<p>So today I was at a school event and my guidance counselor asked me what my first choice school was. I told her it was Oberlin. She asked if I had visited. I told her my parents will not make an overnight visit to a school until I am accepted to the college (it is a 10 hour drive). She told me that is not a good idea and that I won't get accepted to Oberlin unless I make a visit and at the very least, I MUST attend a regional event (which is at least an hour away). I'm sorry but I think this is a little bit ridiculous. My family cannot afford to make a college visit unless there is a serious possibility I am going to that school. My GPA is 3.99 and my SAT scores are 2100. Is it really as oh so very critical as she makes it out to be?</p>
<p>Nahhh, not at all. MANY people don’t get the chance to visit their colleges. It only very critical if the “environment” of a school really matters to you. </p>
<p>I think you can do well with just reading up what students do for fun, what kind of clubs there are on campus, weather, etc. </p>
<p>Though I’m the kind of person who wouldn’t care at all how I feel about the campus…</p>
<p>As far as knowing if you would be happy there, I wouldn’t worry. There are some colleges who take “demonstrated interest” (ie visiting, going to functions) into account in admisions decisions, but I doubt that it really makes that much of a difference either way. I’m not even sure if Oberlin is one of them. It’s not really worth it to stress out about it; a lot of times, environmental issues (such as size of campus, size of student body, clubs and activities) can be found online as LaTina alluded or by reading those student review websites (although take the latter with a grain of salt, since often times only people who didn’t like the school take the effort to write and it might give a negative impression of the school).</p>
<p>You could just write down on the application that you visited if you’re that worried that not visiting will hurt the appearance of your interest in the institution.</p>
<p>sitting in on classes is far more important than a tour or info session.</p>
<p>sitting in on classes shows you how they are academically. notice i said classes because you want to see how different teachers teach and their approach at that school. you can easily squeeze 2-3 classes in one visit. </p>
<p>info sessions & tours, in my opinion, are all smoke and mirrors and not that important because they are extremely biased and you can find all of that on the internet (FOR FREE). i went to bu and they made the “cars sound like waves” comment; hopkins said the same thing. so what did i learn? both schools did not come up with catchier, creative, unique ways to sell the school. i still love both though.</p>
<p>so in your position, only go for class visits. exclude tours and info sessions and save them for the hour long drive since colleges do count your interest in them (visits count as interests, but so do constant e-mails/calls.)</p>
<p>Parent alert! Don’t lie. Is there a place on the application where you can express your interest, and say that you wanted to visit but your parents were not willing drive ten hours prior to an admission decision. That’s far – not like a one hour drive.</p>
<p>I think it would be in your best interest to at least attend the regional event. You are then showing some demonstrated interest in the school and won’t be second-guessing yourself should you not get accepted. Good luck.</p>
<p>You can determine whether a school considers demonstrated interest by checking the Common Data Set for that school, Section C. You can find the CDS by doing an internet search for “Common Data Set” and the school name.</p>
<p>It’s not important at all. People worry too much. How different can the environment between universities really be?</p>
<p>^ The question the OP asked was not whether he needed to visit in order to assess the university environment: he asked whether the guidance counselor was right in saying that he would need to show demonstrated interest through a visit in order to be admitted.</p>
<p>Your counselor is 100% correct. History has shown many schools they won’t yield those who have not visited.</p>
<p>How can they expect people to drive 10 hours, pay for hotels, food, gas, etc in this type of economy?</p>
<p>I will only be visiting if I am accepted and the finaid package is good. </p>
<p>I don’t see how a school should be able to hold that against a student.</p>
<p>Have you gotten on Oberlin’s mailing list? There is a link to request information on their homepage. If you establish contact, you may hear from an admissions rep who covers your area of the country. Then you can exchange email with them, see if they will be recruiting in your area, maybe get a meeting with them if they are nearby. All that will express how interested you are and get you on THEIR radar.</p>
<p>Oberlin’s CDS [url=<a href=“http://oberlin.edu/instres/irhome/www/cds/cds_explain.html]Untitled[/url”>http://oberlin.edu/instres/irhome/www/cds/cds_explain.html]Untitled[/url</a>] says that they do “consider” demonstrated interest. You don’t have to make a visit or go to a regional event to demonstrate interest. Instead, send emails to departments you’re interested in, asking questions about the curriculum and the coursework. Email or phone the regional rep for your area, introduce yourself, and ask if there are any students you could talk to in your field. Find out if there are any online admissions forums or discussions, and participate in them. </p>
<p>Even though you don’t have to attend the regional event, I think you should. It’s an hour’s drive, not ten. There are lots of people who make drives that long to attend regional events. You’ll be meeting the regional representative for Oberlin, quite likely the person who reads your application. You’ll be able to introduce yourself, to say in person that Oberlin is your first choice, and put a face to the app she/he’ll read in a few months. Finally, it’s a chance for your parents to hear about the school from its representatives, and to be “sold” on Oberlin a bit themselves.</p>
<p>If you’re just talking about demonstrated interest, there are other ways to demonstrate interest. If you’re actually curious about checking out the environment, it’s worth going. But you can figure that part out once you’re admitted.</p>
<p>Colleges get to make the rules. You say in your original post that you can’t make the visit unless there is a serious possibility you will attend. Bingo. Oberlin knows they are a safety or not first choice school for many, they are trying to identify those who will really accept their offer.</p>
<p>I disagree with those saying you can demonstrate interest in other ways. I’ve watched too many qualified kids get rejected from schools over the years because of not visiting (the reason given to me by the admission office.) There are a good number of colleges famous for this and counselors give this advice for a very good reason. I think of them as schools with a complex.</p>
<p>The irony is students don’t need to visit the very top colleges, they don’t care, but somehow those are they ones visited most.</p>
<p>raiderade - You have to realize that colleges, just like families, are dealing with “this economy”. Colleges want a specific number of incoming freshmen. If they don’t get enough students, or if they get too many students, it causes problems with their budgets. Getting just the right number of admitted students to accept admission is difficult, especially when so many students apply to 8-10 schools. Oberlin wants to be your #1 or #2 choice, not your #8 or #10. Since they do consider an applicant’s demonstrated interest, they probably have some evidence that those who visit are more likely to attend.</p>
<p>While visiting the school is a good way of expressing interest, it’s not the only way. if you are truly interested in the school, email your regional admissions representative and ask intelligent questions about the school and its admissions process, etc (in other words, don’t ask questions about things that two minutes on the website would answer). Create a relationship with this admissions representative over time. At some point, it’s very easy to tell the admissions rep “I am really interested in Oberlin, and I would love to come for a visit…but it’s a ten hour drive each way and my family can’t afford the airfare right now.”</p>
<p>Oberlin is my first choice…
I don’t know what I said that makes you think it’s not.
I don’t make the rules, my parents do…</p>
<p>Additionally I just looked at the schedule and Oberlin is not scheduled to be anywhere closer than 3 hours from my house. sigh.</p>
<p>We know Oberlin is your first choice. You need to find ways to communicate to the Oberlin adcoms that Oberlin is your first choice. You could send in your application and hope for the best…or you could take some other steps to make it clear that your level of interest is very high. For a start, you could email or phone your regional adcom, introduce yourself, say you’re a high school senior who very much wants to attend Oberlin, and ask if they will be sending an adcom to (your area). If they say no, ask them if they’d consider doing so. You might get them to make a visit. At worst, you’ll have shown that you’d really like to meet with them, which gets you “demonstrated interest” points.</p>