<p>I think it’s good advice to eat in the student eateries. One thing I was totally not expecting was that on a few campuses, we simply couldn’t find them. It wasn’t for lack of asking people. At one very large University, several different people directed us to a few rather small chain fast-food places in the student center. We were tired and hungry, and after the third or fourth person sent us that way, and when they didn’t even seem to understand what we were talking about when we said we wanted a student dining hall, not those fast food places, we gave up. This place was clearly not the student eatery; there were perhaps 20 people eating at the chain we selected, on a huge campus with many thousands of students. We spent most of the day on that campus and never did find the student eateries. This was not the only time we were frustrated by not being able to find where the students ate, and by the people we asked not seeming to understand when we asked for directions to one of the main student dining halls. </p>
<p>We visited over a dozen schools with my daughter. She kept a notebook where she gave each school a page and put the same information down for each school - stuff like number of students, how they do study abroad, is housing guaranteed,etc. (plus any interesting tidbits). Also write down something to help her remember each school (things like tour guide had red hair). It helped in two ways - kept her focused during the visits and helped to compare apples to apples when the time came to decide where to apply. She had fun with this - drawing the mascot for each school on the page.</p>
<p>We also had another rule - we would not discuss between us our impressions until we left the campus and had finished for the day. And yes visit the dining hall everywhere you can - for my daughter good food mattered!</p>
<p>@mathyone Perhaps they didn’t want you to get turned off by the fact that liver was on the menu that day ;)</p>
<p>Although in all seriousness, I’m not sure why you would have had trouble. Unless the buildings didn’t contain the name “Dining” or “Commons” I would think they would be easy to find on a campus map. Or search XYZ University Dining on a smartphone.</p>
<p>A lot of great tips here. Thanks.</p>
<p>Some schools have multiple satellite dining halls. Others have one central dining hall. The later tend to be easier to find. I find the dining structure says something about the campus culture and effects whether and how disparate campus groups interact.</p>
<p>At some of these schools we couldn’t find anything other than a few fast food outlets here and there. I have to believe there is some kind of large dining hall, but we didn’t always find it.</p>
<p>Regarding whether or not to sit in on a class - when my older son was visiting schools, he sat in on a class at a small school. Surprisingly, it became the reason he crossed that school along with all small schools off his list. (I am not saying small schools are bad - for him they weren’t a good fit.) Because the school was small, they only had 1 professor that taught courses specific to his major. He quickly realized that if he didn’t like the professor or the professor didn’t like him or in this particular case, he couldn’t understand the professor, etc. there was no other section/professor that he could take for those classes. If he hadn’t sat in on the class, he wouldn’t have realized how bad this person’s English was - not that they couldn’t have been a fabulous teacher, but my son had a VERY difficult time understanding him. </p>
<p>I tried to avoid “preview days” or “senior visit days” during my search, because I wanted to get a feel for the campus on a normal day, not a day they’re showing off for prospects. Some can put on a great preview day, but they can’t fake the everyday campus feel. One college friend told me, “I always eat in the cafeteria on Patriot Preview day, it’s best then!”</p>
<p>If eating in the dining hall is important to you (as it is to me), look up dining services online before you go. You’ll usually find menus and hours as well as locations.</p>
<p>We brought a drawstring bag to each campus visit. All the brochures, pamphlets, etc. went in the bag so we were hands free on the campus tour. We also went to the bookstore and bought a pocket folder with the university logo on it. Any papers received that day were put in the folders for later review. </p>
<p>If not said already, I suggest you bring good comfortable walking shoes and be ready to run. At one campus the guide ran the tour like the Tour de France, some of it while walking backwards and not missing a beat. I was tuckered out and a bit annoyed. The guy just kept walking (RACING AHEAD) even though many in our large group lagged behind.</p>
<p>Best tip? Wait until after son/daughter is admitted, then visit. Time before applying is better spent on studying and ECs. And you won’t risk having them cross off a school for some arbitrary reason, e.g., weather, food, the clothes worn by the tour guide. Numerous threads on CC discuss this well known phenomenon.</p>