Revisit days: what should I be looking out for and asking about?

Prep School Admissions
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DS has revisit days at 4 different schools coming up and I’ve been putting a list together of things we are going to be looking out for and asking at each visit. There are probably things I haven’t thought of, and I’m looking for suggestions to add to my mental list. This list is for my DS who is coming in as an upperclassmen, but feel free to add to this list for questions more relevant to an incoming 9th grader.

Do the kids look happy?
Is everyone attentive, challenged, and having a good time in class?
Do I like the teachers?
How is the food? And hours in which you can get food? Policy for keeping food in the dorm? Do the dorms have microwaves, fridges, etc?
Are there week night activities?
As a boarder, are people sticking around on the weekends?
What are the weekend activities like?
Specifically at schools with less boarders but still a majority: How many of the boarding students are international students? For example (pardon my PC), I don’t want my DS to be stuck with 15 chinese kids on the weekend.
Is there good school spirit? Do kids like going to school sporting events?
What is the internet policy, is it shut off? And when?
Is there an option for a single or double?
How much time will it take to travel for sports?
Are there trainers on staff?
Can my DS use the gym anytime he wants? Is there a fitness culture at the school? (very important to my son)
Is there a time and place for video games and TV? I know this isn’t practical but having the opportunity on the weekends is nice
Is there study hall? And what times (can be different from 9th graders to 12th graders)
Is their wifi and cell phone access throughout the school? (This is a problem at Hotchkiss for example)
Do kids hang out together in common spaces or are they mostly in their dorms? Same as for studying in the library?
Are there staff who can help them on things like proofreading essays?
Do the teachers live on campus? Are they available after hours?
Can you sleep late on the weekend?
Can my child’s dietary restrictions be accommodated?
College counseling–
Medication-How is it administered? Will my child have to walk far across campus at morning and night to have it adminstered? Ex. if they take medication for sleep, will they have flexibility at what time to take it?
Are the kids stressed?
Does everyone stick to their self? Is there a good social culture?

(I know some of these things can be found in each schools handbook, but I just wanted to make a list of everything I should find out about each school)

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What a great list! I found it helpful to read the handbook before revisits, so we could ask specific questions based on that information. In general, I tried to ask “What happens when something goes wrong?” types of questions. “Wrong” covers a range of issues: academic difficulty (what support services are available etc?), disciplinary protocol (everything from harmless detentions to more serious offenses - how are all of these handled?), health & medical protocol (including your medication question above, but also sports injuries/PT, flu shots, etc), class selection (what if my kid doesn’t get the class they want, how is this handled, is this common?) and just generally who is watching/listening for kids who are just having a bad day? homesickness? In our experience, these topics weren’t really covered during initial visits which are in “sales” mode, but revisits really get into the nitty-gritty. You also may want to have your kid ask these questions of current students. My daughter had a list of 3 or 4, and she asked as many people as she could. We asked as well (of faculty & admin) and then compared notes at the end of the day. Don’t assume that your question has been answered just because you asked one person - I prefer to crowd source :wink:

I also took a lot of notes throughout the day which ended up being very helpful. They throw a lot of detailed information at you and it can be tough to keep it all straight.

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One of the questions my DS asked his tour guides on interviews, that might be helpful on revisit was “What schools did you choose from and what attributes led you to pick this one” or something to that effect. He thought it was very helpful to get their insight regarding their decision, too!

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I always like to see what the answer is to : “If there was one thing about this school you could change, what would it be?”

It’s helpful to observe how kids act when they come into a classroom how they interact with each other, how people participate in class (everyone? respectful debate?) as well as how kids interact as they walk around. (Greeting each other? Heads down?) And in common areas like dining hall, library, common rooms, do people come and go or are certain areas “owned” by certain groups.

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Here is a link to a checklist type guide on the Emma Willard School website (it can work for any school you’re considering), which we found very helpful during our decision/revisit process.

https://www.emmawillard.org/sites/emmawillard.org/files/best_fit_guide_0.pdf

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@cameo43 super helpful, thanks!

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I appreciate this thread as I plan for revisit days. @cameo43 Thanks for the EW checklist!

Here are some of the questions I will be asking/assessing:

How does the school approach the education of “whole child”- thins such as emotional development, kindness, inclusion, empathy.

Does the school actively and openly address mental and sexual health issues, including stress management and education/emphasis on healthy personal habits like sleep and eating.

Is there a stigma around students seeking counseling? Are counselors readily available on campus for short or long term support?

What is the male to female faculty? How is the faculty retention? Faculty housing Integrated into campus? How invested are the teachers? How supported by administration? What draws them to the school?

Do kids feel intense social pressure and competition in academics and athletics etc?

Do kids feel supported in trying new things? Are there opportunities for “beginners” in many areas?

What are the opportunities for study off campus/abroad? Does the school encourage or discourage this experience? How many students go?

How does culture of international students mix w/ domestic? What about boarding and day? How does school promote integration?

Is there a strong sense of community and school spirit? Any fun school traditions?

Does the school foster community through mandatory all-school sit down dinners/meals?

What is the percentage of “repeat” students in the grade? How do kids who don’t “repeat” feel in comparison?

For all gils schools- do students develop healthy relationships with boys, including platonic friendships? What do co-ed interactions look like?

Is there much social stratification and heirarchy?

What is the breadth of course offerings like?

Do kids look happy to be at the school?

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Is there a way to phrase some of the trickier Qs to get honest answers? I can’t imagine any school admitting there is a steep social hierarchy at their school or that availing oneself of counseling pegs one as a loser.

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I agree @calimex. At colleges, we would ask "so what are the courses that everyone wants to take but are always oversubscribed? " to get the answer to “How hard is it to get the classes I want?”

I guess on counseling one could ask “I’d imagine this place gets pretty stressful from time to time. What does the school do to help with that?” Hopefully, some part of the response includes mention of counseling or another natural opening to ask if a lot of students use it.

The social one is really tricky unless you know something about the place. What are the markers for that? In some schools, you might be able to ask if kids from one area (i.e., NYC, Fairfield Country, Boston) tend to hang together. In others, there could be tables in the dining hall that “belong” to certain groups, but I could see how the cliques and their pecking order, if there were one, might be hard to peg as an outsider.
I wonder if asking students what groups they feel a part of might indicate how fluid the community is. (Answering “my dorm floor, my volleyball team, the kids in my theater class, and my advisory” might, just might, give a different picture than “my team” or “the other kids from CA.” One suggests belonging to several groups vs belonging to one and just doing the other stuff. But again, hard to tell…)

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@cameo43 thanks a lot for posting the link

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As more of an observer than an inquirer, I tended to stay a bit more quiet and just observe what’s happening on revisit days. For me, I don’t care why little Tommy chose Choate over Deerfield: I want to know why I should, NOT Tommy, because we are two very different people. My favorite part was walking around with my student and seeing the way he interacts with his friends, what his friends do, etc. I’m a generally go-with-the-flow and adaptable person, so I care way less about surfacey things like “lights out at this time” or “sit down meals on these days” than I do about the “social scene”, or “will I make great friends here?”, “will I be able to expand my horizons?”, etc. That’s just my opinion, but I understand that not every kid is the same. For example, my student tour person was sitting at lunch with his friends. I knew where all of them were from, and I observed. A few were from the same states, but they didn’t seem to have any type of hightened connection over the others. I pretty much observed this with every group I was with: no students seemed to gravitate towards kids from their state! Furthermore, my student tour person high-fived or called out to at least one new person every 20 feet! Half of them weren’t even in his grade… I think that you can get a much more accurate and truthful answer if you observe for yourself. In my opinion, it’s very difficult for a kid to reflect back on themselves and their group with complete candor.

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I love reading your impressions @“Nico.campbell” - keep it up!

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Me too

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Me three

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Me four

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I’d like to say thank you for this thread. I came on here looking for just this kind of information: what do you look for at revisits (in our case the only visit) and what questions did you ask that helped you to decide? We will visit Emma Willard next week. We came rather late to this process and my daughter applied to only one school, because we have the idea it might be an environment that would give her the opportunity to learn and grow both academically and socially. Now she and we must decide what is right for her in these important years. The “checklist” @cameo43 linked is helpful to me as an indicator of what values Emma Willard thinks parents should seek in their daughter’s education.

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In our case, we ended up declining Emma’s offer of admission, which seemed somewhat ironic to us since we used that EW checklist to seal the deal at another all-girls school. Emma is a really wonderful school, @twintwin88. They do a great job with their Open Houses and revisit events. I hope you and your D have a fabulous time next week!

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During our school visits, if we had the opportunity to chat casually with students, I usually asked them to list their 2 or 3 favorite things about the school. I did this at lunch at the school my D eventually chose. Every girl at our table named the head of school, who was previously a longtime math teacher (and continued to teach one section of calculus each term). It made a real impression on us that the students clearly looked up to,and seemed so fond of, the HOS (and that she seemed to actually know and had connected with every girl at the school… She was warm, engaging, and very approachable). The HOS sets the tone for the community, so that was very important to me.

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It never hurts to meet the other parents. After all, they raised the children with whom your child will go to school. You may get insight…

:slight_smile: