<p>My D1 attended a class in her intended major at a college she was considering. They read a specific news article for the class assignment that D had read for her own interest. Clearly some of the class had not done the reading. D thought the reading was too easy and the prof did not expect much from the students. She would probably have gotten good merit aid from this school, but dropped it from her list after that experience.</p>
<p>At every high school there are boring, and interesting teachers, one class is not representive of the whole even at the college level</p>
<p>Coming from a music major, I thought it was great insight seeing a wind ensemble rehearsal. It gave me an idea of the rehearsal process in college, how the director was, and the talent of the group.</p>
<p>It also gave me an extra boost to get through the last few months of my senior year because I knew what I be doing a few months.</p>
<p>Actually, for both my d’s it was useful. Remember: we are homeschoolers. For my older one, it was an eye-opener at one college to see the degree to which males absolutely dominated all discussions. It was one minor factor in her selecting a women’s college over #1 LAC. For my younger one, who had relatively poor SAT/ACT scores (and who worried a little about them), sat in on classes at her eventual choice where the scores would put her in the bottom 15% of the class. She came out knowing she could more than hold her own. (She did, graduating magna cum laude in three years, with “senior” award for best student in the department. Her GREs were even worse - and didn’t make a difference.)</p>
<p>Hunt - I agree with you. In comparing schools that are similar academically, I don’t think it makes much of a difference – there’s simply too much variation in the actual experience that students will get. My kids sat in classes at 2 colleges and that was pretty much the end of it. It didn’t provide useful info. The time was better spent walking around the student center, campus, reading the billboards, and getting the overall feel of the place.</p>
<p>Can provide useful info, as long as you remember that it might not be all that representative.</p>
<p>I agree that it can give an useful insight into the student body. eg are they rude people who all bring laptops to class, or are they engaged and attentive?</p>
<p>I think it can be useful, even for college ostensibly at the same level. Visiting just one class is probably a mistake, but visiting a couple can give you insights.</p>
<p>Do students seem to be actively engaged in class? If there’s a discussion, does it seem as if most students are actively participating? Does the prof stay a few minutes after class? Do students stay and ask questions?</p>
<p>Can you understand the prof? Of course, if you can, it doesn’t mean there aren’t other profs who are absolutely incomprehensible. But if you can’t understand the prof, it’s something you should investigate further.</p>
<p>My daughter also struck a “safety” from her list after an overnight and sitting in on classes. Because of her SAT scores and our need for financial aid, I had encouraged her to focus on safety schools where she might be able to attract merit aid. But she simply had the impression that the school would not be challenging enough for her. I think she went beyond using that information to rule out the single college – it was something of a wakeup call that, in her case, she was right to pursue a reach-heavy list. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that she didn’t have any safeties – it’s just that based on the small private college experience, she opted to rely on our in-state university system as her safety. She was guaranteed admission to several campuses based on her GPA and class standing. She never visited a single campus – though of course she had been on several at various times for different reasons – but I think we all simply understood that the campuses of the UC system are so large and diverse that there essentially something for everyone. </p>
<p>She also did apply to at least two private schools that were in the safety category, but they were mid-size to large colleges in urban areas. So the message she took back was a little more nuanced than, “this class is too easy” – it was more a realization that it was important to ensure that her college would have the kind of resources and overall environment that could provide stimulation and challenge. Presumably there will be smart students and challenging classes at every school – but it made sense to use to seek a school large enough where that cohort of students would be large enough to provide room for growth. </p>
<p>Obviously it is possible to draw the wrong conclusion from sitting in on a single class, but there really are differences in academic expectations in different contexts – so a visit may help answer the questions “will this school be too easy and lack challenge”, or - at the other end of the extreme, “if I manage to get accepted at Reach University, will I be able to hold my own and keep up with the demands”.</p>
<p>I don’t believe that my daughter sat in on classes at most of the colleges she visited, however. I think that once she was certain that she wanted to attend a mid-size to large university, the class visit thing became far less significant. </p>
<p>I can think of other reasons that a student might want to sit in on classes even at a very large university – but I’m not sure that students always avail themselves of the representative courses for their concerns.</p>
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<p>My daughter found class visits very helpful for this reason. For instance, she noticed that students at College A wore sweats and PJs to class, while students at College B tended to dress up for class. This factored into her decision… she realized that she preferred the more formal atmosphere over the ultra-casual one (was afraid she’d “let herself go” otherwise). Other students would find the sweats & PJs atmosphere more appealling… no worries about wearing the “right” brands and no pressure to get all dolled up every day. Without making some classroom visits, you might never get this information or even consider it as a factor in your decision. Obviously it’s not a huge factor, but just one more piece of info to help you find your best fit.</p>
<p>My D and I sat in on a lower division bio class on a school visit. The prof showed a documentary re nutrition. It wasn’t even what I would view as a great educational documentary, more like something I’ve seen on TLC. Most of the kids were on FB, too. My D came away thinking this school is just like high school but at least she felt comfortable knowing she could handle the college level material. </p>
<p>Who knows, maybe the prof didn’t feel like putting on a dog and pony show for a bunch of high schoolers and the rest of the classes are rigorous? Maybe, but we’ll never know. For the most part, it made the visit kind of fun, like playing “college.” I wish we had done it at on all of our visits. It’s just another tool in the toolbox, not the end all be all. Like tours, I don’t put much weight on whether the guide is engaging or not. I listen to what’s not said and I question the actual students. At two tours, the guides couldn’t answer which employers recruited there. At another school, the guide was a sixth year! Yet another one kept repeating the words budget cuts - this or that isn’t here because no money in the program. If you keep digging, typically you will find that your info will either confirm or negate the anecdotal info you gather on visits.</p>
<p>I’d say that if you go to a class and the professor is lecturing instead of leading a discussion, that tells you something right there. :)</p>
<p>S certainly found attending classes valuable. He was interested in the intellectual level of lectures and discussions, the degree to which students participated and the type of questions they asked.</p>
<p>I think you can get a very good idea of what classes might be like, if you sit in on some classes specific to your major at a school.</p>
<p>I sat in on some physics classes at a very large university (U of Washington), and absolutely hated it. 400 students in a class, looking at a professor on the video screen. I figured I’d have to teach myself the material, but luckily ended up in the engineering dept at a much smaller school. Far more pleasant and manageable experience.</p>
<p>I observed some entry level classes at my son’s school, CMU, that were very heavy on theoretical math. Always thought I was pretty good at math, but these classes were so fast paced and intense, they could have been instructing in Chinese for all I understood. I asked my son why he didn’t take any notes, and he said if he took the time to do so, he would miss something. That kind of instruction sure isn’t for everyone, and it would be good to know what one was getting into. Completely different experiences.</p>
<p>My child did find sitting in on classes very helpful. She was looking at the class, size, structure and also the interaction of the students with the professor and one another. This proved more useful than overnight visits for her. On her one overnight she felt it was very dependent upon the single person she was matched with. She classroom visits gave her a little more points of variance. </p>
<p>As said by others, it is just one point of measure, for some more telling than others.</p>
<p>Again, I have to say how useful sitting in on classes was for my children. The Facebook obsessed students my older son witnessed in the classes at one of the schools he visited was so alarming to him. What was astonishing to us was that this was in striking contrast to our impression of the school on our initial visit. The info session presented the school as intellectually challenging and engaging, the students as curious and passionate, and also, our tour guide was as interesting and engaging as you could ever want in a tour guide. </p>
<p>If my son had not sat in on these classes, he would not have gotten this perception of the student body. The professors were all nice and taught well. But the students had this apathetic, disengaged quality. Each school has its own culture and standards of what is acceptable, and somehow, this was acceptable. </p>
<p>I know that when I was in college, long before computers and iphones, I sat in the back of the room and did crossword puzzles because I was bored. I managed to do well in college, but I was bored and disengaged, as were many other students at the large state U. I attended. I did not have a choice in schools. But when students have choices, it is helpful to see the culture where they will be doing their learning and with whom they will share this experience.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the interesting responses. I still think that visiting classes is probably most useful in comparing types of schools, or schools with significant differences (i.e., large vs. small, co-ed vs. single sex, different places on the selectivity curve, etc.). It seems to me that more more similar the schools are to each other, the more risk there is that the differences in classes might be just luck of the draw and give you a misleading impression (i.e., people might be checking facebook if the prof is dull, or puts all his lecture notes online, etc.–while everybody is rapt for an exciting professor, or one who bases his tests on lectures more than on the reading).</p>
<p>D sat in on a math class and a humanities class on each visit. The contrasts between schools couldn’t have been more stark, especially in the humanities class. </p>
<p>At a top ivy, a fair number of students in the humanities class were all on facebook, totally ignoring the professor. As a full-pay parent, I was pretty taken aback. At another school, more of a math/science school, there were only 4 students in the humanities class, and she couldn’t understand why more people didn’t take it because the professor was great. Definitely a data point. At the school which she now attends, a 90 minute class seemed like 30 minutes and everyone was engaged. </p>
<p>I would say that visiting classes can be very useful.</p>
<p>Depends on the major. Sometimes it really IS comparing apples to apples. D observed the top level choir rehearsals at the colleges from her short list.</p>
<p>It was definitely instrumental in making the decision.</p>
<p>MORE than that, it got her excited about college.</p>
<p>I read this thread yesterday, and I think someone hit on what I was going to say, but in case not …</p>
<p>When ds visited a top LAC, I think sitting in on one class in particular was really helpful because it proved to him that he really could “hang with the big dogs.” It was a Latin class (his language), and they were studying some poem he’d read recently in his HS class. The professor asked a question about something relatively obscure, and ds was the only one to know the answer. All the kids were joking, “Hey, look at the big brain on the prospie!” He knew then that 1) he could handle the academics, and 2) he’d found his people. :D</p>
<p>You can probably learn much more about a college by watching the students in a class than watching the prof. The admissions office is probably smart enough to probably get visiting students to sign up for the more popular classes. However, by looking around the room and by seeing the engagement of the students, or lack of it, you may learn a great deal.</p>
<p>Some visitors to colleges report how all of the students at certain colleges look very unhappy. Of course that factor can be influenced by the weather and the timing of final exams.</p>
<p>For my D it was very useful to visit classes. Certainly more useful than a tour of the campus, and far more useful than the info sessions which were almost uniformly useless. On one campus she actually skipped the info session and tour in favor of attending classes. Does one really need to be told for the nth time that there is such a thing as inter-library loan, or that a certain tower was built hundreds of years ago and that a certain campus landmark confers good (or bad) luck?</p>
<p>She attended anywhere from 2-4 classes on each campus she visited. She tried to select the same type of class so as to compare across colleges. Yes, it was useful to see the quality of classroom instruction and atmosphere during class, but it was also informative to see the social interactions among students before and after class.</p>
<p>She dropped Brown from her list because there was a class she attended that had a lot of students in it, but none of the students seemed to be engaged, not even the professor. For a school like Brown with an open curriculum where nobody is forced to take a class, it was inexplicable why there should be a class (recommended by the admissions office as suitable for prospective students to attend) that was so dull.</p>