<p>i don't know anyone at the college i want to visit, but i'll ask and see what happens.</p>
<p>Your HS might have names of folks who graduated from your HS that attend the schools you're interested in. At our HS, they get the e-mail address of all alumni that are willing to be contacted & the schools they are attending so HS kids can reach them. Your GC/CC might be a good place to start.</p>
<p>My S hosted a HS friend and another boy during pre-frosh weekend. I suspect they were crowded, but I'm sure the 2 pre-frosh felt less alone. I recall at one school, the boy my S was staying with had exams, and left him alone. The admittees hung around together.
Its hard for some young people to be put in such an awkward situation. As a sophomore, my S has visited friends at other colleges, walked around the area, & attended classes. Looking back, we could have planned to contact HS alum at certain schools, so he would have some familiarity with the host.
HImom, where did your S dicide to enroll?</p>
<p>99% sure he'll be enrolling at USoCal, but since he hasn't sent in anything yet, he hasn't officially committed.</p>
<p>My D did an overnight at UVA back in the fall prior to applications. She got a wonderful hostess. The problem she had with the school was the fact that 1) the classes she sat in on were huge, impersonal 2) her hostess took her out for an evening of fun (which she mostly enjoyed), but she had one bad experience. They went later in the evening to a frat house to a party but were not let in because they were't on some special list. That rubbed my daughter the wrong way. Needles to say, both factors effected her decision not to apply. I thought, as did she, that the visit was valuable.</p>
<p>I did an overnight (weekend) at Case Western and I found it to be ok. I also just got back from a overnight (weekend) at Penn State. Thanks to the overnights I now know where I want to go, PSU. I got a feel for both campuses and the great thing is I was leading towards Case before i went to PSU.</p>
<p>I just got back from a minority recruiting overnight at Penn State. (they called us "Achievers" which I thought was pretty rude since there was no qualification to be invited except for an acceptance to Penn State) The problem was, they made all these sterotypes about what being a minority meant. A lot of students there were turned off by that. At Penn State there is a huge self-segregation of minorities: the "minorities" and the "white people" just don't associate with one another that much. It's pretty sad. Then all the clubs that we were introduced to were African American dancing, frats, sororities: everything was all MINORITY. We are "DIFFERENT" was the message I got, when I feel that even though I am a minority with a wonderful culture and community, I am thoroughly able to be the same.
The overnight was a twisted version of the reality for me of Penn State, so it was hard to look past the fact that I didn't feel the lifestyle I was being exposed to would be anything near my own. But once I found a way to, I was glad I had visited Penn State in this manner.
Why? I live in CT, 6.5 hrs away from Penn State. When I was in a sketchy situation and depended on people I really hardly knew to get me back to the dorms (which were far, far away) safely, I knew I did not want to go to Penn State. Minority or not, this would happen at Penn State and I would have no backup plan. My parents couldn't drive 6.5 hrs to come get me, nor did I have any support system of family friends etc. nearby.
So it took some discomfort to realize what I wanted out of a school.
Even if it is a bad experience, you can learn a lot.</p>
<p>I spent an overnight at a top-knotch LAC that I believed was my first choice. After spending the evening my mind was changed completely.</p>
<p>I arrived on campus and met my host, who was very polite. She went out of her way to show me all the "hot spots" on campus, took me to every dorm building where she showed me a room, and even offered to put me in touch with professors in my preferred major. I have absolutely no complaints about my host- she was a wonderful representation of the school and did a great job "selling the place", so to speak.</p>
<p>However, I cannot say the same for her suite-mates. One of the girls brought a bottle of liquor with her to the dining hall and was taking shots at the table, in front of hundreds of people, including faculty members and other adults. I was surprised, to say the least.</p>
<p>That evening after watching a movie with some other girls in the dorm, we decided to walk down to the student union to buy smoothies. My host and her friends were very nice and good-natured, but the people we encountered on the short walk to the building were quite a different story. I saw at least 10-15 intoxicated people wandering around campus. Also, I saw a handful of campus police. None of them were even so much as stopping the students. I understand that campus police aren't "real police" and do not bust everyone on everything, but for the students' own safety they should have been stopped.</p>
<p>That evening a girl in the dorm I was staying in tried to throw herself out of a fourth story window because she was so intoxicated. A girl in the suite I was in called campus security who took nearly twenty minutes to arrive. By then the girl had been coaxed back in by her roomates. However, campus security seemed to find the situation to be no more than a fun little joke,while this girl was obviously intoxicated to the point where she could not function properly. He did not offer to call for medical services for the obviously extremely ill girl, nor did he even take a report of her name and condition. I was appalled. </p>
<p>That being said, I did not want to rule the school out because of one (albeit horrific) experience. When I received my acceptence letter last week I did not immediately trash it, but rather put it with the others. However, two friends of mine spent overnights at the same school and had similar experiences. </p>
<p>I think that overnights are a fantastic way to see what life is like at the school. However, it should not be THE deciding factor, as all students are different and everyone likes different things.</p>
<p>I think that overnights are very enlightening, but the student needs to be open-minded, self-reliant and independent in their approach. Don't judge the school by your host. Don't get put off by a frat party. If you are offered alcohol, it is not a reflection of the school culture, just say "Oh, thanks, but I don't drink" or "Maybe later", no-one forces you to drink. There are valedictorians that drink themselves senseless alone in their rooms, and then large groups of average students who get together for a beer, and folk who do not care to drink at all.</p>
<p>My D had one host who was this amazing, outgoing, vivacious, brilliant girl, who took her everywhere, gave her inside information, asked her what she wanted to do, and really provided her with meaningful insight into the school. Then she had another host, who had an exam the next day, took her to the cafeteria, and then back to her room, where she opened a bottle of Vodka, and said she had to study. My D said fine, wandered off to meet other students, joined up with other groups, went to a dreadful frat party, but had a very good overview of the school, and now happily attends there.</p>
<p>czechitout's experience speaks to the importance of doing an overnight during an "ordinary" period, NOT during an event designed to woo admitted-but-not-yet-committed students. Colleges carefully orchestrate admitted students' event to conceal flaws and defects as much as possible. The "whitewash effect" is absent when you show up in real time.</p>
<p>I feel that overnights are crucial to the process, however you have to know what you are doing in order to get the most out of it. First off, I recommend staying with someone who graduated from your high school, they will be able to give you a better perspective on what the transition was like. 2nd, if you do the random host thing, keep in mind that this host and his/her friends represent a very small sampling of the student body, hell, even ask them if they feel that the majority of the school is like them, odds are they will answer truthfully. Don't rely on your host to plan your visit. Hosts (at least at my school) are volunteers, but they do not get to choose the dates. They are happy to host, but occasionally we will get prospies the night before a big test, and obviously we are in no mood to go giving them a grand tour. Have a list of things you plan on doing, find out when certain activities you are interested in meet, see if you can go, arrange to see any professors/coaches in areas of interest. Take the tour/info session, the people who run the info session have been educated about aspects of the school that they are not involved in, and thus are better at answering questions than your host might be. I feel like many of the opinions I got on schools during my visits have held up to be true (at least from what my friends at the other schools I looked at tell me), but you have to prepare for your visit, that is the key thing.</p>
<p>Also, be aware that some hosts volunteer because their friends are all hosting.</p>
<p>DD is going on two student overnights. In both cases, the schools have been very specific about one thing...my daughter MUST stay with her host throughout the visit. No deviations from that. In fact, my daughter actually has a meeting with the music departments at both schools during the overnight "event time" and we're not sure the schools will even allow her to leave her host to go to these music events. We're hoping they are "flexible"...if not, that will tell us something about their school.</p>
<p>My son got 2 valuable lessons from overnights. Actually Morehead(in KY.) was so dirty on his campus tour, and had used condoms lying around on sidewalk that he cancelled his overnight. I feel sorry for the campus guide that walked him by that! The second one, also in Ky. paired him with a courteous host that had no interests in common with my son. Nice fellow, but my son left wondering 2 things- why would the school make such a host choice, and secondly- were there students on campus that shared his interests? His visit there was valuable, as he learned neither of those 2 was his best match.</p>
<p>My friend's daughter was also so disgusted with the untidiness/trash at a campus that it went from high on her list to off the list entirely & she refused to apply. She figured she didn't want to attend a school where people cared so little that they would leave trash strewn about the campus.
She matriculated at UVA & was very happy there.</p>
<p>Here you can apply to be a RoHo (room host). You volunteer and don't get paid. </p>
<p>For me, my visit to campus at Stanford and Swarthmore made it very clear that Stanford was the school for me. I expected to fall in love with Swarthmore, but instead found that what I was looking for at Swarthmore (student/faculty interaction, sense of community, intellectual environment) I could find at Stanford. I think that campus visits are a great way to get a sense of what the school is like. Be sure to talk to as many students as you can to try to get a more accurate view of the school.</p>
<p>younghoss, most schools randomly put kids with hosts.</p>
<p>in the same vein as the above post, younghoss, it's worth pointing out to you son that one student who doesn't share his interests in no way represents a fact that no one does-no one person encompasses every single characteristic of a school all at once.</p>
<p>i have the opportunity to attend the overnight stay program run by the alumni association at berkeley, but i can also stay with friends... which do you guys suggest?</p>
<p>Overnights were very helpful to my S. He did an overnight at USMMA and that ultimately was the tipping point between going there and going to USNA. I would highly recomend doing it. The more informed a decision the better. Even though an overnight is just a slice of the whole experience at a school, it is another data point.</p>