<p>Student forums are an understated part of the admissions process. Although the colleges choose the students for the forums, most of the students speak very openly and honestly about their school. I think they are crucial. For that reason, I think preview days are better if they offer a student panel.</p>
<p>My D really found the diversity visits enlightening. Not only was it her ( and our) first exposure to an LAC, anything other than a UC or other California public, it was her first exposure to "people like me". She ended up meeting the same kids at a few of these functions at different schools, and one of her "favorites" ended up at her school, even though they had not met there! ( my D had been invited to the AA function, and her friend to the Latino one).</p>
<p>We've done both and liked both, too.</p>
<p>Abuwalker made a point I wanted to make. It tells a lot about a school how the preview sessions are handled. It talks about the values of the school.</p>
<p>We went to Amherst/Williams preview days on the same day. Smart of them to enable us to do this, no?</p>
<p>One was a fit for S; the other not. I liked both. One was in a boardroom type room with leather and carpets, the other in a room with folding chairs. S liked the folding chairs. He liked the students selected for the panel more and the adcom person, too.</p>
<p>I'm not saying which was which, because that isn't the point of my post, and I probably would have picked the opposite school he did for myself. After both of them I said, based on these I think I know which school is better for you. He glumly said, "School Y?" because it stressed independence, a weakness for him. "No," I said, school Z. He brightened up. He attends.</p>
<p>We went to three visits on Preview Days for school X, one for first child, two for second.</p>
<p>Each time the students chosen to speak were air heads. Now, I know of many intelligent students from this school and have heard good parent feedback too. There was much to love. However, the school fell from its number one position of S's listen to one further down, though it still remained on the list.</p>
<p>Another value of preview day events is the presence of faculty in almost all the departments. It's wonderful to walk into a building and be able to talk to someone who will be running an orchestra or teaching a lab.</p>
<p>The benefits of private visits are obvious and already pointed out, so I won't address myself to those.</p>
<p>We've done both and liked both, also. Interestingly, we had only positive experiences at the preview days but the private visits were hit and miss, depending on how small the tour group was, personality of guide or admissions officer, and other small things. Also, note that a "regular" visit to a large school like a Big Ten may not feel all that private -- there may be LOTS of people there.</p>
<p>The problem with all of these visits is the time and expense invovled. Therefore, it is really best to search out the college web site first and go to the local hotel visits when there are presentations put on about the schools to narrow down the list of schools, then do both preview and private visits to the top 2 schools you want to go to the most. It is also important to figure out what are the highest priorities of the school and then see which schools meet those priorities. Looking back, I think our priorities included finding schools which had significant merit aid, high quality engineering school with personal attention, and good location (weather, internships).</p>
<p>"I believe that the "preview days" are full of very useful info and often answered questions about the university that we did not even know to ask."
I agree that this is the best reason for the Open House style visit. Meeting with faculty is also important. However, we found that you can't interview on these days in most cases - and now D's having some difficulty finding local alums to interview wtih</p>
<p>just a thought - on preview days there is usually a free lunch. Although some schools with terrible food put on their best for preview days.</p>
<p>Part of this was due to my geographical location privilege, but I visited my top choices at least twice. I did the admissions days, but then I went back for private visits as well. In some cases, I definitely saw how artificial the open houses were and how much they either exaggerated or covered up, and in others (like with MHC), I saw everything confirmed.</p>
<p>Regarding interviews, I did do mine during the open houses I went to, but I applied to mostly smaller colleges where that was a lot more feasible than it would have been elsewhere.</p>
<p>Also, to respond to what Another NJ Mom said...yes, they often have meals, but they're usually catered. You typically don't eat in the dining halls, so you don't get to experience it well.</p>