Summer visits-- worthwhile? Information session?

Parents Forum
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<p>We're planning a trip east. Actually daughter wants to see a friend who moved east, and I said she could if we combined the trip with a few college visits. So I'm the one driving the train. I guess that is problem number 1. Besides doing what D should really be doing, because I sometimes go down a track I might regret. For example, I talked up Colgate a bit but now I am thinking about dropping it from the itinerary because it is a little hard to get to and because I think there is little chance of financial aid for a family in our situation (stable middle class).
Problem number 2 is that the itinerary gets pretty complicated with trying to juggle decent air fare with summer tour and information schedule. It is even more complicated when I consider flying non-rev (stand-by)-- requires more flexibility and something might have to fall out. It is not a huge problem is something falls out because there is no must-see school at the top of D's list (except possibly Yale). Heck, there isn't even a real list though she is a little interested in Yale and perhaps mildly curious about some others. I am afraid she won't even think about, say, Rochester or Lafayette if she doesn't see them.</p>

<p>That was a long intro to the questions in the title to this post. Are the information sessions worthwhile? Is anything lost if we do the tour only and save the information aspect for the local college fair in the fall? What are the pros and cons to just visiting the campus when no tour is offered? (My concern interest will be driven by appearance if we don't have contact with anyone from the university.)</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>NY Mom here! I'm assuming you are flying into NYC area and may not have a car- unless you plan to rent one while in NY.<br>
If that is the case, you can probably get to U Penn, Columbia, Yale, Vassar and a whole bunch of others by rail with not too much difficulty.
Schools like Colgate, Cornell, Rochester are much more of a pain to get to and at least a 5 hour drive from metro NY area.
Honestly- it's nice to see the schools and tour the campuses, but schools at that level really don't give that much of a hoot if you visit or not. They have WAY too many kids applying to make that a "major" factor in admittance. That may become more of a factor for a smaller LAC. Though Colgate and Rochester may take a "visit" into consideration. But even contact with Admissions via e-mail can help. Try to make this a nice family vacation and don't stress too much about college visits. If you can get 2 or three under you belt, think of it as a major success. If you want to give us a bit more detail, maybe someone can come up with a good "itinerary" to visit a few schools while you are on the east coast.</p>

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<p>D attended boarding sch, so she and I did a lot of summer touring whe she was a rising jr and a rising sr. </p>

<p>B/c of questions from clueless parents, the info sessions usually repeated info easily gleaned from the college web-site or from a tour. At one college (Union), the info session led to fortuitious meeting with the rep who read apps from D's sch, but otherwise, I found the sessions to be a waste of time.</p>

<p>I decided that it wasn't worth visiting a campus if D couldn't meet at least briefly w/ someone from admissions (b/c I wanted the adcoms to know that she was black and interested enough to make the trip). We also met wi/ the vball and track coaches and somethime w/ a prof in the math, engineering or art depts (D is interested in arch and engineering) - - b/c I though one-on-one w/ coach and/or profs was a better use of our limited time than the info sessions. (We didn't vist Cornell at all b/c D had attended track camp there for 2 summers.)</p>

<p>All of the schs we visited offered summer tours and, when D was a rising sr, sthey also offered interviewed (some date restrictions). In most cases, we made only one visit: tour, interview, and coach/prof. We made repeat visits to only 2 colleges:Hamilton, Trinity. In each case D had visited as jr and had to return for the interview. (D interviews VERY well, so she almost exclusively applied to only shcs w/ evaluative interviews.)</p>

<p>We attended info sessions at 3 shc: Hamilton (during jr visit), Trinity (jr visit) and Union (sr visit). </p>

<p>Don't know which Rochester shc you're considering, but I can tell you that URoch was well worth the trip. We flew up and back (Jet Blue) the same day b/c it was a long drive and not easily combined w/ another sch D was seriously considering. Anyway, she LOVED URoch - - easy trip home, beautiful small city and univ curric w/ LAC "feel."</p>

<p>Our college trips:
- Kenyon, Case, Oberlin
- Scripps, Harvey Mudd, CMC
- Conn College, Trinity, Smith
- Williams, Union, Hamilton </p>

<p>PM me if you want more detailed info. Good luck.</p>

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<p>I know it's really out of the way if you're going to New York (although only 2 hours drive if you're going to be in Boston), but I think Dartmouth is one of the most worthwhile places to do a summer visit, because students are actually there for the required summer term, so there will be classes going on, the dining halls are open, etc.</p>

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<p>URoch definitely considers "interest", and interviewing is a top priority for them (even if it's not required). The interview is evaluative. The adcom told us that the interview or a visit to campus could be a tipping point for a candidate on the margins. My d didn't visit before applying, but she did do the regional interview.</p>

<p>If you can interview on campus, I would strongly suggest visiting Rochester. It's a beautiful campus, and it's getting much tougher to get into. (For the second time in 2 years, despite accepting 15% fewer students, Rochester is overenrolled.) Once she visited after acceptance, d fell in love with it and is going there.</p>

<p>And it is pretty easy to fly in and out.</p>

<p>I did enjoy the info sessions, although if the schools are of the same "type" and size (small LAC, for example), they tended to get repetitive. If it's your first shot at visiting, I'd do some info sessions but you don't have to do all of them. I would do whatever tours are available. (Although after our big college swing, my d refused to go on a tour at the last school - "They have a library and dorms. Yippee.")</p>

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<p>Hi again- Jet Blue does fly into both Rochester and Syracuse. So if you are thinking about Rochester and Colgate, you probably could spend a few days upstate and maybe check out Cornell too. D is at Cornell, but U of R was definitely one of my kids top choices.
If you want to do a few days in the Philly area, you could check out U Penn, Haverford and Swathmore too. And out of Boston- you could throw in Brown, and maybe Yale. Check with mapquest- but those school visits may be doable if you have an extra 2 or three days to check out schools. Of course all this depends on your d's interest and where you are going to fly into.</p>

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<p>We also visited Rochester - do note that if your daughter is applying for merit scholarship there, an on-campus interview is required. Yale's info session is run by a student, there is no one from the admissions office even there, unless that's changed in the last two years. You can schedule an interview with a student, but I if I recall correctly, you need to be a senior in H.S. I think you can interview at Lafayette; they are likely to track interest. Lafayette, however, is a long way from Rochester! Most people who visit Lafayette visit Bucknell at the same time. (We visited neither.) Vassar is an easy train ride from NYC. They also track interest and we found the info session to be valuable.</p>

<p>Without some sort of list, it's hard to offer much directed advice.</p>

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<p>Just one correction to twinmom's post - an on-campus interview is not required at Rochester for merit scholarships. My d got one, but as noted above, interviewed at a regional session in Boston. I think it depends on how far you are from Rochester - since Boston's a 5-6 hour drive, they didn't expect all MA students to come out for interviews. If you're closer, then I think they do want to see you on campus.</p>

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<p>First, let me say that we found the campus visits to be invaluable. DD had to determine if colleges were the right "fit", and she was able to do this by going on the campus tours. In some cases we skipped the info sessions, and went on the tours; in other cases, we went to the info sessions and found them to be excellent - Stanford stands out as a school that had a really good info session. One of the schools that had the most promise (McGill), was ruled out by DD immediately after the tour - much to my chagrin. Another school that was not really on her radar scope (Middlebury) became one of her top choices after the campus tour.</p>

<p>We were able to visit five school in four days on a very long road trip (McGill, Middlebury, Yale, Brown and Harvard). We also went on a West Coast tour, where we visited Berkeley and Stanford.</p>

<p>BTW, Yale does conduct on-campus interviews - at least they did so last year. I highly recommend scheduling an interview during campus visits (if the school offers one).</p>

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<p>S also found info. sessions helpful and instrumental to final decision of where to attend. We made numerous summer visits and ome winter visit. We had been to final choice school 4-5 times before applying. Wherever we went, we seemed to end up there. Adcom certainly knew we were interested.</p>

<p>OTOH we didn't even visit #2 school, although S was admitted. If we had, he might have selected it. Since it was too much trouble to visit we figured it would also be a lot of trouble to attend.</p>

<p>FWIW, both kids "knew" their schools immediately. Just walking on campus seemed to be enough. For S, info. session sealed the deal. Neither liked tours, but that's just them.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the correction, Chevda. I assumed that they wanted an on-campus interview and did not realize that they offered regional ones which makes sense. Rochester was the first school that my kids interviewed with; one could say that it was their training ground for interviews! </p>

<p>We went to the info session and on the tour at every school that we visited. While some of the info sessions were definitely repetitive after a short while ("and we have 246 clubs!") many times an interesting piece of information caught the fancy of one of my kids.</p>

<p>They made a point to sit down with students at each and every cafeteria to chat and got a good sense of the schools that way as well. Additionally, at almost every school, they stopped someone and asked, "What is the best thing about x school? The worst?" </p>

<p>As for the tours, I am still trying to figure out how all those kids learned to walk backwards so well!</p>

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<p>Mom58, I have no problem with summer visits – especially if your child has the luxury of following up with an overnight after the acceptances come in. (Ours didn’t.)</p>

<p>We live overseas and summer was the one and only opportunity that our son had to visit colleges. He (We, actually since he hadn’t lived in the US for 10 years) decided to limit our choice to the North+Middle eastcoast plus selectives in the Midwest. He had certain broad criteria – interest in art – but other than that the purpose of the trip was to see a variety of schools across a range of selectivity.</p>

<p>We knew we had to make the visits “count” and thus planned a whole day at each school. The perceived favorites got the weekends. We took the tour, attended the information session and where available, our son interviewed on campus. We wandered around campus, saw the facilities that weren’t on the tour, ate in the dining hall, shopped in the town. At the time of the tour I hadn’t the slightest idea where my son would end up, but knowing that I wouldn’t be able to visit often made it necessary for me to get a good impression as well.</p>

<p>We found the information sessions extremely valuable, not so much for the “information” per se but for what the presentations showed you about the culture and character of the individual schools. All of them featured students as well as admissions officers (many of whom were alumni) and it was a good opportunity to hear how the kids viewed their colleges. Same for the tours and interviews. It was not so much what they said but how they said it.</p>

<p>

This was overwhelmingly true for my son. The school that he ultimately chose wasn’t even on the original list! The schools that appeared to be number one from afar fell of the list all together.</p>

<p>You mention that you are middle class and that financial aid will be important to you but then go on to say that Yale’s a definite on your daughter’s list. Since Yale doesn’t offer merit aid you want to be careful here. If you think that you would be eligible for NEED based aid, then all of the selective colleges offer it – the amount and type of aid may vary, however.</p>

<p>I definitely agree that safeties/less selectives need to be visited, more so in fact than the tiptop ultra-selectives. I mean, most people fall in love with Yale. You need to visit Hamilton (just for example) to get a feel for the place and what it offers. </p>

<p>Many of the very good schools in the Northeast are in “you can’t get there from here” places, so driving is part of the equation. You can often center yourself in one area and may daytrips to the individual colleges. </p>

<p>These are the schools that we visited: University of Michigan, Kenyon, Swarthmore, Haverford, Yale, Conn College, Wesleyan, Trinity, Amherst, Williams, Skidmore, Hamilton, Tufts, Brown. Sure he could have added another 10-12, but with this list and with indepth visits it was easy for him to choose 8 with a good range of selectivity.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone.</p>

<p>D won't be doing any interviews because she is just entering her junior year.</p>

<p>I don't think we will schedule any appointments because D's level of interest is not enough to make it worthwhile. But I do think she would be interested in oppotunities in the orchestra for non-music majors. For now it is probably best to hold those questions for when she has her own list.</p>

<p>I appreciate the comments about U Rochester. We're committed because I told my uncle who lives nearby that we'd be there.</p>

<p>Colgate-- I'm thinking the student-guided tour might be worthwhile to get a feel for what social options there are besides "partying".</p>

<p>Yale--the finaid web page shows they give some need-based to students with families at our income level. Maybe it is families with more than one child in college. If D has a strong interest after a visit, I won't discourage an application. We'll just see where the finaid chips fall.</p>

<p>Boston is mostly for sightseeing. I think we will not plan on attending information sessions unless something intrigues D.</p>

<p>I was planning to travel by train where possible, but I might rethink that to get greater flexibility.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

14

<p>From Rochester's website (from the College of Arts & Sciences, not Eastman):</p>

<p>
[quote]
The Music Department's seven faculty-directed ensembles are regularly scheduled 1-credit classes, open by audition to all students in the College. Those interested in participating in small chamber-music groups can meet with Prof. Harman and register for the 1-credit course MUR 155 Chamber Ensembles.</p>

<p>Student-directed groups abound on campus, as well. Two a cappella groups are currently affiliated with the College Music Department, although participation in them does not earn collegiate credit. There are many more vocal and instrumental groups operating independently, some having been in existence for several years, others forming rather spontaneously from a number of students with a common interest.
<a href="emphasis%20added">/quote</a></p>

<p>So there are opportunities there for non-conservatory and non-music majors.</p>

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<p>I agree with what previous posters have said, but I'm not so wild about summer visits. I think it's very hard to pick up the vibe of a place when the students aren't there, when bulletin boards have been stripped of hundreds of flyers, etc. Yes, you can get clues about a school's culture by observing the tour guides and other kids who are there for the summer, and glean attitudes from the information sessions, but it's much harder. There are a couple of schools I wish we had visited during the school year instead of during the summer, because I think my daughter would have liked them better with the kids there. But of course the problem remains: so many schools, so little time!</p>

<p>Also, regarding financial aid: Two things that I found out, via this board and my own experiences: 1) It is very hard to predict what any given college will give you in financial aid until your kid has been accepted 2) Chances are, the aid will be MUCH less than you hope for. Just a heads-up!</p>

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<p>I want to echo some of the other postings about how valuable the information sessions can be. The ones that are the most valuable are when one of the senior members of the admissions staff hosts the session. This is especially true at the LAC where either the Dean, Director or Assistant Dean will host if you are lucky.</p>

<p>We would generally walk a away with a good feeling for what was important for the schools based upon what they emphasized during the session. This was a good balance to what you get to hear and see on the tours.</p>

<p>The tours were definitely helpful for our D in making some of the web information and other secondary sources "real" for her. There is no substitute for how the schools "feel" to your child.</p>

<p>I agree that summer is not the ideal time for a campus visit since the students aren't around, but that can be addressed with weekend or overnight visits. The summer visits can be used to create a short list of candidates for follow up visits.</p>

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<p>Yep. At the LAC I go to, quite often one of the higher-ups in the Admissions office will give the info session. Of course, the way that it works here, the info session is a 15-minute talk before the tour starts. I think I've memorized what the admissions folks tell the tour groups... But it's a good chance for people to get their admissions-related questions out of the way so the tour can focus on the school itself.</p>

<p>However, one thing that I've definitely noticed about summer visits is that most campuses are relatively dead over the summer. That's why I generally tell my summer groups to visit again during the school year, because in my opinion the students and student life should be one of the major factors in a school decision. Not much point in going to the best school on paper if you're gonna be absolutely miserable there.</p>