We visited UC San Diego on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving a few years ago. There was plenty going on. It might be different at a small college but I wouldn’t think twice about a big university.
UBC has been sending me emails telling me to come visit during “American Thanksgiving.” So, there’s your exception: international schools.
Now that i think on it, I wish we’d skipped Emory at Oxford that day. We self toured and EVERYONE was gone. It didn’t make a good impression on D and I’d hoped it would.
I’ll share my experience. My D looked at a college last year. She did the info session, tour etc. Loved it. Beautiful campus too. We went back over Christmas break to do a walk through with Dad. Suddenly the charm disappeared with an almost empty campus and interest waned…much to my dismay as it was close to home and had a really good chance of merit money.
Just our experience so take with a grain of salt!
We’ve had two weekday morning tours at colleges, which might as well have occurred on a holiday since there were hardly any students around. Apparently most of the students were still asleep and had late classes!
If there’s no other opportunity to visit the college, it’s better than nothing, but most likely there won’t be a formal program available from the admissions office for prospective students, guided campus tours, or the availability of classes for prospective students to sit-in on the day before Thanksgiving.
Our D and I visited one college during their college break, and while they had a formal admission program, a chance to meet the Director of Admissions, and a student-led campus tour, it wasn’t the same as visiting the campus, including classes, dorms, and dining halls, while classes were going on.
My daughter is a Freshman at Laramie and is loving it. Our first visit was in the spring of her Junior year. We didn’t do an official visit at that time. A girl from our town met us and gave us an informal, but informational tour.
Ok Everyone. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and respective experiences. As mentioned prior, we do actually have a real guided tour scheduled, and classes will be in session. However, after your thinking about input I will reschedule. I would need to drive 2 hours each way out of the way from sister’s house, and risk a dead vibe. My son wants to check out the students and the vibe, not buildings. He wants to go to a happening type place. I will try again in January when they get back from Winter Break. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Our DS visited Boston College over the summer when he was in high school. There was no one around. He loved the school - will graduate from BC in May. Sometimes you just get a vibe – good or bad. Best of luck.
We went to tours on a mix of weekends and holidays, in the summer, winter and fall, since that was what we could all do. A few schools were ruled out on that basis, and a few got the thumbs up. After DS was admitted to schools, he re-visited a couple and quickly made a decision. BTW, his school does have classes on Wednesday and students do attend. So, for some schools, it might be a good day to get the vibe! (i.e., students stick around for class on Wednesday before Thanksgiving).
However, for me, the holiday traffic on Wednesday would be a very compelling reason to reschedule.
I think we even saw some colleges on Dec 23 in the past. I would take advantage of the opportunity if that’s what you have (Thanksgiving Eve). You may have more time with Admissions and a better chance to see things up close than wandering from building to building in a large group. If you’ve seen one student, you’ve seen them all.