Observing a class at a prospective college (question)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I know observing a class at a prospective college is a fairly common procedure, and my daughter (senior) has toured 3 college campuses already, and 2 of those 3 times she was asked in advance, while setting up the tour, if she wanted to observe a class [Yes]. The third college allowed her to sit in on a class after she requested doing so. All Admissions departments handled the details. </p>

<p>Dilemma: Two days ago D asked me to call college #4, one that she had already toured in July, when school had not yet started. She wants to observe a class. </p>

<p>So I contacted Admissions and I was told this was an unusual request and to contact the College of Arts & Sciences directly. </p>

<p>I just called them this afternoon. The person answering the 'phone had no idea how to coordinate a classroom observation, she said one has never been requested. She turned me over to her supervisor, who again, told me that the only way she could suggest that D could do this is--</p>

<p>1) to look over the list of online courses offered by the college
2) send an email to each of the instructors asking to observe their classes
3) wait and see if she receives any responses
4) show up at the college and locate the classroom, etc. </p>

<p>I was somewhat incredulous at this and said that D doesn't have a list of the instructor's email addresses (not being a student yet!) and not only that, D has no letter of authorization as an on-campus visitor, etc. etc. and this seems an odd way of doing things. </p>

<p>The college of A & S people shrugged me off, saying well, that's all we can think off, don't know what more we can tell you, etc. </p>

<p>Is this a normal way of doing things? Is this a red flag that the student body doesn't seem to care much about the academics if nobody has ever asked to sit in on a class! BTW, this is a standard state university (NOT top tier) and it is D's "safety".</p>

2

<p>Freakyyyy! My son observed a class at his state safety school with no difficulty. (I made a 10-character post, but couldn’t resist yammering more…)</p>

3

<p>Strange. Is this a religiously-affiliated school?</p>

4

<p>OP: No, this is a regular state school. It is a branch of a larger university. About 1200 freshman, 4000 undergrad, another 4,000 graduate students. It is primarily a commuter school, though there is on-campus housing.</p>

<p>The average SAT Math score is 550 and English CR is 530. D was 710 in CR and 690 in writing. She is not sure whether she will be bored here (a bad thing) or feel comfortable with the courseload and have time to pursue all the really cool things this waterfront campus offers, like sailing (one of her passions) and the funky coffeehouses in the immediate, waterfront area. </p>

<p>She is not a real academic but she is very intellectual and impatient with inferior thinkers, if you know what I mean. A great mind and only an above-average work ethic.</p>

5

<p>Some schools (the bigger ones) may handle this more informally. Our S contacted a student he knew who was already enrolled at our huge state U and asked if he could go to classes with him. On the day he chose to visit, a number of classes were so big that no one was going to notice one student more or less. In the smaller classes, he went up with his host, introduced himself and asked permission to sit in. He was never refused although it turned out that in one class they were having a pop quiz, so it wasn’t worth his time to sit in. </p>

<p>By contrast, at the LACs that he visited, he got lists of classes that he was allowed to attend, from the admissions office on the day he visited.</p>

6

<p>welcome to public school beaurocracy. It doesn’t get any better.</p>

<p>Just show up and sit in the class. The professor won’t know who is enrolled anyway.</p>

7

<p>Just talked with my niece who did a slew of classroom obs at both public and private schools in the Southeast. </p>

<p>She told me that only one school (of the 7 she visited) was unfamiliar with classroom obs and it was the worst college on her list–ACT average score was anywhere from 18 to 21, while she had a 28 and was offered a full merit ride from this school. She said the ACT scores were a very good indication of student body caliber and within 30 minutes of of the tour she knew the school was not for her, regardless of the nil cost.</p>