Let’s complicate, this is what I meant about checking the realities:
Bowdoin April
Info sessions: at 10:30am, Tuesday through Friday at 2:30pm
Tours:
Monday through Friday 9:30am, 11:30am, 1:30pm and 3:30pm.
Bates eg, April 10:
10am and 1pm tours
Adm &FA info session: 10am and 2pm
Amherst doesn’t do individual overnights before admission (and after only on certain weekends). But if you can get a student to host your child unofficially, that’s doable. IDK about the other schools.
Well…except it is Palm Sunday…and some schools won’t have their offices open.
But yes…it is worth checking. My kid worked in admissions for four years. Their offices were never open on Sundays.
In addition…after admissions, many schools have admitted student days. Those are typically during the week, not on weekends. Admissions office staff is doing those…and asking them to do their one day off a week would not work in some places…again…the poster needs to ask at EVERY college they want to visit.
And lastly, at some, not all…but some schools, if there is an accepted student event happening, they reduce the number of info sessions and tours during that time…because their staff is working the admitted student days.again…you gotta ask!!
YMMV.
That is why I suggested this family leave CA one day earlier than they are planning. Really, staying later into the Easter weekend and Patriots Day in MA won’t help them. But leaving say on April 6 could make a huge difference in terms of their scheduling.
OP, I am guessing your D is doing either IB or AP classes. One issue my D had with visiting is that she had a bunch of AP exams coming and April was very busy. She only visited one college in April and missed a day of school as it was. Maybe your D has spring break in April, but it’s a tough time to miss much school, unless it’s her vacation. Just something else to consider. And you don’t want to schedule visits when the colleges are having their break. Bates for sure has an April break. Be sure to check the college calendars. All these other issues are one reason why it’s really hard to race around and see a bunch of colleges once decisions are released.
Gosh. I would put all the accepted student days on your calendar right now and then plan around that, even if she has to take a week off of school. Make your hotel reservations so you have them (I noticed some hotels are sold out from the ED families) and then cancel them as the letters of acceptance/rejection come in. I wouldn’t try to tour after a red eye and a 3 hour drive-- you need your faculties to absorb it all. I can tell you Bates accepted days are Apr 7 and Apr 24. If she’s doing overnights, I’d give her more time because she will be tired and cranky the next day from sleeping (or not sleeping) on a hard floor and showering in a strange place. Mount Holyoke and Smith will very likely include an overnight option in their accepted day information (all the women’s colleges do, I think). Some schools may be off-putting in a general tour (Amherst general info session was pretty snobby-- “IF you get in and you probably won’t” type presentation; Bowdoin was all “Our creed is blah blah boring blah blah” and while not snobby, also not very inviting ) so going to an accepted day is sure to feel warmer, more cheerful, and more welcoming at those two schools at least. Bates and Dickinson are both very welcoming to everybody in the general tour. Mount Holyoke and Smith as well. I don’t know Bryn Mawr.
You also want to check each school’s spring break schedule because most of them reduce or don’t do any tours during their own spring break–everyone is gone. Well, at least the schools I looked at. Just check every school on all timing before making any plans.
…and a final thought from me. Some of those school don’t give AP credit so exam prep may not be as critical, if college credit is the primary reason for the hustle to study for them. Of course they can be important for HS grades, advanced placement, etc. And independently studying for them worked well for my kids so missing a couple of days of HS class may not be that big a deal.
Just an FYI…most schools will not let you book into their accepted student days until you are…accepted.
@thumper, DS went to two admitted students days on a Saturday. And as it happened, both of them were near a school where he’d been admitted that had one on a Friday. It’ll depend entirely on the school.
Yes @gardenstategal I said…YMMV…and check each school.
But I would wager that NONE will be having admissions anythings on Good Friday, that Saturday, or Easter Sunday.
And MA schools…maybe not on Patriots Day.
What does YMMV mean?
Your mileage may vary.
Which means…it will totally vary from school to school.
So…contact each school to check.
But I’m pretty sure there is NO school that will allow a student to sign up for an accepted student event of any kind unless the student Is an accepted student.
And as it came up, yes, BMC does OV for admitted students. And its admitted student days are on the 7th and 24th (same as Bates). (They also have Saturday visits on the 15th but it appears that with 3 days notice, you can “customize a day” which Dickinson also offers.) Dickinson’s Admitted Student Open House is on the 8th, so you could plan on pairing those two admitted student days if they’re both still on your list. And if you can get out a little early, she can do an OV on the night of the 6th at BMC.
MHC’s accepted student thingie involves an OV on the 9th (plenty of time to drive there), and classes on the 10th. Smith lets you pick your (weekday) date, so it could be the next day if you daughter is resilient.
Overall, I think you can swing this given the amount of time you have…
So…it sounds like you need to do your trip in reverse…starting with Dickinson and BMC…and working north?
But really…when will she get a acceptances? I would make plans once the acceptances are in.
I think most of those schools get their acceptances out by March 20 or so.
No one is going to be able to go to accepted students’ programs at seven colleges, or six, or five. Two or three is really the max, and I bet the norm is 0 or 1. I wouldn’t try to plan around accepted students’ days.
Thanks. Most of the schools just say that they notify of acceptance “Around April 1”, but not having been through this before, I wasn’t really sure exactly what that meant. If they come out earlier, it will make this all much easier.
Appreciate all the input!
Has your D visited the areas where these colleges are located before she applied? Not to offend anyone who lives in small towns in the the NE, but when my kids were applying to colleges, our college counselor warned that California kids have trouble dealing with the long winter weather and lack of daylight in isolated small towns/schools in the northeast and many wish to transfer out.
California sends many kids to these schools and many are perfectly happy but I hope your daughter is aware of this.
@cbreeze , just want to say those colleges have very high retention rates. My D’s best friends are from Morocco, Florida and Hawaii. They all seem to be enjoying the winter. Maybe that’s more of a concern to people with SAD, but I don’t think any of those colleges suffer from a lack of students from warmer climates.
OP, I am quite sure you can expect most of those colleges to notify starting around Mid-March. If you are on the ball, and can organize yourself pretty quickly, you may be able to hit these schools before April. Again, she does not have to attend accepted students days, and if she is determined to visit all of them, you will possibly have to forego those anyway.
You can look at last year’s notification dates to see when it is likely she will be notified. They tend to be roughly the same each year, give or take a day here or there.
Regarding calendars, out of interest I had a quick look. Dickinson and Amherst are on break until March 20, Bowdoin until March 25th. Bates has a break from April 15-23. I didn’t look at the rest, but you can see that it might become a logistics issue. Most accepted students visits are done in early April for obvious reasons.
One more word about overnights. It is very common that the students who sign up to host very often have last minute conflicts (a big exam, a rehearsal, etc…) so your daughter should not be surprised if she ends up with a different host, no host, or just hanging around with other accepted students. I have also seen stories of grumpy or weird hosts. It runs the gamut. She will be sleeping on floors so be sure she has a sleeping bag and pillow.