<p>In your opinion, are the revisit days worth it? I mean, can you really get a firm enough "feel" of the school in half a day as to truly make a decision? As I'm international, it's EXPENSIVE the rents really want to be sure they're getting their money's worth. Plus, the Revisit days would be more like "Visit Days" will be the first time I see the schools (I've never visited).</p>
<p>I think you can answer your question yourself if you compare the cost of revisit days vs. the cost of ending up at a school, sight unseen, that is not right for you. If you can visit, I would think a day walking the walk with a current student is better than never having set foot on a campus.</p>
<p>is it that worth it???
I'm like Alexthecheesypoo, international, and though i've visited the schools during the interview, i didn't really get much of a feel of the school. </p>
<p>Can you really get an experience on revisit days almost identical to the real deal that it's be worth it???</p>
<p>I can't imagine making a decision of this magnitude (the money, the time, the effort, years of your life) without attending a revisit day. If you don't like the dog and pony show quality, ask to come on a different day. Your thoughts and opinions from your October tour, when you were just learning about the schools may be quite different from your ideas when March rolls around. And those charming fall leaves will be replaced with mud. I gives you a different feel to visit again.</p>
<p>My daughter decided to visit her #1 choice of the three she was admitted to and skip the others unless she didn't feel sure of her decision. It does end up being a lot of missed school days if you try to go to a bunch of these.</p>
<p>The school didn't offer an overnight, but she really wanted to do it, so we did get permission for one. The other two schools said they would host overnights too if we wanted.</p>
<p>But, can you really get a real FEEL of the school in just half a day or less? I mean, BS is a huge decision and really, there's not many other options to get a "feel" of the school. But, one of my friends who visited said that she really didn't gain much out of the trip, other than maybe a little tour and layout of the school. Did visiting for a couple hours really effect your end decision?</p>
<p>I'm an international as well alex, I have a feeling you're from Korea. If you're not, then this doesn't really apply to you as much.</p>
<p>A visit to the school is extremely unpredictable. If I had not visited my schools, come next fall I would be disappointed at roughly half of my schools (if I were accepted everywhere), wherever I went. </p>
<p>But it's difficult to compare to the cash and time involved. First off, you will be spending Spring Break in jet lag and crummy airplane food and rushing all those "It counts as a 3rd quarter grade" projects. Second, it is EXPENSIVE. I know you feel this way, and that's why I'm emphasizing it again, because you have to keep aware (if you do live in Korea), that the won is currently suffocating as of now. Really, you would be saving more than 6000 dollars, seeing as you have to have some kind of guardian to stay with you, car service or rental cars, and lodging. And no doubt you will succumb to the all-too-famous addiction of shopping, because price inflations in Korea (or even China/Japan, I bet, assuming if you're not Korean, you're one of the other two East Asians) are astounding and it would be best to take advantage of your regional status, fast.</p>
<p>Honestly, if I were you, I would worry about this if I had more than three schools I was accepted to. If it were three or less, I wouldn't even think of it. More than that, you need to really think it over because I honestly don't feel like revisit days are a priority upon acceptance because US residents can usually drive a few hours to the school, or catch a domestic flight which is considerably cheaper than an international one, whereas internationals unwillingly face costly choices. In my opinion, don't go. I went early on in the year for the sake of interviews, but if it were to just see the campus, no way.</p>
<p>Westcoast and Alex, I agree that being an international puts you in a different position. In your case, I hope you really investigated the schools during your initial visits so you can make a thoughtful decision if you are accepted to one or more schools.</p>
<p>For us, it felt different to revisit than the first time around. When you are hoping to be accepted, you are less critical/skeptical than when you know you are in. You can stop dreaming about how perfect everything seems and really get down to details about how things are actually going to work out for you.</p>
<p>In the prior revisit threads from last year, you can see that many people changed their minds about the schools they were accepted to, or at least changed their relative ranking of them.</p>
<p>We are not international.</p>
<p>I have told my son he MUST go to ALL schools revisit days (if accepted).</p>
<p>Our interview tours did not include classroom visits or dining at the school. I can't imagine attending a school for 4 years without sitting in on classes.</p>
<p>Grejuni, what were the revisit days like for your daughter?</p>
<p>Is it really that important of a deciding factor? I'm international too, but I would really rather spend the money than go through 4 years of my life somewhere I hate...
What do you think?</p>
<p>During revisit days, they let you sit through classes, talk to current students... do you get to experience the dorm life too? hanging out in dorms... clubs... ?</p>
<p>By the way, Grejuni, in the revisit threads from last year, how were their thinkings changed? Like the way they saw that the school did not have such good teachers, they didn't like the atmosphere of the school...?</p>
<p>When we first looked at boarding schools, we were just so stunned by the beautiful facilities and campuses. We were comparing them to the school she was in at the time, and the boarding schools were just coming out way ahead. And everyone seemed to talk about weekend activities, sports, vegetarian food, international travel, extra courses, art buildings, ap classes, college counseling. It was a blur after a while.</p>
<p>We used the reivisit days, which do include classes, meals, dorm life, large gatherings, etc to just take a harder look. We weren't comparing the schools to her public school anymore, we were comparing them to eachother and really trying to answer the question about how this particular student will fit in and maximize her potential and each of these particular schools. We had to ask questions about advanced classes, questions about senior year (still so far off), etc. In other words, we stopped dreaming about the idealized version of boarding school and got into the particulars.</p>
<p>Now, perhaps you have taken meticulous notes, or you have a friend you trust who can tell you inside information about residential life, or you have a clear favorite for multiple reasons. And if you are international, this truly may not be worth the trip. But our initial rankings of the schools 1, 2, 3 came out 3, 2, 1 after a harder look.</p>
<p>Grejuni-</p>
<p>Can you say what schools you visited or what specifically made your rankings change?</p>
<p>"I'm seeing BS plus club sports grinding kids to dust."</p>
<p>Toadstool, would you please elaborate on that comment?</p>
<p>par-3
OK, we constrained my daughter quite a bit geographically to just an hour away. A lot of people might find this extreme, in fact my daughter did, but my husband and I felt strongly about it. She applied and was accepted to Westtown Friends, George School and St Andrew's (Delaware.) </p>
<p>I went on all the visits and tours, attended some optional parent gatherings, called current parents etc. I had ranked the schools Westtown, George School, SAS due to the feel of the places. I still think I would be happy living on the Westtown campus. :) Westtown was beautiful and homey in a wonderful way. I loved our interviewer and the tour guides were girls with kindness and poise. George School, which resembles Swarthmore College, had a more laid back vibe than Westtown, a nice campus and the attraction of a cute town nearby. It also has an IB program that my daughter wanted to know more about. SAS did not appeal to me at first because of the Gothic architecture which seemed so gloomy on the rainy day I was there. Inside all the buildings it was dark. And instead of individual tours, we were in a large group of parents which instinctually made me feel somewhat competitive with them. My tour guide was a boy who couldn't answer the questions I had about residential life.</p>
<p>The unique qualities of the academic life at these three schools was not apparent to me because they all just seemed so much better than where she was in public school. By revisiting and attending classes, we determined that the academic level was highest at SAS, she would have more material covered in classes, she could get farther in math, and they would support independent classes if necessary. My daughter likes a really steep learning curve and consequently we decided that the classes at SAS suited her best. The IB program at George School sounded difficult but did not really jive with her interests.</p>
<p>We also realized that SAS was 100% boarding which was something my daughter wanted. George School had (I think) 40% day students and Westtown has day students until mandatory boarding Junior and Senior years. Westtown is also a k-12 school with young kids running around, which I liked, but my daughter did not.</p>
<p>I have two other girls who would like to attend boarding school. I think my rankings of the same schools for them would vary with the child. They all have different priorities and interests.</p>
<p>Oh wow, cool!
so how old are your two other girls?</p>
<p>So your daughter ended up going to St. Andrew's??? How's it like?</p>
<p>The academics at St Andrew's are just what we hoped for and she is doing very well.</p>
<p>Thanks Grejuni-
I am excited about our own revisits--and I wonder what new perspective I will come away with after revisit day...</p>
<p>It is amazing how much that first impression makes on us isn't it?!</p>
<p>sorry for mangling that last sentence...need coffee.... :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the input! </p>
<p>One of the difficult things about scheduling international revisit days is the fact that they must be scheduled way earlier than the March 10th acceptance/rejection letters are sent out. Meaning, how am I supposed the schedule the things if I don't even know if I'm in or not? On one hand, I don't want to be presumptuous of my acceptance and end up wasting money canceling flights or whatnot; but on the other hand, I don't want to have to plan a trip, book a plane and then come March 10th, realize that I've been rejected (bad thoughts, bad thoughts!!).</p>
<p>westcoast - Close, but no cigar. East Asian FTW!</p>
<p>Grejuni - I think you misunderstood my situation - I haven't even visited schools yet, let alone revisited to gain new perspectives.</p>
<p>Alex-
You haven't visited the schools at all? Hmmm. Well, do you think you'll be happy where ever you go? I don't think my daughter would have been unhappy at any of the schools if we had chosen by throwing a dart at a board instead of visiting them. They were all great schools.</p>
<p>You are certainly in a different position than many of the applicants here on CC, but my daughter may find herself in your situation in a couple years if she ends of applying to a World College for Junior and Senior year. Then you don't even know what campus you will attend until you are accepted. There is no way we could visit in advance. There is more hope and faith required in such a situation, but no reason to think that it won't work out.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>I haven't visited any of the campuses, and may be unable to visit during revisit days if accepted, as I am an international applicant. I think I could be happy at any school though.</p>