<p>Who has been to the joint Exploring College Options roadshow put on by Georgetown,Harvard,Penn, and Duke? It's by invitation only and says that it will answer questions and help de-mystify the application process. We're signed up, just wondering what to expect.</p>
<p>My wife, son and I attended this road show in the fall in Jacksonville, FL. It was a well attended event. Each school gave a breif overview/presentation of their school and then there was a question and answer session at the end. The school representatives were also available for one on one questions after the main presentation.</p>
<p>I thought was a informative event to attend and would definitely recommend it if you are interested in any of these schools.</p>
<p>I don't know how "by invitation only" it is. My daughter's high school guidance office has been announcing it in the daily bulletin for the past few weeks and didn't mention the need for an invitation. I had a friend who went to it several years ago and they found it useful. Her daughter ended up only visiting the schools in the program, applied to all of them plus a few UC's and is now at UPenn.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don't know if it's by invitation only either. I know that the students that these schools specifically target due to their SAT scores end up getting private invitations in the mail...but I'm pretty sure it's relatively open.
I strongly attend going though, particularly if you have a son or daughter even mildly interested in any of these schools. Gtown, for example, uses this as one of their main recruiting techniques during the year.</p>
<p>D was invited to the one here in Northern California. Pretty sure it was the PSAT scores. We liked the event, the presenters were very presentable:) They talked about the schools one a time with slides, photos of colleges etc., and we found it helped us to decide which places we needed to visit. In fact, judging from the event, if I hadn't been so dopey at the time about the application process, we probably would have gone to visit Duke subsequently.</p>
<p>By invitation, by PSAT scores if I remember, but I don't think they care if others show up. The one we went to was large, took place in a hotel banquet room.</p>
<p>Moderately interesting dog and pony show type format--each school had 5 or 10 minutes ot make its presentation and show slides. Very difficult to ask any individual questions--it was mobbed--but be sure to sign in at the colleges you are interested in to show interest.</p>
<p>Hmmm. Would've thought my D would get an invitation based on her PSAT, but haven't seen one. We're still planning on going since they post the place and time on the Harvard website for all of the public to see. Makes me think it's not by invite only.</p>
<p>I think all of our school was invited - it was sent out as an e-mail notice. Maybe because our school is so small and so few students go to those schools they know that only a couple of dozen people would go anyway.</p>
<p>We went. It was 15 minute powerpoint presentation by each school, followed by a 60 min. Q&A session. Most of the audience questions (90% by parents) would be considered very basic for anyone on this forum (do colleges look at ECs?, should I take AP courses?, etc.). My daughter asked about SATII requirements and if they combine high scores from separate sittings of the SAT, so we learned something there. Of course, YMMV depending on the audience. They then broke up the admissions person from each school into a separate area and it was like a receiving line for individual questions.</p>
<p>Next week, she was invited to Brown/Columbia/UCh/Rice/Cornell. We're going to pass ;)</p>
<p>We went to the same roadshow last year. It was OK, but like audiophile said, if you're interested enough to be on CC (and presumably looking at the websites of the 4 schools), then you probably will not learn much. The speaker we had for Penn did not know much about the specific program S was interested in.</p>
<p>The upcoming event locally is posted on the web calendar at D's school as well as the calendar from S's former school so I can't agree with the notion of "invitation only."</p>
<p>We attended two years ago with S and it was large event with probably 500 plus in attendance. It is well choreographed and after years of their doing it together also well coordinated.</p>
<p>Each school has its alotted time for presentation, some had powerpoint/slide presentations and others had short films. Honestly we didn't glean much more information about the schools than we already had and as you know, after a while, all info sessions really start to sound alike. It may just have been because of the sheer size of the crowd, but there wasn't much opportunity for individual questions.</p>
<p>I do think these local college nights are useful when they involve colleges that may actually care about a level of interest by its applicants. By making yourself visible to the adcom, filling out the card, or even referencing the event in a "Why Podunk?" essay, you can add to a record of interest, especially for distant schools and especially when it is a single college's recruiting night.</p>
<p>D was invited to this event for the Nashville area. We went and found it to be fairly informative. Quite honestly, I'm not so sure it's any better than the information you can find right here from so many great sources. One event we did attend that was very impressive was the WashU event. That Nanette Tarbouni (director of undergrad admissions, I think) had me wishing I could go back to college. D and I were both very impressed by her presentation.</p>
<p>I would agree that the info is actually less good than what you get here - it was the intangible sense of place and the photos on the slides that I found useful.</p>
<p>The letter D received said , if you are interested in attending return this RSVP card or RSVP on-line "to reserve your space". I assumed it meant what it said. Silly me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The letter we received said if you are interested in attending return this RSVP card or RSVP on-line "to reserve your space". I assumed it meant what it said. Silly me.
[/quote]
D got the same letter, curmudgeon, so you are right in that they did send invitations, but I did notice several schools in our area (especially the private schools) had listed it on their calendar of events. There was quite a good turnout in Nashville.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, dearest, their marketing people did the card. Anyway, you must tell us if it does de-mystify the application process :-)</p>
<p>LOL. Yeah, right. Gullible and trusting. That pretty much describes me to a T.</p>
<p>I do appreciate the responses though. I don't know if she'll want to take the time to attend if it is an open invitation, college fair free-for-all to an un-selected audience. We are substantially beyond that stage in the "search". I'll e-mail the Dean of Admission's at Georgetown and ask the question, but I do trust that it is as you say. I think we'll just go to the tractor pull that night instead like we had originally planned.( Nickel beer with a selective college T-shirt till closing.)</p>
<p>Why I really posted, and haven't heard any favorable response to ,was whether the program was worthwhile or insightful about the process of selective college admissions (as it purports in it's marketing material to be). D has little to zero interest in these particular schools at the present time, but we were willing to sit through their presentations if the remainder was meaty.</p>
<p>"whether the program was worthwhile or insightful about the process of selective college admissions"</p>
<p>No</p>
<p>I'm going to the session here in Dallas on Sunday evening. I'll let y'all know if I am "de-mystified".</p>