<p>Hello!
I'm looking at Miami University and I was wondering which session would be more beneficial to someone trying to decide on a college: a scheduled visit or an open house? I've never been to either of these things for any school, so I'm not sure what exactly they entail and what the differences are. Thank you!</p>
<p>It depends.</p>
<p>If at a visit you get an actual interview, then I think a visit can be very useful. However, if all a visit gets you is a presentation with a bunch of other potential students and a tour, then not so much. Generally, I think, LACs tend to offer the more personal visits, larger universities the less personal ones - that’s been our experience, anyway, though I am sure there are exceptions.</p>
<p>There are also open houses and open houses. We went to two - one at a major research university that was a farce, the other at a smaller, LAC-like university that was enormously useful.</p>
<p>So I guess the answer is, it depends.</p>
<p>We have been to the Miami University Open House before and it includes an info/presentation session from Admissions Reps and includes a walking tour with a student. They also provide plenty of time to interact with both Admissions and students prior to the presentation. The primary difference between their open house and a scheduled visit is size, the open house is much larger but has more faculty and students available.</p>
<p>In general, we have preferred scheduled visits over the open houses due to the large number of students that attend them. We preferred smaller sessions. Good luck to you</p>
<p>I suggest you print out the list of events for the school’s Open House. Many college’s Open House days are not much more than a glorified information session and tour - but with a ton more people in attendance. But a few school’s do have Open Houses where you get a chance to sit in on classes, meet professors etc. </p>
<p>I agree with BobbyCT above --with only a couple of exceptions (for schools that have exceptionally good programs for their Open House) I have found that I get more from a regular information session and tour because it is much less crowded, more relaxed, there is more time to ask questions etc. Good luck.</p>