<p>Do you know any reason why Caltech doesn't arrange overnight stays in the dorm for prospective students? Most colleges do. Even Harvard which has a similarly small admit ratio, will arrange overnights with a dorm host for prospective students. MIT will arrange for up to 2 nights. Has this ever been discussed in admitting? It seems like Caltech is missing out on something they really should be doing. They could even restrict it to accepted students. Some colleges do that after a particular date in the spring. Many applicants do not know anyone they can contact to set something up themselves. Even an admissions office program to match applicants up with hosts for dinner in one of the houses would be helpful. </p>
<p>I can respond to this one. :) I'm a tour guide and we've discussed this very thing at admissions a couple times. First of all, there is one opportunity for students to stay overnight and experience Caltech. It's called Prefrosh Weekend, it lasts Thursday to Sunday, and it's sometime in late April. Anyone admitted is invited to attend. Other than that, there is no general program set up to allow students to come other times during the year. (I think there are a couple of special exceptions to this, but I'm not sure how they work.) There are a number of reasons it hasn't been set up yet (some of them insurance related), but it is something admissions would like to start in the future. I'd imagine, though, that the first step will be setting up a program so that prefrosh could shadow a student for a day. </p>
<p>But for now, before being accepted, you can come to visit the campus, take a tour with a current student (given every weekday at 2pm -- arrive earlier if you want to see the admissions videos), and even sit in on a couple classes (admissions keeps a list of which profs welcome prefrosh). Then, when you get accepted, come to Prefrosh Weekend! It sounds like I don't need to convince you of the benefit, but for others reading this post, it really helps to tell what the atmosphere is. But, keep in mind that the students tend to use prefrosh weekend to relax so everything is much more vibrant and crazy than usual. I came to Prefrosh Weekend, and on Friday I was sure I was NOT coming to tech, on Saturday I was confused, and on Sunday I went to the bookstore and bought a ton of Caltech merchandise. Prefrosh weekend provides the perfect opportunity to talk with a ton of different students (including the unhappy ones) about all the different aspects of life here. If cost is prohibitive, admissions might be able to help. We also coordinate with MIT to make sure it's not the same weekend they hold theirs (we usually try to coordinate it with a couple other colleges, UC Berkeley comes to mind, but sometimes they set their dates too late for us to do so.)</p>
<p>I brought this up with Rick Bischoff at one point a while ago and he seemed inclined to implement something like it. I suspect that it's something we'll see in a year or two, but for now I think Alleya probably has more current info than I do. I bet, however, if you were to call and chat with the admissions folks you might be able to set something up. Alternatively, your kid could try and go and meet current students and convince one of them to let him/her crash in their room for a night.</p>