<p>This will be our first set of college visits, leaving today to see:</p>
<p>Fordham University</p>
<p>Also: </p>
<p>Bard
Vassar
Marist</p>
<p>To all seasoned parents and college visitors.......</p>
<p>What is the best thing you can do or ask in order to gain the most from your visit?</p>
<p>What is something you did that you wished you had not while you were there?</p>
<p>Anyone have info to share on these schools and tips for what to see/do while we are there?</p>
<p>How bout some suggestions for other schools that would meet my daughters wishes?</p>
<ol>
<li>A great English Department</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>artsy yet not too far out there climate</li>
</ol>
<p>3.The east coast ( near NY preferably)</p>
<ol>
<li> A+ GPA Very little EC's but photography and art a passion.</li>
</ol>
<p>5.need safety for current SAT 1240 ( but plans on improving hopefully to the 1300+ range with fall retake .....if this happens then we will need reach schools too.)</p>
<p>Some schools we were considering in addition to the ones above are:
Skidmore
My husband loves Washington and Lee ( she is not sure of moving that far South though)
NYU ( too much reach?)
Alfred University
SUNY Geneseo
Quinniapac University in Connecticut ( only because that is where her boyfriend is going.........hmmmmmmmmmm that one is tough)</p>
<p>Thanks for comments.....</p>
<p>I am really glad I found this site........as a mom of a daughter who is the first of our kids to go to college this has been a relief, a souce of entertainment and a wealth of helpful info for me.....Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Ask your student tour guide....and/or any students you get the chance to talk to.....to name 3 things they love about their school....and 3 that they hate. Sometimes they can't name 3 different things, but even 1 or 2 helps. You might hear about things you never thought of...</p>
<p>Know the basics of admissions beforehand - what I mean is, don't tie up the questioning asking about things you can/should learn ahead of time: things like SAT testing, if the school offers certain majors (you should know beforehand if a college has an engineering dept., for example). I think it's best to really listen to the official speech and follow up with questions that clarify/draw out what you've been told. </p>
<p>Beachy's questions are great. It's also interesting to ask a student tour guide what their other choices were (it can give you some ideas) or ask why they chose college "y" if you don't want to put them on the spot - they have a chance to give as much information as they feel comfortable divulging. </p>
<p>After one or two tours, you'll be the expert. Tell us what you learn.</p>
<p>As you leave each campus, have your D jot down notes about the visit, including a pros/cons list. After you've seen about 3 schools, you won't remember specifics of each - they all tend to blend together - then 2 months later you're struggling to remember who had the great suite housing....which campus seemed disjointed and hard to get around...who had the most/best shops/eateries within walking distance, etc.</p>
<p>Don't hog the admin people or name drop, it really annoys everyone</p>
<p>-avoid college tour burnout by scheduling too many school visits in a short period of time.
-check out the city/town by doing something your child likes. For us, we went to all-ages music venues. For you and your daughter, it may be visiting an art/photography museum in the city.
-agree with beachy about writing down notes about your visit</p>
<p>luliztee - there was a thread a little while back on just this topic - things to do on a college visit to get the most out of it. I tried searching for it just now and no luck.</p>
<p>Someone else remember the title and can link?</p>
<p>Based on your d's interest in writing and photography, she should definitely check out SUNY Purchase. (SUNY New Paltz was also "known" for its Art Department back in my day of college searching so they too may be a place to look). Try to get a copy of the SUNY Viewbook which gives info on each SUNY campus or check the SUNY.edu website. After 2 or 3 info sessions, most schools start to sound alike. With my kids, they usually decide whether they like a school within 3 minutes of being on campus. My gut feeling is that SUNY Purchase would be a good place to look. Good luck.</p>
<p>I would add to consider interviewing while you are there. See what the school says about interviews, ie., OPTIONAL, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, ETC. Schedule an interview if it fits your itinerary. We visited Washington and Lee just two weeks ago. I liked it, our son however did not. He had a terrible cold and I don't know how much that played into it. He was very tired. The school is beautiful. In fact, the Western part of Virginia is beautiful. Lots of green rolling hills and mountains. I got the feel that the Greek organizations were prevelant there. From what I understand, W&L is good with their merit money. Lexington is a beautiful small town, maybe too small if you want lots of night life and plenty of urban distractions. Something I didn't know was that Virginia Military Institute (VMI) was literally next door. That is a beautiful campus too. Have fun!</p>
<p>Pick up the campus newspaper at each school to read at your leisure. Some are great, some are awful, but almost all of them give you a feel for the day-to-day life on campus. Some highlights for us were an article on a potential huge tuition increase, a murder arrest (!) and a discussion of hiring more professors to bring down the student/faculty ratio. Plus all the announcements on campus rallies, meetings, concerts, etc. Seeing how many events were planned for the weekends was very important. </p>
<p>Lukester -- Ditto on the Virginia comment. S has visited (among others)VMI and James Madison. Loved VMI, hated JMU -- but overall really liked that part of the country area. I've never heard my 16-year old say scenery anywhere was "beautiful" before -- I almost ran off the road. So now we're digging up info on W&L and other schools in the area (Randolph-Macon, Hampden-Sydney, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Emory and Henry, etc.) To say that VMI is "literally next door" to W&L is STILL not descriptive enough. They're darn near on top of each other! The only two colleges I've ever seen that close together are Tulane/Loyola in New Orleans.</p>
<p>Pace yourself - unless you absolutely must, don't try visit more than one college per day. If you do two in one day, both will get short shrift and will blur together in your memory.</p>
<p>I made good use of the t-shirt test. I could judge D's interest in a school beyond what she actually said about it by whether she chose to buy a t-shirt in the bookstore. And if she INSISTED on a t-shirt and was willing to hike back all the way across campus to get it, then I knew we had a winner.</p>
<p>I would want to ask admissions if there are any students currently enrolled from my child's HS or from our city, and can s/d speak to them. I like to know about the retention rate, i.e. how percentage of freshman (especially AA students) actually graduate. What is the transfer rate and why students transfer out.</p>
<p>Since I am not big on party schools, I would have to ask about the alcohol/drug/greek hazing scene.</p>
<p>Consider Sarah Lawrence, Goucher.</p>
<p>Do your research at home, and make an appointment to see a prof in the department you're interested in. After a few of the standard campus tours, my son has decided that most of them are a waste of time. You can usually see the buildings and so forth by walking about yourself, and whether or not you get real answers to your questions depends a lot on the tour guide.</p>
<p>It's probably a matter of self-selection, but we have yet to meet one of these guides who knows anything about any science program on any campus, whether it has been an Ivy, LAC of any tier, or large university. (One didn't even know where the physics department was.)</p>
<p>Let your daughter ask some questions by herself without any parents around. She will get more honesty than if you are lurking about and the responder is concerned about pleasing you. (This is one of the corollaries to "Don't ask any question of your teenager that you really don't want to know the answer to." :) )</p>
<p>Regarding retention rates: find out what percentage of freshmen students return for sophomore year. This is a darn good indicator of how well the college is run and whether kids are happy and supported. A school with a frosh/soph retention rate of 90% or higher is a school you want to take a closer look at.</p>
<p>This thread has some great suggestions: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=33248%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=33248</a></p>
<p>You don't say how close to NY you want to be, but you may want to look at:</p>
<p>Connecticut College, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Colgate, Bucknell, Muhlenberg, Lafayette, Colgate, Oberlin, Juniata, Middlebury, and, the closest, Barnard. Some of these may be a reach, but comparable or easier than Vassar or Bard.</p>
<p>My suggestion: Forget the admissions interview (unless they say it's important or required) and schedule an interview with someone in the potential department your daughter will enter (e.g., the Dept Chair). The Department office can help you choose a person to talk to. This will help your daughter see if the department is one she wants to be in.</p>
<p>Think of it as YOUR DAUGHTER doing the interviewing ("Is this place good enough for ME?") and asking the questions SHE wants to know about.</p>