<p>I'm currently trying decide between the engineering programs at Madison and at Northwestern. I have already taken the general tour of the campus, but tomorrow I am going to an informational session on the engineering program at UW. I called the admissions office asking if there were any other suggestions they had for things to do while I'm there and they suggested sitting in on classes. I'm going there tomorrow with my parents. I can just walk into a class with my parents and listen? Also, I don't have to sit through the whole class do I?</p>
<p>Yeah, go ahead. I’d shoot for a big class so you don’t interrupt though. If you really need to sit in on a small one I’d see if you could somehow contact the professor…could be hard though.</p>
<p>When I visited the campus last spring I just got to the class a little early and took a seat (I had two friends with me), and we never even spoke to the prof. It was really interesting though! And I don’t believe he noticed us. 
Enjoy your trip!</p>
<p>If you are attending a class, then it is usually a courteous thing to send an email to the instructor a day or two before you attend the class or to arrive early and introduce yourself as a guest. If it is a large lecture in an auditorium, then I would think it is OK to just quietly take a seat in the back. My daughter and I attended several classes and never had a problem. Everyone was nice and we stayed afterwards and talked to a few. If you plan to attend, you should try to attend the entire class. I think the smaller classes that involve class discussion are more useful to attend and it is helpful to attend something where you have some background such as an AP class. Attending a class is a great way to get a feel for a school because it is a more random sample than a program put together by the admissions office.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think it has the potential to be useful, but I don’t think it’s a very good way of trying to determine what a school is like. Classes vary so much depending on the subject and instructor that you’d have attend a lot of them over the course of several weeks, not just once or twice, to get any kind representative picture. Even that would be questionable. As a senior, when I look back at the classes I’ve taken at Madison and at my previous school at Oshkosh they are so varied that I can’t imagine anyone really being able to draw many conclusions from attending a few random classes once or twice.</p>
<p>If you are basing a decision off of a college visit, a first impression is all you get. The class visit is more for observing the students to get a sense of fit rather than the professors. A discussion section will give you a better opportunity because the students are talking. Tour guides are hand picked by admissions and are samples of what the school wants you to see. Info sessions are marketing presentations. Students in classes are the ones who really go there.</p>