<p>Many of your kids seem to have done this, but we haven't. If you have, pls let me know how it went and if you think it was helpful in the admissions process. My kid has been invited by a prof in his first choice school to visit a class, so it is an offer we can't refuse although I doubt it ends up playing any factor at all in admissions. But others experience appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>we often found it helpful to contact the dept. my kids were interested in to ask if we could arrange to talk with someone and/or visit a class. often got much more helpful info than at the general info session.</p>
<p>i don’t know if any of the people my kids spoke with ever contacted admissions to put in a comment, but i do know that at the schools where my kids also had interviews, they found it helpful to be able to refer to such meetings – helped them describe what they liked about the school and also showed they really were interested.</p>
<p>i would caution – as a parent, the hardest part for me was trying to keep my mouth shut – it was for the student and we felt it was important that the student, not the parent, be the one asking the questions. the first couple were painful, but then my kid started to feel more comfortable and know what type of things to ask about. it actually worked out well with my oldest that the first such visit was at a school that turned out to fall off the list quickly – so the “practice” run was at a school we ended up not caring about.</p>
<p>As far as I remember PMKjr did not contact a professor. However, he did contact groups he was interested in, got on their email lists and the like. It gave him an interesting perspective that factored into his final decision.</p>
<p>Every college my D1 visited she attended a class in her intended major or, if that was impossible, met with someone from the department. Those classes and meetings played more of a part in her decision than any other factor. I think for those kids that have very strong specific interests, it is a GREAT thing to visit classes. She also enjoyed meeting the other students in the classes, and seeing if she felt she “fit” in with them. It is a totally different setting than an info session or arranged tour or interview.</p>
<p>Both my kids did this. But the reason to do it is not to get any sort of leg up in admissions. The reason to do it is to explore a college in depth and to go beyond a tour and general information session. A kid should WANT to do this! Then, when writing a “Why X College” essay, the student could refer to things he/she learned or found appealing in the meetings with certain professors (or others on campus) and the classes and so on. If the professor happens to put a word in with the admissions office, that is a nice plus but you may never know if that happened or not and it is not the main aim of this experience.</p>
<p>I cross posted with boiledegg…same idea!</p>
<p>My kids have met with a half dozen professors, but outcomes haven’t been completely positive. My D got “freaked out” when a prof put his arm around her shoulder and disgusted when he showed her his messy office. Two others were really dry, lacking any kind of enthusiasm. S got worried when a professor said, “We have a beautiful beach just across the bay, but if you’re a ______ major, you’ll never see it.”</p>
<p>D1 attended classes on quite a few campuses. Sometimes she chatted with the prof afterwards, sometimes not. We assumed this did not impact the admission decision in any way. What it did was give her an idea of what her fellow students in her major might be like (quality of student & classroom participation), and also the quality of the professors and their teaching materials. </p>
<p>She went to a class in her major at one relatively well ranked school. The class had been assigned to read a Newsweek article on the day’s topic, and she happened to have read the article. She found that several of the students hadn’t read the article, and the class discussion was quite shallow compared to what she expected and would have been prepared to participate in if she were in the class. She dumped that school off her list immediately. Without attending that class, she might very well have applied, and even enrolled.</p>
<p>My daughter attended classes at each college that she visited and found them extremely revealing. The classes offered a distinctive opportunity to assess “fit.” As one of the other posts said, my daughter cited the class visit that stood out–engaged students and an engaged professor–in the essayfor her first choice school. Based on my daughter’s experience, I would put the class visit on the “must do” list. After helping our daughter find the correct building and determining a meeting place/time, my husband and I hung out in libraries and book stores while she was in classes. She handled introducing herself to the professor and thanking him/her on her own.</p>
<p>Sitting in on classes and meeting with profs in her intended major has been very helpful to my D. I don’t know that it will be the deciding factor in her decision, but it has helped her quite a bit in being able to delineate and distinguish the different atmospheres, approaches, and philosophies ay the different schools.</p>
<p>I highly recommend directly contact profs in one’s area of interest via email and see if they would let you sit in. Skip the ‘sanctioned’ visitation session. In the past, I and several other profs were always the one that the visitors sat in on-- chosen for the topic/teaching style/type of student they think fits with their marketing. You’ll get a much more realistic picture doing it on your own. I also recommend trying to view a similar type of class across all the schools. Of course you can’t possibly understand a whole school on the basis of one class or one prof. (even small schools are not completely homogeneous and too many factors can explain a given experience). So I would also suggest taking it all with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>^^^Both my kids contacted profs in their intended areas and were able to sit in on classes. Profs often stayed around to talk afterwards. A couple sent S1 the class’s homework/readings!</p>
<p>Both crossed schools off their lists at least in part on the basis of these in-class visits. There were a couple of highly regarded schools where S2 felt the level of discussion was comparable to the level of the IB courses he was taking at the time – and these were soph/junior level courses at those colleges.</p>
<p>Short and simple… </p>
<p>My son attending a class - not even in his major- was absolutely his tipping point to choose the school he did. Just from sitting in the classroom and the other students asking him… where else he was thinking about applying, what did he think his major was going to be, etc… he got an opportunity to ask a ton of questions and they offered up half of the answers before he asked a question! I guess this kind of interaction also has a lot to do with the size of the school. The class he attended was not a huge intro lecture class, but a 25 person, met-the-core-requirement philosophy class or something like that.</p>
<p>I’ll chime in as well. D was all set to apply ED to a highly ranked LAC. I insisted that she sit in on a class before making the commitment. She was disappointed with the experience and decided not to apply ED, even though she loved everything else about the school. Fast forward to April afters acceptances were issued. D narrowed down her acceptances to 3 top LACs and sat in on classes, met with professors, and this ended up being the deciding factor for her. I agree with others that the motivation should not be to help the students get in, but rather to help the student decide if this is where they want to be.</p>
<p>It has been a very helpful experience so far for our son. His intended major is a small program at every school where he is applying. So attending class and talking to the professors has helped him to be sure that he could see himself in that program–before he applied.</p>
<p>As a high school senior applying for college, I feel that sitting in on a college class during a visit is a good idea. At one of the schools, I sat in on a required class, and at the other two, I sat in on classes that are part of my discipline. It was a good experience because it let me gauge a few things, and it was also great to talk to the students before class started. They can give some answers that the official reps would not want to give, and it is always great to hear a current student’s perspective.</p>
<p>As for your original question, I do not think that sitting in on a class would have a factor in admissions. However, it would great to see one more thing about the school.</p>
<p>That’s how od1 picked which school was her #1. She and the department head (small school, she would really have classes with him) clicked.</p>