With applications in (or about to be in) to a dozen schools, and a few happy results at EA schools that are not yet definitive first choices, I’m trying to strategize visits.
My initial thought was to have the kid visit any the EA schools that remain in contention in February or March, so that if there are any happy results from the RD round, the coast would be clearer to visit those schools before making a final decision.
However, in discussing this, I’m getting the sense that visiting the EA schools would not have the same meaning before knowing what all the options are, and that maybe it might make still sense to wait until April, and just choose from among the available options then. I hate to squeeze the decisionmaking into that short timeframe, but maybe it’s what really makes sense.
I’m curious what others have done or are planning to do under similar circumstances. What worked? What didn’t? Regrets?
(Part of me thinks maybe we should just have a nice family vacation in February – it might be our last opportunity for a while – and leave the deciding for later.)
It depends a lot on your child – his/her ability to keep an open mind, remember past visits, not put more weight on most recent visits etc. With my S we waited for all the decisions/merit awards to come out, went through the options, and then went to accepted students days/overnights at his top four choices. We were a bit lucky in that all of his final schools were drive-able and the dates worked out so we could go to all four.
We visited everywhere but some of the visits were quite awhile ago that just synced up with vacation plans. My son has a definite preference right now where he as been accepted and I would really like him to visit overnight but he wants to wait for admitted student weekend in April. I just don’t want to him get too attached and then visit in April and be ehhh and scrambling at the deadline. He is down to 3 contenders but they are far apart and would cost about $1000 each to visit for admitted student weekends so I don’t really want to do all 3 but better than making a a big mistake. He was able to eliminate some options through further research and by hanging out in the admitted student FB groups where he has found that he meshes much more with some than others.
So the admitted student groups – not JUST for kids who’ve committed? Also for kids who are still debating whether to commit? If so, I’m going to strongly encourage my kid to check them out more actively than I think he has.
The admitted student days are just what they say – days for students who have been admitted to the school to come for another look. While students who have already committed to a school are welcome to attend, the day is primarily meant for students who are still deciding between schools. Many of these days gave a more in-depth view of the school which might include things like (each school is different): a tour (often with more of an emphasis on freshman dorms and dining), a talk by the school president, a panel of teachers often by discipline (ex. business, engineering etc.), a panel of students to talk about campus life, a meal, and sometimes the ability to sit in on a class, and occasionally an overnight component.
We did not attend the accepted student day of every school my S was accepted into. After we had all the acceptances and merit offers in hand we selected the (affordable) schools that he was most interested in attending and went tot he accepted students day only at those institutions.
Some schools may have an early accepted student day for EA/rolling admits, but they are often in the spring after all of the acceptances have been sent out.
All of the schools that both of my kids applied to had these accepted students days, but your S can check to see if his group of schools will offer them.
This is pretty obvious, but I’d have your kid go through the mental exercise “if I magically get in to every school from which I’m still waiting to hear, which schools to which I’m already admitted would still be in contention?” Of course you may also want to fold in some “which EA schools do I want my kid to seriously consider because they’re liable to be a much better financial deal than their reach schools we’re still waiting to hear from?” I would be hesitant to go to the time and expense of visiting places that don’t clear one or both of those bars.
On the other hand, I’m a big believer in overnight visits to maximize a kid’s chances of getting an accurate read on whether or not a school is a good fit, and there’s only so many of them one can fit into the month of April. Most admitted students days have an overnight stay as an optional part of the package, but again, it’s hard to do too many in one month and some of the official admitted students days might even conflict with one another. You can probably look up when all of the admitted students’ days are (for both your EA and RD schools), and do a little game planning in advance.
And, of course, your kid doesn’t have to visit during admitted students’ days. They’re just nice because they can meet potential future class mates, and there will be some structured activities that help insure that the visit will be fun, interesting and informative.
My kid has visited and been admitted to a number of the schools on the OP’s EA list (since we bump into each other on school specific boards). I would suggest identifying the top 2-3 EA schools, based on perceived fit, merit aid, programs etc, and try to visit those before the RD come out. That way, the family knows what are the truly compelling EA schools which would stay on the list once RD comes out. I do think that trying to get around to 4-5 schools in April is likely to be too much, logistically and in terms of emotional energy, or at least it would be for my kid.
@porcupine98, admitted student days are a very good way to figure out if the school is truly a fit. 24 hours on campus is very revealing. Like @dcplanner, we went to the top 3 contenders once all results were in. We were all over the country – Chicago, Philadelphia, and LA. It was expensive, but worth it. Her #1 & #2 choices did not really shine during the visits, while her 3rd place option did, and she is now a happy junior there. It would have been tough to fit in another April visit, as she missed some school for all of them. Although I did offer her the chance at one other that is close to home.
One thing to do now is start trying to figure out the dates for accepted days at all his schools. Some overlap. Some schools have more than one set of days. A couple schools offered my unhooked D flight vouchers with her acceptance (school just pays back for that amount when you submit proof of the cost).
You may see a lot of overlapping dates. You could consider a couple of visits during spring break with overnights if his EA schools are in session.
@porcupine98 The admitted student FB groups seem to have a good percentage of uncommitted students. We can theoretically make all of the weekends if we need to but one school exceptionally far from home has theirs April 28-30 which would mean waiting until the last possible moment and making a decision mid-trip. I did go ahead and make hotel reservations for all 3 possibilities because they are all in very expensive cities and availability was already limited in some.
I think I’ve posted this elsewhere, but we did revisits to my student’s top three choices. We purposely avoided the accepted student days. Instead, we scheduled overnights and requested essentially the same thing at each school: overnight visit, sitting in on two classes (one “large” lecture and one small discussion based class in departments of interest), and practice with the ultimate frisbee team (a key consideration!). By default, these visits also included meals on campus and, by coincidence, all three ended up with an introduction to Greek life, since all three hosts were “Greek.” Sitting in on classes was particularly valuable, as the interaction with the professors during the visits turned out to be one of the two key differentiators in the decision process. Some of the accepted students days were on Saturdays, which would have made it impossible to do that.
All of my kids’ schools had accepted student days during the week, but you will need to check that out. We found that the schools all had the opportunity to sit on on classes during accepted visits, and had more other activities (panel discussions, special tours that were major related, and some ECs with meetings scheduled to include the prospective students). Most schools have some sessions for parents if they are along, too. We did plenty of pre-acceptance tours with classes, eating cafeterias, etc. After also going to accepted student days, I would encourage you to hit those where possible. There is more going on than on a normal visit. Of course if you can’t pull it off because of scheduling, then go at another time.
@Midwestmomofboys - That was my original thinking. Just … rethinking. I’ll see what the kid thinks when all the apps are finally in.
I’ve got all the admitted student days in the calendar for the acceptances, as well as a handful of the top RD contenders, but should probably plot out the whole set to see where there might be pain points in April, and decide from there.
My D visited her top 4 choices all in April (3 were a plane ride away, 1 was near home.) 2 were admitted student days, and one was a scholarship competition for those accepted EA. Due to the cost of April flights, we did not fly to the last RD college she was accepted to until April 29 (which was the one she selected), so she missed admitted student day but seeing the general student population as we toured the campus turned out to be a game changer for her.