<p>If things work out and my son has a few school to revisit in order to make his decision, how do these revisit days work?</p>
<p>How is it different than the original tour (he didn't visit every school, so he hasn't done tours at all of them)?</p>
<p>Do the kids get to stay overnight?</p>
<p>Any info would be very much appreciated!</p>
<p>i was actually wondering the same thing...</p>
<p>I think your child will be assigned with one or two students from that school
they will be like friends attending one or two classes, have lunch together.</p>
<p>The purpose is to experience a day as a student there.</p>
<p>I am wondering about the logistics of it all -- do the parents have an info session, or is it just for students? Is it just the day -- or can they spend the night? Are there special activities for the kids that are visiting, or just the regular stuff? Can my son request to see certain classes, talk to certain coaches, etc?</p>
<p>He hasn't visited about half of his schools -- some are his top picks -- so the revisit days will be important for him. And we live far away, so it isn't as simple as a couple hours drive -- I am trying to determine how much info we can gather at these revisit days.</p>
<p>again -- thanks</p>
<p>That sounds like so much fun! I really hope that I can experience that!</p>
<p>I am in the same situation too. Actually, I have been thinking about visiting day a lot. However, I have to get in first.</p>
<p>Each school plans a day or a half day of activities for both students and parents. It'll start with some sort of registration for the day - parents generally go one way, students another. There are class visits, lunch, etc.
Each school does it a little differently. The schools know that many of the students have multiple acceptances so they are putting on a big show and tell!</p>
<p>One more thing .... I didn't realize, but found out from other parents, that you could request a shadow day where you spend a whole day going around with a student. You couldn't do that on the official re-visit day but could set it up for another day. The timing is a bit tough. All of the schools are pretty much closed from early March till the last week of March. The first week of April is when all of the re-visit days take place. If you're not sure when, snoop around on the schools calendar and you should be able to see it.</p>
<p>Your son will be assigned to a student and will follow the current student to classes, see the dorm, eat lunch, etc. They can spend the night, but it isn't the norm. Requests to visit a certain class probably aren't granted ahead of time, but the tour guide can usually figure out a way for him to see it. You can go to sports practices and talk to a coach afterward. There are also talks in the morning and a panel of current students to answer questions.
Parents usually have talks by administrators and also have panels of their own.
Here is last year's schedule from Andover
Phillips</a> Academy - Admission</p>
<p>Here is a revisit schedule for both parents & accepted students from Blair last year Blair</a> Academy - Admission. Free block for the accepted student should include a dorm visit. When we did the revisit the year before, we (parents & accepted student) could select one or two more classes to attend after lunch. According to my son, a few students request to stay the night and shadow a student on a different date.</p>
<p>Two of the schools we re-visited had 1.5 day events (Hotchkiss and SPS), so you arrived the day before and stayed at a hotel in town for the night. The first afternoon/evening, there was a general registration/reception and then student-guided tours (like when you toured the first time, which was good for us because my husband had not seen any of the schools yet) and then dinners and a brief welcome speech from top administrators. The next day there were classes to attend. Kids were with their host kids, but stayed with parents overnight. In both of these schools cases, there was a dinner, a breakfast, and a lunch, and receptions, tours, classes, student and faculty panels, a mini-chapel thing at one school, various opportunities for meeting and schmoozing with faculty, administration and other co-re-visitors (i.e., tours and receptions and during general sitting around time while waiting for instructions on where to go next). Both of these schools' programs ended some time in the early to mid-afternoon on day 2, but re-visitors were encouraged to stay, in the case of one school, through athletic events going on throughout the afternoon. I will note that for most of the events, the kids are with students and the parents are with parents.</p>
<p>Two of the other schools we re-visited (Groton and Deerfield) had full 1 day programs, beginning with a coffee/continential breakfast thing, followed by a great faculty panel (Deerfield) or actual classes with enrolled students (Groton), then more student and faculty panels discussing all aspects of boarding and community life - social, athletic, etc. I loved visiting the actual classes more than I liked going to 'simulated' classes (SPS) where you essentially just get to meet the teachers and hear about the curriculum. The most tightly organized re-visit was Hotchkiss, and maybe Deerfield. SPS and Groton were a bit more open and while there were plenty of planned activities, I kinda felt freer to mosey around and look into corners. :-)</p>
<p>I will say it was an interesting and exhausting 7 days, with a lot of driving, hotels, and reception food.</p>
<p>MomtoanUndecided: Thanks for this very informative post. Would you be willing to say where your S/D decided to attend, and if there were a couple of key factors?</p>
<p>I just wanted to add that you or your child might completely change their mind about which school to attend based upon the re-visits. That happened with my children.</p>
<p>Most schools -- but not all -- avoid overnights if only for liability reasons. Then there's the lack of structure that comes with that and, considering these are sometimes referred to as "Yield Events" (with the purpose being more to encourage the family to select the school than to be a true "insider's" examination of the inner workings of the school), the overnight experience can be a little bit outside the comfort level in terms of marketing.</p>
<p>drnancie -- can you tell me if there were specific things that you saw during revisit days that caused the change of mind?</p>
<p>D'yer -- I talked with a few of the schools that don't traditionally offer an overnight and they said they might be able to accomodate us. We will see what happens . I think an overnight would show quite a bit -- like you said, maybe more than the school wants to show.</p>
<p>I am sure I will be posting again -- but when you go to the revisit day, do you have a list of things you are looking at to compare schools? Do you have certain questions you make sure you ask? How do you make the decisions? I know that the feeling of "fit" is a priority -- but we used that in order to determine where to apply. Now we have to figure out how to narrow down the list.</p>
<p>Regarding MomtoanUndecided's post regarding the revisit at SPS. I am interested in more information regarding the previous evenings events. Does the school provide accommodations at a local hotel or BB? Or are you on your own, and they have a list of recommended places to stay? I have never been to Concord, outside of our tour/interview day at SPS last fall.
Do all families elect to participate both days, or did you notice quite a few more families for the daytime program? As wonderful as the extra time is for the kids, it will be quite difficult for my husband to take that much time off - I want to make sure that the evening is worth the time and expense of a hotel. Plus the effort of finding an overnight sitter for our other children.</p>
<p>2 of our schools allow overnights (although neither are on your list stef). One I think is part of the revist one advertises it as an option any time in the admissions process and my son spent the night prior to even applying. He absolutely loved it, but did in fact see some "unscripted" things that I'm certain would not be included in a traditional visit of any type. :)</p>
<p>Additionally, we know a student who last year had a "connection" to a school and was able to do an overnight as part of a revisit when one is not typically done. He ended up chosing a different school and part of the reason was some things he experienced on the overnight. </p>
<p>We are definately looking forward to the re-visits and am enjoying this thread - thanks!</p>
<p>Liddyb4,</p>
<p>The schools give you a list of nearby hotels. They do not provide accommodations (though they do feed you many meals over the two day period). No, you don't have to come for the whole 2 days. You would get a better feel for the place over 2 days but it certainly is not required and most schools do just 1 day programs. it WAS a lot of time off work, a lot of driving, and rather expensive as our whole family flew and we stayed at a lot of hotels.</p>
<p>But let me know if you are going to Concord - I have a favorite hotel there now.</p>
<p>The concern I'd have about the overnight part is that for some students it can really highlight some areas of discomfort and it would probably be unfair -- but understandable -- to associate those misgivings with a particular school.</p>
<p>Here's what I mean: Most kids aren't used to dormitory living. The smells, the hygiene, the diminished sense of personal space and personal privacy and the sense of familiarity among the residents. When they have an overnight, it's not like an overnight at their friend's house. There's the whole thing about showering -- there's an entire thread here from last year in which it dawned on kids that they'd be sharing showers and there was quite a bit of angst over that. And all these things would get thrown all at once, at full speed, at a wide-eyed, usually younger-than-most applicant. The room may need air freshener, the radiator might make creepy noises, the kid(s) in the room might not be your favorite person to be in the dark with -- and seeing him and others playing football with a pizza box in the hallway wearing only towels might mean there will be very little sleep for your son that night in his tightly zipped up sleeping bag.</p>
<p>The fact is that the overnight would be full of alien experiences for most kids at pretty much all the schools...but only the ones where s/he actually has the overnight are going to be looked upon without favor.</p>
<p>It IS a great introduction to some of the quirkiness of BS life, but I would try to be very mindful that the overnight experience should not reflect on one specific school if only 1 or 2 of the schools you visit allow for that.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The room may need air freshener, the radiator might make creepy noises, the kid(s) in the room might not be your favorite person to be in the dark with -- and seeing him and others playing football with a pizza box in the hallway wearing only towels...
[/quote]
LOL! That along with full contact, almost drawing blood wrestling in the hall, getting an "interesting" (meaning not able to post it here) description of the soup from a teacher, and a few other things were the **reason **my son had such a great time!<br>
Fortunately, he knew what to expect and enjoyed it, but I can certainly see how those same things might not be good. I just had to laugh.</p>