<p>So I really would like to visit Brown (and other schools), but my dad can only get off work on Saturdays. I’m applying for RD so I definitely have to visit before Jan 1st, lol, but it seems they don’t really have any sessions open for the Saturdays the rest of the month.</p>
<p>Is it worth it? Bear in mind that ive in NY, so it’s not a long haul; however, it might be a bit too far to go just to take a peek at the campus.</p>
<p>Thanks <3</p>
<p>Nat</p>
<p>Are you confident you’ll be applying? If so, you can always visit later in the year.</p>
<p>If you’re confident you’re applying and this is just to see whether you’d want to go or not if you got in, I’d visit later in the year. If you’re not confident you’re applying, you’ll have to figure it out without a tour. It’d be pretty boring visiting during winter break - not only are there no tours or info sessions, but there are also no students on campus! You’d get pretty much nothing out of a visit with an empty campus and no tour, and it’d give you a pretty different impression of the school.</p>
<p>lmao, this is true. I know I want to apply because I like the open curriculum, natural intelligent vs. fiercly competitive atmosphere, etc. But I don’t feel I can write a “why brown?” essay when I haven’t even seen the campus. Has winter break started yet? I was thinking about this saturday.</p>
<p>The campus will be pretty empty this saturday.</p>
<p>Friday is the last day of finals. Most students will be gone on Saturday – the ones who are still around will be packing and getting ready to leave – but at least they’ll be happy because finals are over. Dorms close on Monday.</p>
<p>:/ okay, thanks guys though :)</p>
<p>anything you think I should know that I couldnt gain from brown mailings?</p>
<p>I’d like to add that if I were interviewing you, as an alum (which is something I do), and I learned that you live less than 4 hours away and didn’t visit, I’d want to hear a really good reason why you didn’t go.</p>
<p>Fireandrain is true there, but I still feel like you can visit when students are on campus at some point before your interview. As for your “why Brown” essay, don’t sweat not having visited. I know a lot of international students who had never seen Brown until they arrived here, and they obviously wrote fine “why Brown” essays.</p>
<p>Campus will be basically deserted on Saturday - I know that I have the latest final possible (Friday afternoon) and I’m leaving ASAP on Saturday morning. I can offer the incentive that I’ll sit down with you and talk to you personally about Brown if you come visit sometime past January 22nd or so.</p>
<p>Re: fireandrain’s issue – you might be able to do a real visit (w/ tour, etc.) before your interview, since that won’t be for a month or more.</p>
<p>I think you’ll be able to write a fine Why Brown essay without visiting, and I join the others in suggesting that an visit at the moment won’t be the greatest. Since you’re pretty close (though, non-trivially close), though, you could just stop by – but don’t expect to be blown away by the campus or the city as it hunkers down for the late-December deep freeze.</p>
<p>Can I just say that you guys are all so much more helpful than people representing, well…any/every other school?</p>
<p>Seriously, this is why I love Brown.</p>
<p>Well there’s your Why Brown essay right there :P</p>
<p>Natalie – If you know you are applying, then why don’t you visit when the break is over & you can get a better feel for the campus, students etc? You can say in your essay that you could not earlier because of your Dad’s schedule, and you can also say that (bring it up yourself) in your alum interview, as Fire&Rain mentioned. </p>
<p>Visiting a school when the students are there gives you a much better feel for the place. You are going to be applying to other places, and who knows, it may turn out that another school really is a better fit for your temperament and everything else than Brown is. You need to get as good a feel as you can for as many of them as you can, to be able to answer this for yourself.</p>
<p>It’s not only about “how can I make myself look better to the AO?” It is also about “how can I learn a much as possible ablout the schools I am choosing from, should morte than one of them choose me?”</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>In my experience visiting a school often gives you the WRONG impression of a place…a lackluster info session or tour guide, or a slow day on campus, or a rainy day, or maybe you just stopped the wrong 5-6 students to chat with, is all going to affect your opinion (even though it shouldn’t). What the campus looks like in a 2 hr time frame is probably the LEAST important thing of all when applying to colleges. Furthermore, four hours each way is a significant investment of time for any parent…if a student is applying to 5 schools (on the low end for CC!), visiting all of them would be a huge block of time off work/etc. So I can’t say I really get why an alumnus would be judgmental if someone chooses not to visit a school, and instead sticks with web research(you can do all sorts of things in this vein…look up your major requirements…class lists…even watch lectures on iTunes from professors!)/mailings/perhaps corresponding with some students online. </p>
<p>I think visiting CAN be useful, especially AFTER you’ve been accepted to narrow down your choices, but my opinion about visiting is mostly that it is largely useless (info sessions are usually lame) and can at worst be misleading. Looking back on my school visits I can see how I might have gotten a totally different impression of all of the schools I had gone to had I just visited on a different day/at a different time. And certainly when it came to small schools I often got a “boring and claustrophobic” vibe but actually ATTENDING a small school is a very different experience…when you are engaged in classes, with your friends, with activities. So that was unfair as well looking back.</p>
<p>Can you just drive yourself to the campus for a visit day without your dad?</p>
<p>Ah, if only I could drive. My college visit problems would be nonexistent, lol :P</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone, you all made excellent points. I’ll probably schedule a visit late January or early February. It’ll definitely be before my interview, should I be granted one!</p>
<p>Don’t visit before the weekend of January 29th, cause that’ll be our first weekend back from break :)</p>
<p>Yeah, I was pretty sure that the answer to that question was going to be that you don’t drive :)</p>
<p>You will get an interview, unless you come from a select set of prep schools – there’s no evaluative process by which people are ‘granted’ interviews. I think the deadline to interview candidates for RD is Feb. 15, so you might have to visit sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>natalie, everyone is supposed to get an interview. At least, we try really hard to make sure everyone is interviewed by an alum.</p>
<p>Once your application is in, you could be contacted by an interviewer within a week. Assuming you submit your application on Jan. 1, your interview could be as early as early January - or as late as late February. In fact – some RD interviews happen in December.</p>
<p>I most definitely do NOT go to one of those prep schools, so I guess I’ll be getting an interview, then. Yay! I love interviews 
it’ll be nice to put a face to the admissions process, rather than just me spilling my guts to my computer only to receive a piece of paper 3 months later.</p>
<p>Ooh, I’m excited I expect I won’t submit my application until around Christmas, so I hope that bodes well for a ~February interview? Well, regardless, I’ll make sure to pop by for a visit before my interview.</p>
<p>Ahhh Brown is so cute! =)</p>