visiting schools before deciding which to attend

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

<p>Hi All.
I need help and advice! We came pretty late to the game with the auditioned college programs so hadn't thought to visit any ahead of time. The more I've thought about it, the more I'm convinced he has to visit before deciding... It is a four year commitment after all.
Money is a factor as well so we thought we could visit the school(s) S gets accepted to as a part of his decision making process. What I didn't realize is how short of a time frame we have to work with, and how very expensive last minute airfare is. At this point, we have three schools left to hear from. I'm thinking we can do an east coast tour and visit each school if he gets admitted. As far as I can tell, we will know by this weekend on all of them. (CCPA, Northwestern, CMU) I'm not sure how much the airfare will increase between now and Sunday though. When I checked a few weeks later and earlier, it had doubled. It might be less expensive for us to just book the tour and if we end up in a city with a college he didn't get accepted to.. take in a show? He only applied to a handful of schools, so there aren't that many to consider really. </p>

<p>thoughts, comments, suggestions...</p>

2

<p>Where are you coming from? </p>

3

<p>As long as you are booking 14 days out, the airfare <em>should</em> remain relatively stable. 21 days is even better, but you may not have that luxury. </p>

4

<p>If you book on Southwest, there is no penalty to cancel or change your flights. But – their cheapest fares tend to be gone if you’re booking late.</p>

5

<p>@jkellynh17, we’re on the west coast, flying out of PDX </p>

6

<p>I think I would wait to hear from those schools, since you seem to be pretty sure you will hear soon. It probably won’t make that much difference in the price and could make a big difference in where you decide to go.
In the meantime, maybe concentrate on reviewing the schools he is accepted to and asking questions of people here on the boards? He is in at Arizona and Pace, correct? And waitlisted at Emerson? Those three schools are pretty different. And locations of Arizona, NYC and Boston. Then you are waiting on Chicago and Pittsburgh.<br>
Yeah, um, this is not going to be easy to plan.
You could also ask Arizona and Pace, where he is already accepted, if they have suggested times to visit. Could help to have that info now.
We’ve been to CMU, Emerson and Pace so I could help with general thoughts there.</p>

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<p>Thanks dramamom0804, I’d love to hear your perceptions on those schools. We have done/are doing some of that footwork and know about a campus visit day for Pace on April 12th that we can shoot for. </p>

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<p>Octaviar - we spent a day on campus at Univ of Arizona, and have also visited Emerson. Would be glad to share info.</p>

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<p>That would be great mountainhiker! Emerson is one I’m unsure of… being on the wl and all. I have no idea how many kids get in off the wait list there. </p>

10

<p>I know that flying to Chicago can vary greatly depending on the time of the flight so be sure to look at the differences. Sometimes flights become less expensive the closer to the day, they’d rather sell them cheaper than have to give them to stand-by passengers. I’d wait, there’s not enough time or energy to travel unnecessarily next month. Also, even if the difference is $500 for all the flights, that’s nothing compared to the cost of college!</p>

11

<p>You could probably fly to NYC with a stop-over on the way or back to Chicago. There are Bolt busses to Boston from NYC. Arizona would almost have to be a separate trip. I agree, though, that you should wait a few more days to firm up the list. You should know about CMU this weekend at least, maybe CCPA, too. NU is on the same day as all the Ivys (and Ivy competitors) late in March, maybe next week. </p>

12

<p>I don’t know if this is common, but although we visited D’s school twice (including tours) before she made her final choice I’ve gradually realized how many important aspects of the school we didn’t see before she started. </p>

<p>For example, there’s a 1000+ seat theatre we never saw (which as a junior D has already performed in several times), not to mention several ~300+ seat spaces we were totally unaware of. We had NO idea how very many theaters were scattered throughout the campus (after 3 years I still can’t begin to list them all). Also - D thought she sat in on an MT class during one visit (she wasn’t very impressed) but later realized that NONE of the people she saw (including the professor) were even IN the MT certificate program. She also realized later, when surveying all the acting profs before deciding which she preferred for her 3 year cohort, how radically different their teaching styles were, so sitting in on any one session of one cohort would barely scratch the surface of the program.</p>

<p>I also found our Theatre tour guide on one trip a bit annoying, and the people in Admissions seemed arrogant, yet once she was admitted and enrolled our experience of the students and administration has been the extreme opposite of those impressions.</p>

<p>I noticed that the weather on a day we visited schools greatly impacted our impressions, yet once enrolled our theatre kids spend most of their time in studios, classrooms and theaters. There are constantly shows on campus (60+ per year) but the range of quality is vast beyond belief (many levels of student productions through main stage with huge variety of directors), so seeing a show during a visit would be fun but would not tell you much about the breadth of theatre that happens on campus.</p>

<p>Some schools put a lot of effort into marketing their programs during visits, while others (like D’s) don’t really put much effort into that. Even though it became her top choice (she decided to apply binding ED) the campus visits only showed the thin skin of a huge juicy onion. </p>

<p>Her third year on campus has brought a whole new appreciation for the depth and breadth of contacts the school offers that D had no awareness of even last year. It is absolutely amazing, and may become the most valuable aspect of the school for some people, yet none of that was visible on a tour.</p>

<p>Fortunately the surprises after-the-fact in her case have been happy ones, and maybe we are exceptionally bad at visiting schools, but I want to caution folks that while visiting schools is great, don’t think you are in any sense an expert on a school after spending a day or two on campus, and if you can’t visit realize you can learn much through other forms of research.</p>

13

<p>I appreciate your perspective mom cares, and I’m sure after three years… what you notice and don’t is different. However, all institutions have a personality and reading online can only go so far in helping to determine if it’s a “fit” with someone. It would be a little like not bothering to meet someone face to face before committing to a four year relationship.<br>
I’d rather meet face to face, ask lots of questions before hand, of others who have been in or almost in relationship with these schools, go in eyes wide open, then close them a little to the defects later. </p>

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<p>I am a huge fan of visiting schools, and am a firm believer in intuition, but just wanted to point out that having spent a day during a visit might not make someone the best source of info on the relative merits of a school. Just as eyewitnesses to crimes are generally found to be less accurate than expert witnesses. ;)</p>

<p>Good luck on your exciting upcoming visits and choices!!</p>

15

<p>This all sounds like good advice. Maybe one other part of the equation is how much the school wants your child to be one of their students. This often translates into financial offers, but there are other, subtler signs that show if a school is REALLY interested to work with your kid and do everything to make his or her dream a reality. This potential personal connection between teacher and student can probably better be assessed if there are face-to-face meetings.</p>

16

<p>We visited CMU, Emerson and Pace. CMU, of course, is an awesome program and if your S gets in there neither of you may care much about what it is like. But my husband went there for engineering and I visited a lot so I know the area pretty well. It is a nice small campus in Pittsburgh. It does have a central green area to hand out on. Pittsburgh is a really nice city, big enough to have lots going on and small enough to not be too crazy. The campus is off Forbes ave which has all the beautiful old mansions on it. One of the mansions is a dorm called Mudge House where my husband lived for three years. The campus is close to a neat little area called Shadyside with good restaurants and shops. CMU is a bit of an odd mix of students because you have the art students, the Mellon part of the CMU, and the engineering/science students, the Carnegie part of the CMU. But it seems to work fine! Our tour guide at CMU was a very handsome but friendly guy my D liked very much.</p>

<p>Emerson is in a great area of Boston. The campus is mixed into the surrounding neighborhood and right across from a big, beautiful park. The facilities at Emerson are top notch; really impressive. The dorms are really, really nice and very spacious for city living. If you like cities, you should find much to like on Emerson’s campus. Even though I was drooling over it all when we visited, my D decided not to apply because they do have more gen eds in the first two years than she wants. The tour guide at Emerson was a nice girl but she didn’t have all the answers my D was looking for either, and we didn’t get to meet any faculty on the tour.</p>

<p>Pace was actually our least favorite of the 4 New York City schools that we looked at. It does not have much of a campus feel. It is right next to a tunnel or bridge entryway and there is more traffic than in other areas of Manhattan. There is a very tiny park across the street, but other than that there are a lot of tall buildings very close together and it is a bit of a crowded city feeling. They were building a new facility when we visited so I can’t speak to that but I would guess if it is new it is pretty nice! However, you are smack in the middle of Manhattan, only a subway ride or a walk away from tons of awesome things to do so it may not matter too much to your S about what Pace’s campus looks like. Of these three though, Pace would be the one I would say is most important to see. It’s not a traditional looking campus, even for a city.</p>

17

<p>@taxiparent I agree. We are headed next week to visit a school that is rolling out the red carpet. They doubled her merit award (now its basically full tuition) they have scheduled two classes for her to participate in and they plan to take her to lunch. It’s nice to feel wanted :)</p>

18

<p>

D’s school would have failed that test miserably before admission, since they put approximately zero effort into wooing new students. I am amazed when I see schools where the department chair and current students devote a lot of time to recruiting an incoming class, since neither the profs or students at Ds school would have time for that. Keep in mind that sometimes the schools that devote the most effort to showing the love up front need to do that to attract a strong class, while other schools don’t.</p>

<p>That said, now that she’s enrolled she is receiving lots of amazing mentoring whenever and wherever she seeks it.</p>

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<p>Where is your child enrolled momcares?</p>

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<p>Northwestern. It’s a fantastic school, but as far as I can tell they don’t appear to devote much energy to marketing their Theatre program. And when I see what their faculty and students are busy doing instead, I guess I can can see why. ;)</p>