<p>Has anyone ever done this? If so, how'd you set it up, what happened, and do you think it affected your admission chances?</p>
<p>Just curious about the general opinion on doing this to help with admissions or just to get a feel about a department, I guess.</p>
<p>Hit it</p>
<p>I’m a professor. Students occasionally come and talk with our department to get a sense of what goes on here and to take a tour of our technical facilities. It’s helpful for the student, and can perhaps build you some long term connections for working with faculty members, but has no impact on admissions here. May be different other places, I don’t know.</p>
<p>Do you mind me asking what department you teach in? I’ve heard tale that some less popular, more arcane departments that are eager for students can help some people with admissions. Rumor?</p>
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<p>This can be true in a few circumstances. For instance, my D had a roommate that wanted to study Classics and was courted and accepted by several top colleges with excellent departments. However, she wasn’t sought after just because she put down that she wanted to major in a relatively small department, but because she had everything in her application package that showed excellent academic achievement and strong accomplishments and interest in Classics.</p>
<p>Well your daughter’s roommate’s situation sounds pretty good to me</p>
<p>This generally only happens in cases like Music, Theater, Film, etc (arts) because it much more based on talent in area then overall academic ability.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if it these visits help with admission. However, in my d’s case it certainly helped with the decision to attend or not. She always says it is the most important hour/hours of a college visit.</p>
<p>mcgoogly, you may be right - i teach in a popular department that is by no means searching for more majors and doesn’t admit on the basis of talent, and i’m at a public institution.</p>
<p>Small colleges- By “this generally happens” do you mean kids don’t normally talk to professors at prospectice schools unless they are in art or music? DD plans to make appt’s to see business school prof’s- I don’t know why you wouldn’t- not as an admission gimmick, but as a way to judge the school.</p>
<p>No, I said that professors only really have influence in admission in programs such as Theater, Music and Film. It is very rare outside of talent based academic areas that a professor will try to influence an admissions decision.</p>