<p>Now, I luckily came out on the great side of most of these unanswered questions... But we have numerous kids from other schools here at Kent that didn't ask the questions that I didn't think of and ended up in places that they hated...</p>
<p>Ask about the quality of life:
-Off campus Activities that don't require permission(Walking to town for ice cream and such) and Scheduled trips(Weekend stuff)
-Academic Scheduled Trips that extend beyond a weekend(MUN, Spring training for lax at Disney)
-Entertainment on Campus
-Most popular sport AND attendance levels of sporting events
-Do any of the sports carry a personality?(At Kent; Hockey players=Cocky, Soccer guys=Flirts ect.)
-What is the type of gossip
(Kent has a bunch of sports drama because the hockey players and crew rowers don't like each other and sometimes crew girls hook up with hockey guys and blah blah blah)
-What would my kid do with his/her advisory
-How big are advisories
-HOW BIG IS THE RIVALRY DAY?
-What is the biggest club on campus
-How is college guidance(DO they let you skip classes to see colleges? When do they visit? Do they offer a seminar course for juniors?)</p>
<p>We have two girls from Exeter and one from Hotchkiss that told me they left their schools because:
-Not enough school spirit for drama and her sport(Crew and Soccer) and liveliness in the student body(Hotchkiss)
-Not enough to do on the weekends, and not a happy environment for the majority of the kids. Too much stress and too much competitiveness(Exeter)
-Not enough freedom to pursue what you want to the degree that you want and way too much pressure to get into a college that the school wanted them to(Both)</p>
<p>All three left as Sophomores. IF they asked these questions... Maybe they would have gone to different schools. </p>
<p>SO, if those things aren't on the list of questions you have asked... Get to it.</p>
<p>I wonder if you’d really be able to get honest answers to some of those questions during the initial school visits. Maybe you can get more in depth at the spring revisit days?</p>
<p>I strongly suggest reading the official school handbooks for policies and procedures that may not be apparent in a glossy viewbook or video. These documents are very specific so you should walk away with a clear understanding of how the school manages its processes. Most are in .pdf form and can be found by doing a search on the school website.</p>
<p>For social aspects, I’d suggest viewing public groups devoted to the school on social network sites. After we eliminated some acceptances outright, my son and I browsed some facebook groups to get a feel of the “real” culture of our two remaining choices. This helped to confirm some of the things we saw during the school visits. It became very clear, very quickly, which was the better outcome. Currently, he is having the academic and social experience we hoped for, absolutely LOVES his school and so far, we have no regrets.</p>
<p>There’s virtually no way to accurately predict what a school really feels like TO YOU. Most of questions are qualitative and subjective - “one man’s favorite food is another man’s poison”. You should be able to easily get some ideas of the most important aspects of a school - how academically rigorous it is, how competitive the students are (based on its admission rate and other stats), what sports and extricurricular they offer, etc. Beyond that, let me say this (bluntly) - don’t be too picky. You join a BS in the first place to challenge yourself by stepping out of your comfort zone. Be resilient and “make it work”! Ask all the questions you can think of, but don’t expect the “personalized” answers that exactly apply to someone of your capability, personality and attitude. And mind you, you may be confused by opposite answers you get on this site and elsewhere. You are so lucky and it’s such a previlege to be able to attend an Exeter or a Hotchkiss. It’s certainly not for everyone but don’t give up so easily either. My 2c anyway. Feel free to ignore if it doesn’t make sense to you.</p>
<p>I think that you can really get a feel for the school if you ask the kid that is giving you a tour some tough questions that you don’t get prepped for. The first thing you are taught as an interviewer: BE HONEST. We don’t want kids to transfer out because they are unhappy. We like kids over achieving because they love it here.</p>