Official Visits

<p>Has anyone done an official visit for Harvard? What should I expect?</p>

<p>A lot depends on your tour guide. Mine was terrible; we could barely even hear a word he was saying. I didn't find the tour very helpful; it covers a lot of college history and legends and so forth, but it doesn't really give a lot of information that would help you decide whether you want to attend the school.</p>

<p>Addendum: later I went on an unofficial trip and sat in on classes. That was much more helpful. I recommend you do it at all the schools you can; try to sit in on at least a few lectures and one seminar. Even if classes don't vary a lot from school to school, you get a much better idea of what a college course <em>is</em> and what you want to look for in one. Everyone had told me that the teaching at Harvard is bad, the profs don't care, etc., and that it's much better, at, say, Chicago. But I had my perceptions change a lot from visiting a great sociology lecture at Harvard with a really fun, dynamic professor (alas, it was his last year) and some pretty lame seminars at Chicago. It made me realize that you can't make any useful blanket statements about a group as large and diverse as "the faculty of university x."</p>

<p>Thanks for the info Phoenixy! Actually, I was talking about official visits for athletes (oops... guess i should have put that in my post :)), but your info was still very helpful. LOL i had a really bad tour guide too! It must have been her first time, though... she seemed really nervous and her voice was shaking.</p>

<p>;) okay now i'll rephrase:</p>

<p>Have any athletes been on an official visit to Harvard? What should i expect?</p>

<p>I'm going next week, and I'll let you know when I get back. I'm SO excited!</p>

<p>awesome! what sport?</p>

<p>koala, I'm recruited for hockey. I gather it's rather big at Harvard...</p>

<p>oh, wow. Have a great time, and tell me all about it when you come back!!! :D</p>

<p>koala, what sport are you?</p>

<p>track... i'm a 400 hurdler.</p>