I can confirm that neither could find the money 
One thing revisit days are good for is to get a sense of the families and whether the people are your tribe.
I donât think you can get a sense of how competitive a school is, but you can get a sense of how good their facilities are for your specific interests. The theater, the practice rooms, the maker space, etc.
I think most students will do great in most schools, so in that sense revisit days have marginal utility. But if you have a niche kid who is looking for his niche, revisit days are more valuable.
The physical plant is different from place to place, but it is rarely a deal breaker in my opinion. All schools have amazing resources. Few schools truly have campuses that are so different that they have to be seen to âgetâ. As an example, though not on your list, for me Cate is one of the few like that because it is situated high on a mesa with an expansive view of the pacific, it is really unusual and the air literally feels different. But the campus itself is tiny and many of the buildings need refurbishing. You would know within a minute of arriving if it fits you or not, without talking any anyone.
I canât speak to Exeter, but Deerfield has a unique quality to it - the emphasis on sports and tradition is something you can see and feel and was different from the other east coast schools we saw. So if those are important for you (either positively or negatively), choose Deerfield to visit. I expect for Exeter fit would be mostly about the people for me, so if that is priority for you, choose Exeter.
The other thing that revisiting is good for is seeing how much a pain it is to travel to. Deerfield has its challenges that way if you are coming from a distance.
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@maybeboardingmom , one other thing Iâd toss out there⊠While your kid needs to choose a place where heâd be comfortable, itâs important that you feel good too.
At some point in the next 4 years, something will come up where you and the school may be at odds, or you need their assistance, or you donât like a decision they are making. Ime, itâs really important to feel that your values are aligned and that whatever the situation is, you both truly wants whatâs best for your kid. Itâs just so hard to partner if thatâs not the case.
Perhaps youâll like them all equally, but if something is feeling off about any of them to you, pay attention to that!
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My son was accepted to a school with a very generous FA. Other schools also offered him FA based on our PFS. Is a revisit even necessary to the other schools considering the generous FA?
Our experience has been that the smaller schools were more communicative throughout the process. We never heard from PA or PEA. Smaller schools were more willing to communicate, and answer questions.
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These are very different schools/culture. Dress codes, location, etc.
Deerfield is a great school, but the location is remote - I would definitely recommend seeing the campus before committing. Not a negative necessarily, but not for everyone.
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I know my son would like the rural area, but itâs a matter of how easily/fast could I get there from far away. It seems essential to rent a car if you must fly.
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This may be true at small(er) schools but at schools as large as PEA there are many tribes. Owed to the size you may or may not bump into âyour peopleâ on a single revisit day, but with 1100 students they very well may be there. Thatâs definitely true of PA in our experience.
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The important part of the revisit is for the student to get to talk to current students, sit on classes and attend lunch and some other activities. The schools try to match you up with someone who is similar so there are some shared interests (be it sport, theatre, STEM programs or whatnot) so you can really picture yourself there. And the current students tend to be honest in answering questions and telling it like it is, so encourage your child to ask whatever he wants to know. My kid is doing the revisits on the other side (as well as calls with accepted students if they prefer that) and always answers their questions, and sometimes they come up with pretty interesting or funny ones. There are times when the match is bad (happened to my kid back when we did revisits at one school) but it is a worthwhile exercise if you are deciding between a few schools. Sitting on a couple classes itself was worthwhile to my kid too.
Also some schools definitely put in more effort than others in getting the accepted kids to enroll and may appear to âwantâ your student more than other, it is much like with colleges the top schools make the least amount of effort because they donât really need to and have more than enough kids ready to enroll. Some people find it arrogant and off-putting but I donât think it translates into the experience your student would have once enrolled except that there will be a lot less handholding in general. Hopefully your son will click with one of the schools to make the decision, we ended up having to make a spreadsheet with pros and cons to decide. I do think most kids can thrive at different schools and if your student needs particular environment it will likely click at revisit day. Good luck!
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Right, they donât really âneedâ my kid, but the other schools are also top schools who do seem to really want him there. I want him to be where he is valued.
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If a highly selective school offered admission to your son, then he is âvaluedâ by that school.
Might be better to focus on opportunities that appeal to your son.
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Hi, do you mean that the revisits made you decide to choose Lawrenceville over Peddie even though you had preferred Peddie before the revisit?
I was initially really leaning towards Lawrenceville, but my Peddie revisit pushed me in the pro-Peddie direction. However, my Lawrenceville revisit, which was a week after my Peddie revisit, again made me favor Lawrenceville.
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I totally understand that but he will not need to deal with admissions people once he arrives so how he feels about the vibe on campus is more important in my opinion. But it sounds like you have several excellent options so it is totally fair to consider how responsive and welcoming admissions people were as one of your variables, and you need to start knocking schools out of the running if your son does not have a clear favorite after visits. Hopefully he does and this is all moot.
Not a BS but still a cute idea that Iâm going to share with our AO⊠one of the colleges my daughterâs been accepted to sent her an email today with the subject line: âGas Prices - Am I Rightâ and offered her a $50 gas card to come visit the school for an open house, tour, etc before end of April.
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Popping in to ask ⊠because we live in SoCal and are looking at mostly east coast boarding schools for a PG year. Is there a way to find out when revisit days are in advance? I mean, does it happen only in March? Do all the schools do it the same time so you have to choose one over the other? We are trying to juggle twins with also going to see our other daughter whoâs studying abroad, so Iâd love to know what kind of travel sticker shock Iâm getting into. 
I think so yes like in between M10 and april 10. The condition is just you needa be accepted first - and I havent revisited before but Im sure others from this forum can tell you when approximately was last yearâs revisit days etc.
And some schools dont have revisit day.
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Revisit days might be on the admissions website pages by now â they are listed in the Mercersburg site already so perhaps for others too?
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Thanks, all!
And yes, the caveat is that someone would have to get into a school in order to go revisit.
Fingers crossed!
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Only one of my daughterâs schools has them listed already. We were toying with the idea of having her fly overseas to do revisit days, but it probably wonât happen. She would have to miss about a week of school here and, without knowing dates yet, flights are not getting cheaper! 
