<p>Does anyone have any information from any website or college as to some statistics on the impact of a student visit? Not for Ivies but for top 50 universities and LACs.
Whether it might be a tipping factor or something more?</p>
<p>I would think many schools would be favorably inclined to those who've spent the money and time to visit/learn but who knows. Especially for those from a geographical region that is underrepresented in the student body.</p>
<p>Sometimes you can find a list of factors that influence the adcomm's decision right on the college's website. I think that if you live within a reasonable distance, a visit to the campus is essential. If the college offers interviews, then it's essential. (My D's #1 and #2 choice schools require an interview if the prospective student visits campus). If you live more than 24 hours away, then a visit may not be as important to the adcomm. A phone call to an admissions counselor, however, might look great on the application.</p>
<p>I think if your child is serious about a school (and it's economically feasible for you), a campus visit is required.</p>
<p>Some schools have made it known through web pages and mailings that visits OR some other contact is noted. Some other contact could be defined as signing up for the mailing list, requesting an app/view book, emailing an admissions rep, calling or visiting.</p>
<p>DS (graduated in June) did not visit the majority of schools he was accepted to. He was however on all their mailing lists. He decided to visit after his acceptances and had narrowed his list even further. His lack of visits did not affect his accceptances. It did affect where he ultimately decided to attend.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>musictoad, I don't have any statistics but I think visits are beneficial in many ways.</p>
<p>First, visiting is the easiest way to demonstrate interest. Conversely, if you live nearby and don't visit, then you are clearly demonstrating lack of interest. </p>
<p>A lot of people would prefer to visit after acceptances come in. For LACs I think this is risky. These small colleges all have clearly defined "personalities" and part of the adcom's job is to admit kids who will fit in. A visit is the best way to ensure that you understand the culture.</p>
<p>It's also a lot easier to write those "Why College X" essays if you've been there.</p>
<p>Another advantage is that visiting can really help the applicant feel positively toward his/her safeties. Sometimes just seeing the campus and meeting like-minds can do a lot to make a kid feel at ease with what might otherwise be a less desireable. Of course the opposite may also be true, but better to find out sooner rather than later that a proposed safety isn't actually a good choice.</p>
<p>Lastly, many LACs interview on campus, either with members of the admissions office who are often recents graduates or with current students. Either way it's a great way to learn more about the school, score points for interest and make contacts for communication through the application process.</p>
<p>I'm so glad someone started this thread. I've been discussing with my mum whether it's worthwhile for me to visit Georgetown to show interest. I currently live in England and due to time/flight constrictions I would have to save and visit Georgetown or visit her new home in Ontario. I would be applying as a transfer student and am unsure if this will have any benefit to my admissions.</p>
<p>megtfs,</p>
<p>I don't think any university will hold it against you if you don't come and visit from England.</p>
<p>If the visit is important for YOU (to help you make the right decision), you should consider it. But you don't need to visit just to "demonstrate interest". (Demonstrating interest in your mom is at least as important ;)...)</p>
<p>I think schools understand that it is simply not realistic for all applicants to visit prior to filing an application. But as said above, a visit makes it easier for a student to craft a compelling "why do you want to go to our school" essay. </p>
<p>The visit is important to some schools and not at others. One school my son visited didn't even take the names of the people attending the information session or going on the tour. </p>
<p>I understand that some schools track the number of contacts a prospective applicant makes with the school (not just by visiting, but also by e-mail, letter, attending local information sessions, etc.). And some schools have stated that they don't do this. </p>
<p>The important thing is to know enough about the school and its offerings to include in your application a great essay on why you want to go to that school.</p>
<p>most of LAC will pay attention to visiting. If not possible make sure your child write email to admission councelor, introduce him/herself, ask few nice questions/ not the ones you could easily find on website/. If there is college fair nearby and your college is represented make sure your kid goes there and chats with adcom people, they also let you fill a interest form for future info. Many schools travel for interview purposes so you could find out if that particular school will be interviewing in your state at some time. Some adcom people travel to certain high schools so if your child has representative of that school coming make sure to go there.
Large universities will likely pay attention only to grades.
Visiting will help your child to figure out what is it exactly he/she looking for in many ways, from seeing type of students that go to this particular school to difficulty of traveling to food, availability of stores etc....</p>
<p>the importance of visiting for admissions depends on the school. Some, such as Stanford, say right on their website they don't track demonstrated interest. By contrast WUSTL states in its FAQ "When reviewing your application, we will look for signs of interest in Washington University. "</p>
<p>I agree that if you live nearby you absolutely need to visit a college. Several years ago, child #3 realized the night before the last day to visit that she had somehow forgotten to make an official visit to her #1 school. Careless of us, but to be honest, it just had not crossed our minds. Gosh, that poor third child!!! We are always on campus for sporting events and had officially visited the school for child #2. Child was in tears and I was having a big guilt moment. We finally decided that she could get away with the lack of a visit by incorporating her love of the school and our constantly being on campus into her essay. She wrote the greatest essay on a tradition that occurs during the football games and how she could not wait to be a part of it. To this day, we credit her acceptance on that essay, and yes, at her first football game, she participated in the tradition, calling us as the event was going on.</p>
<p>It is worth your while to visit a school of interest if you live nearby. Otherwise, I do not think it is essential. One can demonstrate interest in a school by joining mailing lists, attending info sessions, and the like. </p>
<p>After the student is accepted it makes sense to visit schools that are still on the list because that is where he will be spending the next four years. DD visited 3 of the schools to which she applied. Two were local and the other was in the same town where her grandparents live. We had visited numerous times and took an "official" college tour during one of the visits. The other schools were out of the area and we did not have time to visit due to unforeseen circumstances. We did attend the information sessions in our area over a two year period. DD emailed questions regularly, contacted professors in departments of interest to her, and made her knowledge of the school as well as her interest apparent in the essays. The schools were happy to offer her admission and a significant amount of financial aid as well.</p>
<p>Dogwood, as you learned from your daughter's essay, the college visit does NOT have to be official, in the sense of an information tour on a scheduled visiting day. If the campus offers on-campus interviews, then it is probably a good idea to arrange one. But it would be silly to sign up for a tour of a campus that is alrady familiar to the student because of attendance of other events on campus. Those sorts of visits can always be mentioned in an appropriate way on the application.</p>
<p>Another way of demonstrating interest is simply regular and frequent communication with the admissions office -- I'd say it would be a good idea to specificially contact the college early on to request to be added to the mailing list and to receive materials, and then emails or phone calls from time to time to ask appropriate questions. If the college assigns a specific admission counselor to the student or to the student's region, its also worthwhile to establish direct communication with the counselor. There is always some question or other not readily ascertainable from the web site or other materials that can be asked. The more specific the questions are to various college departments and offerings, the more it looks like genuine interest</p>
<p>Once you have a list of specific schools, you can look at their common data set, question C7, and find out how the institution rates the importance of the interview and demonstrated interest for their admissions process (the scale runs: very important, important, considered, not considered).</p>
<p>The general pattern is that LACs value demonstrated interest more than larger universities, and it's the schools in the middle range of selectivity that consider demonstrated interest the most, but there are many exceptions.</p>
<p>Here's another thread with many links to CDSs</p>