did not get in? If it is the former, only some of the programs have direct invites, many have open application processes. And some of the applications are still open!</p>
<p>D got into Lehigh DAP program this morning and will be attending Wake’s Diversity Overnight. Got invited to both, but neither was automatic. Had to do the essay, submit class schedule, stats, and EC’s.</p>
<p>musicmom, as far as I know, all of the diversity/multicultural programs require an application. The more the college is paying for, the more hoops the student has to jump through, sometimes even teacher or counselor LOR. The good news about that is that for the more selective programs, acceptance to the fly-in is a good predictor of acceptance to the college. Good luck to your D! My youngest kids D3 and D4 have really enjoyed attending the programs. Often they make friends very quickly and sometimes the groups really bond in a couple days, esp if they have a facebook group where they can keep in touch afterward! (and then if they attend that college, they already know some other students) It might feel strange for you not to have visited the college which your D is considering, but I ultimately decided it was really good for them to experience the school without my input! </p>
<p>One or more of us should probably update this list early next summer so that for fall 2015 it reflects new deadlines and program dates for the next crew. planner03, you want to take on that project with me ;)? After this admissions season, of course!</p>
<p>I’ll help :bz (couldn’t resist) We can split the list up. I’d start now but I guess we have to wait until the new dates come out next year.</p>
<p>There are many fly ins that are not listed at the top of this thread, so while they are fresh in my mind I want to post some of them so we have a reference when we get started on the update. So off the top of my head:
Penn
CIT
Columbia(engineering)
Wake Forest
Rice
MIT
WashU
Emory
Pomona
Carleton
Washington and Lee
Whitman
Chicago
Macalester
Cornell(engineering)
Harvey Mudd
RPI
Johns Hopkins
Wellesley
Dartmouth
Haverford
As a disclaimer, several of these are “invite” and the applications are not public, but at least they should be on the radar. If a student is particularly interested in one of them they can express an early interest to increase chances of an invitation.
Does anyone have others to add?</p>
<p>Brandeis
Tufts
Lehigh University</p>
<p>You guys got pretty much everything else I had (Brandeis, Lehigh, Tufts are on the OP list).
These are the only ones still missing I think:
Caltech
College of the Atlantic ( presidential scholars, not limited to AHANA)<br>
Denison (recommendation by GC necessary)
Sewanee
Vassar ( sign up for mailing list - they notify the list re: Vassar View)
But if anyone knows of a fly-in missing from the OP list on page 1 plus posts #96, #98 please add to the list and we’ll update the whole shebang early next summer. </p>
<p>It is true that some of these programs are by invitation, for example WashU, my kids received those. It may not do justice to publicize those, since one cannot actually apply.However, as Planner mentioned, it may be good to be on the radar… Good luck all and Congrats!</p>