@Astro77 (and @lifegarding)
The admitted student days are for everyone, and there are breakout sessions for individual areas of interest such as honors. The compelling reason to attend an “admitted student day” even after previous visits and/or tours is that the focus of these programs, as well as the information given, is different.
When you visited before applying, your overarching focus was admissions. You likely visited more schools than just Maryland, and it’s very easy to blur the lines of which school offered what. When you go to admitted student day, you have a very different focus. You KNOW you were admitted and now you are looking to see details of FIT, because now it is a real possible home for the next four years. You pay more attention, ask different types of questions and learn different things. And, you look more closely at the student population and maybe even do some random interviews with them to get a more informal sense of the school.
After you commit, you will go back again, for orientation. The orientation sessions DO have separate days designated for various programs, and again, that is an entirely unique focus, is an overnight program, and has separate programs for students only which includes learning how to navigate course selection and signing up for classes, and separate sessions for parents (only a half day, not an overnight) that includes finance issues, among other things.
@JMS111 the short answer is yes to your question’ “if a student is considering UMD honors vs. a much smaller LAC, does honors contribute to bringing UMD down in scale to a somewhat closer experience as one might have at an LAC, at least in the classroom.”
Obviously, there is a huge difference in the overall feel of both school environments. With respect to class size, you should understand that Maryland generally has several types of classes. The huge lecture classes that are basic foundation classes (which can be as little as 75 or close to 300) will meet twice a week, with one day of a smaller “discussion” section (about 20-30 students) with a TA. Then there are the medium classes with about 45-75 students and those are often the higher level/specialized classes. Finally, there are the small classes which include honors seminars (which can be as little as 15-20 people) and special program classes (that can be anywhere from 20-40 students), but also include classes such as Freshman English (which are about 20-25 students).
But yes, being in honors (or any other LLP) does absolutely give another level of making the school feel smaller because not only are you taking more smaller-sized classes, but you are seeing the same students more frequently.
So, the big university v small school question is a common one. Before sending my daughter to a summer program at Maryland, I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that she was not a big school kind of student. From the outside looking in, Maryland seems overwhelming in scope. However, no one was more surprised than me when, after spending 3 weeks there, she said that she wanted a big school like Maryland. When you actually live on the campus, it really doesn’t feel as overwhelming as when you visit (unless you oversleep for a class on the opposite end of campus, haha).
The biggest difference is that you can make a big school feel small by forming groups (such as in your dorm, in a LLP, in your major, clubs you join, activities you do, study groups you form, etc) but you can never make a small school feel big. You can also make the school feel smaller by going to professors’ office hours. They really are approachable (obviously, there’s always an exception) and enjoy talking to students - not only will they give help for coursework, but they also willing give advice and opinions to students that ask (future course recommendations, career planning, etc).
To give you a sense of understanding, a small college may be bigger than a high school, but think back to transition from middle school to high school. That seemed overwhelming at the time, but once you got there and became familiar with things, high school was not as big as you thought. The advantages of a large university are the resources, opportunities, school spirit and yes, large population (which means there’s always someone new to meet!) My nephew went to a small LAC which touted itself as a small school with large university resources. When my nephew went on to grad school at a large university, he laughed at his undergrad’s misleading marketing pitch. He doesn’t regret his choice for undergrad, as that school was the right fit for him at the time. However, he also found he enjoyed a large university more than he expected. There honestly is no single right answer for everyone, which I realize doesn’t help the decision process…just try to spend as much time on every campus you are considering to get the best sense of it, and while you are there, make sure to talk to students currently attending, not just the ones that volunteer to be tour guides.