My S will be making second visits to two or three colleges to decide if he wants to apply to any of them early decision. Any advice on specific things to focus on?
To get a sense of the vibe, he plans to eat in a dining hall, hang out in student union for a bit, and just walk around campus. He’s hoping to meet with a professor in an area of interest. He’s not planning to sit in on a class because a class period is a one-off experience and not representative of an entire college.
These are all highly selective schools within easy driving distance of our home.
He should go to class. He sounds mature enough to discount one bad prof. My kids got a lot out of this. They could see how other students engaged and interacted, how hard the material was, etc
Can he do an overnight? While it’s true that sometimes overnights can be missed leading based on the prospective students host and his or her friend group, it can still be a good opportunity to get a feel for the vibe of living on campus.
All of the things he plans to do are also one-offs.
My kid, visiting her current first choice in October, has come up with a schedule that involves sitting in on 5 classes. Two are analogues of classes she’s currently taking, so she can compare the material and pace. Two are in an area of interest not offered in high school. One just sounded really cool.
My D found it helpful to go to a class with a student escort and then have lunch with her in the dining hall. The class wasn’t as telling as was the conversation she had with that student. She felt she got a very good picture of the school that way.
I agree to try to do an overnight visit and sit in on multiple classes. It really can be helpful to see how the students interact with each other and the prof. Everything on a visit is just a snap shot. Classes are no different.
One thing that ended up being important to my D is whether classes are on the semester system (vs trimester) and she also really appreciates that finals are before winter break. This isn’t relevant to a visit per se, except if you visit a class you can see how much material is covered.
A lot depends on what the college offers. My D was debating between two schools for ED (she had a favorite but wanted to reconfirm). At one school she did an on-campus interview and shadowed a student the next day (including eating in the dining hall, attending classes etc.). Her other top school had a big open house day where she was able to sit in on a class and meet with a professor in her major. She found both visits very helpful and they confirmed in her mind where she should apply ED.
Assuming you know it generally works academically and financially, I second or third the idea of an overnight visit, preferably NOT with a good friend who is already there. I think it’s the best way to get a feel for the environment, to get a sense of fit. Of course, you’re only getting a small snapshot of a larger and more complex institution, even at the smallest school, so you just have to hope that it’s reasonably representative. But that’s true of every aspect of a college visit.
I imposed a “no ED without an overnight” rule on my son, who is not a fan of visiting colleges.
If there is an EC that is important to him, reach out to someone from that group. They can explain how the group works and also show him around. When we visited schools we tried to make an appointment with someone from the orchestra, for example. These kids then had something in common and learning about the activity and the school from them was extremely helpful. We also always ate in the dining hall and tried to talk to lots of students. Overnights sound great but I worry that a bad host can sour the experience.
Yes! My D visited as an admitted student overnight - and her hosts cut class n the morning! But she got her admit letter(this was a while ago )from Northwestern when she got home from the trip. So, yes, the host(s) can sour the experience!
I agree with the approach of contacting departments and ECs of interest and asking to schedule meetings with faculty, tour, director and/or students, depending on what makes sense in that context. My LAC kid was interested in pursuing both his music and fine art as well as being a recruited athlete, so during course of multiple visits, he requested meetings with faculty in his instrument and his medium in art, got tours of facilities, and came away with a strong sense of the opportunities available to him at that specific school and the “vibe” in those areas of interest.
In contrast, my older kid who visited many of the same schools, only did a tour/info session and then an overnight and came away with sometimes very skewed perspectives. For instance, he didn’t like Grinnell because – as I noted in a recent thread about lax bros – the first person he saw as he was heading to his overnight was a cocky athlete complete with long blond flow. At Oberlin, he worked in the library with his hosts as they all had papers due and came away thinking Oberlin was more “down to earth” and “normal” while Grinnell was filled with jerks. Hardly representative of either institution’s culture, but based on the total of two visits to each school, that is what he saw.
So the more depth a student can get during visits, the better to counteract the randomness of the odd sighting here or there.
As he is trying to decide about ED, I think sitting in a class is a very good idea. Overnighting, I’m not sure about. I’ve heard so many bad stories about overnights. My D had a good overnight, but I really do think it takes one annoying little mishap/gesture/person, whatever, and it can give a really false impression. If the host doesn’t sweep the floor, or eats in his room, or didn’t take a shower, or had to leave the visitor on his own because he has a test to study for, or any of dozens of other scenarios, it can really mess things up. I think your original plan is the way to go, but add in sitting in on a class.
From my experience attending a few classes (of different sizes) can be informative. You see how engaged the students are, how much student-teacher interaction there is, whether the teachers are basically talking AT the students but not seeking feedback.
My younger son felt in retrospect that overnights are less useful than he thought. I think he got a little frightened by one school by doing the overnight with someone who seemed very studious and he missed the nature of the nerdy talk at the school he ended up at. (More politics and social justice talk, less talk about sci fi and board games.)
I think if you can sit in on a few classes, not just one - you can be observing students not just profs. Are people reading facebook posts or are they paying attention? Or are they looking up stuff relevant to the class? (Which is what was going on in at least one high school class I sat in on recently.)
I think overnights and attending classes are essential for making a “final” decision, whether for ED or in the spring. There are so many questions you can ask a bunch of people when they are doing their day to day.
I did this myself when I was a student. My D1 did this for her two finalist choices, and my D2 did this to the two schools that she was considering ED. There is simply no substitute.
As for classes, it’s helpful to attend the same class at different schools. My D1 did a math and a philosophy class at each school.
Chose the time of the visit wisely. Many schools are dead on Fridays. A home football weekend in Madison is going to be very different than a weekend visit in January.
If a ‘bad host’ kills the school, that may be for the best. THAT’s the school, that’s who the school picked as a representative.
I think the guest needs to be open minded too. No school is perfect, but the visitor needs to see what types of things he can live with and what he can’t live without.
)from Northwestern when she got home from the trip. So, yes, the host(s) can sour the experience!