<p>Hello, during Spring Break (2nd week of April for LAUSD) I plan on flying out to the Northeast and touring Brown, Yale, Harvard, and maybe Swarthmore. Does it cost money to request an overnight stay or do you just request one?</p>
<p>Generally no cost, but many schools require that you be a senior to do an overnight.</p>
<p>I would call now and talk to the admissions office. That week in April may not be open for overnights due to hosting admitted students.</p>
<p>What if I plan on applying ED next year? I'm a junior now.</p>
<p>I know that Yale only does overnights for seniors in the fall... and I think H is similarly stingy. I've never encountered a college that charged for overnights, but that means that prestigious schools will make you jump through hoops to stay there.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don't think you need to stay with a student in order for your visit to be fruitful. The one "normal" overnight I did (i.e., not for scholarship-interviewing purposes) was pretty worthless to me, because the girl I was staying with was the total opposite of me. If you just talk to a wide variety of students and observe them in their natural habitat, you will learn a lot about the kind of school it is.</p>
<p>I'm from CA. I plan on spending the entire Spring Break out there going down the Coast. Should I grab hotels or is there a more cost-effective (read: cheaper) way to go about this?</p>
<p>If you have friends who go to some of the schools you are looking at or schools nearby you could ask them if you could stay with them for a night or two. Otherwise if schools aren't willing to let you overnight (and they probably won't be because they will be trying to convince accepted seniors rather than potential juniors to come) you will probably just have to find a hotel.</p>