<p>Early on in the college application process, we toured many schools with our D. Some of them she has applied to, and the rest she applied to are schools that we have not visited (waiting to see if she gets accepted first). A few acceptances have come through now. So the question is if she already visited a school, should she attend the admitted student visit days? Is it necessary? We are definitely visiting the schools she was admitted to that she has not seen yet obviously. She only has so many days off from school and we really don't want to pull her out of school more than one or two days.</p>
<p>D is doing an extended visit at one school (so far) post admission. She visited the summer before junior year and toured etc. but classes weren’t in session. Now she is spending the night, attending 4 classes and meeting with an advisor. That way we can do a better cost/benefit analysis after all the FA offers come in. This is not a formal “admitted students” day, though.</p>
<p>You get a different feel on Admitted Students Days. My D knew from the time she was Junior that she wanted to attend her college. We had visited 3 times before- 2 Open Houses (one with me, one with H), and an informal visit with a friend. Even though, she had already sent her deposit, we still went to the Admitted Students Day, and are glad we did. It was held during her spring break.</p>
<p>We visited several schools during junior year and over the summer to get a feel for if he wanted to even apply to them or not (standard tours, info sessions, etc). After narrowing his list to 4 schools, he went back senior year and did overnights and attended classes for all the schools he was seriously considering, which were set up by the coaches. It gave him a chance not only to get to know the kids on the team (plus some other prospective recruits), but more importantly, he felt it gave him a more realistic perspective about what going to school there would really be like. He felt that info sessions and tours are fine, but every school can market itself to look great - actually hanging with the kids and attending class he felt gave him a far more accurate picture. The only problem was, he liked all the teams and all the schools (not totally surprising given he wouldn’t have even applied or gone back to visit if he didn’t already have a positive vibe) so he has yet to make a decision. But to answer your question, yes, I think spending extended time with actual students at admitted students days or official athletic visits, or whatever, is important if you have the opportunity to do so. Fortunately he had his list narrowed down enough he didn’t have to miss too many days of class and one visit was even over his fall break which worked out perfectly.</p>
<p>D just received an admitted students day invitation to the school where she is planning an extended visit. My take would be to skip the organized day and stick with our plan so she will attend more classes and get the real vibe without the special red carpet. On the down
side, she won’t get that group experience with other admitted students. Input?</p>
<p>My S is about to go to an admitted student day in 2 weeks. My D, who is now in college, went to an admitted student day at Boston U the April of her senior year and it gave her a much different perspective of the types of kids the college admitted, not just the ones that want to apply. Once she hung for a day with this group, she could clearly see that this school made sense as a fit. Of course the formal part of the day was helpful in learning about classes and the dorms and the cafeterias, but seeing the students was a bonus. The key is to narrow down the schools before you go to the admitted days … make sure you (parents) could be comfortable with any of the final 3 and then let your student make the final decision. Also, another bonus of the admitted student days is that you can also do last minute discussions in person on merit or financial aid, which can never hurt for a school that you and your student are very interested in attending.</p>