<p>Just wanted to point out something about those “dumb” questions at information sessions. Many families visit colleges because they are on their way to someplace else. My husband and my son were on a fishing trip in Melbourne Beach, Fla and staying at the most disreputable hotel on the beach. ( You could clean your fish outside your room and the rooms did not have Internet access. Besides, who brings laptops on a fishing trip?!) I called them up and recommended they check out Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne because my son is a geeky kind of guy.</p>
<p>I’m sure my husband asked plenty of “dumb” questions at the info. session. (My son loved it, applied and got accepted, although he went elsewhere.)</p>
<p>Also, any safety question is very legitimate. At VCU in Richmond, everyone asks that question. And the admissions people will give a very truthful answer about the number of violent crimes and thefts the past year. They also hand out a flyer which gives links to the campus police and the Clery statistics. Without prompting, our VCU tourguide gave a discussion about how to stay safe in Richmond and protect your property.</p>
<p>I also wanted to add that my DD and I visited the University of Mary Washington one day after rowing practice. It was a spur of the moment decision, we were only 45 minutes away and it was a beautiful spring day. So, why not!</p>
<p>This was her first college visit. She was in tenth grade and she really had no concept about what a college offered. She was enthusiastic about chemistry that year so she raised her hand at the information session and asked if she could study chemistry at Mary Washington. The admission counselor was very gracious and gave her a very detailed answer about the chemistry opportunities at MW. She even scribbled down the names of some chem professors we could talk to. (evidently there was nobody from the CC dumb question police that day, thank God!)</p>
<p>I don’t think that there are dumb questions. Specific questions about one’s partiuclar child may be inappropriate to ask at an info session. For example, we were at an info session and a young lady raised her hand to ask if she could get admitted with a specific SAT score, and she announced her subscores. I thought that was an inappropriate place to ask this question. I don’t think it was “dumb”. Also, so what if others think the question is “dumb”. One is asking to get answers. One is not asking to please a crowd of stangers.</p>
<p>One question that I’ve seen get pretty good answers (more for students than the info session) is “If you could change one thing about ___ college what would it be?” Answers have ranged from the academic calendar, to the dorms or the lottery system to get dorm rooms, to the advising system, to the food.</p>
<p>Most colleges have their newspapers online now. A good place to start is editorial commentaries and letters to the editors if you want to get a good pulse of the issues on the minds of students. There have also been a huge uptick in blog writing - including blogs of college presidents, dean of students etc. I think the most important way to differentiate campuses (where all info sessions seem a tad redundant) is to look behind the curtain.</p>
<p>son hung out in the college library on a wed night (we were touring the campus the next day). Did his homework and just watched what happened on a typical weds night. He loved that there was lots going on but yet the groups of kids all seemed to be having a great time doing it.</p>
<p>Does it seem as if a major portion of these information session is about Financial Aide? </p>
<p>That’s when my kids’ eyes started to glaze over. They don’t want another same exact talk about financial aide. It never goes into any depth, but it’s always the same. I do think it’s an involved topic and something the college should mention, but I feel that most of the time, it’s so redundant (start early, get your paperwork organized, send the paperwork on time, call us if you have questions). </p>
<p>Sigh. I’m there to learn about the school, not how to pay for it. Since it’s such a personal topic, let me ask my questions when it’s just 1:1. Your job is to tell me why it’s worth it!</p>
<p>LOL, this is a funny thread! A favorite story of mine is that overbearing mother is on tour at Hampshire College (MA). She goes up to a professor & asks “What about the drug problem on campus?” Professor answers, “NO ONE ever had a problem gettting drugs on this campus.” </p>
<p>One parent at an admitted student event bragged about her athletes free ride,asked if he could get his $300 orientation fee waived. For Pete’s sake, the rest of us might be paying 50k a year…and you’re complaining about 300 bucks? . Prompted eye rolls from other parents having to pay full price to the school. Other geeky kids asked about medical school admit rates…one asked what was the average MCAT score! Might want to try to make it through your bachelors degree first huh?</p>
<p>I’ve never been to a formal college tour or info session, and it never occurred to me to even try one. I assume they are like when you see a politician on those Sunday morning news shows (Meet the Press, etc.)…no matter how direct the question, you always get an answer that’s homogonized, pasturized, misleading, and devoid of content. If I want that, I’ll ask my daughter what she did at a school dance.</p>
<p>Am I missing something by just walking around colleges on my own, looking where I want, and asking questions to non-professionals?</p>
<p>My only college tour experience was when I was a freshman at a tiny private junior college in Mass. I’m 6’6’’ and a fellow basketball player the same height lived in the dorm room next to mine. He used to leave his dorm room unlocked all the time (he was a trusting guy who said he had nothing worth stealing), so tourguides always showed prospective students and their families his room. So one afternoon I was hanging out in his room, and we got in a friendly wrestling match on his bed…two big guys all sweaty, clothes askew, hair messed up, all intertwined with each other…and the door opened and a tourguide and a family walked in…</p>
<p>The info session does seem to attract some inappropriate questions. One girl asked whether the college would be looking at her trust fund. After a very short moment of stunned silence, the director of admissions simply said, “Yes, we’ll be looking at that quite closely.” Ha.</p>
Not always. The best one we attended was at Brown, and was run by a student (a senior) and a fairly crusty professor. The student started by touting all the typical Brown things–that there are no distributional requirements, that you can take as many of your courses pass-fail as you want, that you only have to take four credits per semester, etc. The professor then made the student admit that she had in fact taken a variety of courses, that she had taken only one course pass-fail, and that she had consistently taken more than four courses per semester, etc. Of course, even that exchange may have been entirely rehearsed, but I don’t think so. In any case, it gave us some insight about what Brown was all about.</p>
<p>I swear on a stack of Details magazines that it was just a wholesome case of two young, physically fit, and exceptionally attractive young men engaged in a vigorous test of endurance, strength, and technique.</p>
<p>Personally I do not think you’re missing much by skipping the info sessions … that said I really like the tours. Again the tours have the inane (10-15 tours and every school has the best library according to the guides) but for me and my kids the best part is the tour guides can bring the school alive for you … they describe some traditions and things that are new on campus (or things they would like to see) and unique tidbits about the schools … these really cull out the feel of the school.</p>
<p>“The professor then made the student admit that she had in fact taken a variety of courses, that she had taken only one course pass-fail, and that she had consistently taken more than four courses per semester, etc. Of course, even that exchange may have been entirely rehearsed, but I don’t think so.”</p>
<p>Reminds me of that scene in the movie “Chicago” where Renee Zellweger was like a puppet.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through the entire thread but we were in a small group of accepted students recently where one girl asked MANY questions about the honors program since she obviously had been accepted into it, and she was also obviously the only one in the group who had.</p>
<p>The clueless admin rep not only didn’t offer to go over it with her after the group session, but she got up and got someone who had been in the honors program to come in and discuss it with the group - wasting everyone but the one honor students time. Everyone except for the honor student started looking at their watches.</p>
<p>My son and I got up and left. He had to get to baseball practice.</p>
<p>Having had two kids go through the process so far, the only worthwhile question answered was about bathroom arrangements, assuming the question was answered honestly, which it often wasn’t.
I would skip the information sessions entirely.</p>
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