<p>We live overseas and will be in the USA in August Should my D try to schedule interviews then--probably before she will actually complete applications for Fall 2006 admissions? Or should we try to squeeze them in right before Christmas in Dec.--only other chance to come to the US? I think D will interview OK but this will probably not be the strongest element in her app--likely she will be better in her essays and recs which will come later. Advice? Thanks. We could do some overseas alum interviews but would like to show interest by (re-)visiting schools.</p>
<p>Son visited schools in June and then in August. He was at school for 5 weeks in July. He emailed everyone in the spring and set up meetings. I set up the plane reservations etc. He wasn't able to visit all the schools due to time and expense. I visited a few with him. The one he visited on his own turned out to be his pick. It worked out o.k. We found Xmas time to be so stressful with school (IB work) and applications that we didn't visit family in the states at that time. So the summer turned out to be the one and only time for him to see the schools. Besides, from my vantage point, Christmas time is too late to make decisions on where you will apply. Your interest needs to start now. Also one school wouldn't let him interview unless he filled out an application and turned it in; so he filled in the application and worked on it in a hotel room en route to the school. He enjoyed the interview and eventually got his acceptance letter. Whatever it takes!</p>
<p>Hi Pyewacket! I would definitely encourage summer visits and interviews. Our son made all of his visits at one time the summer before senior year. Because we knew it would be impractical to the point of impossible for him to go back for another look, he spent a lot of time preparing and once on campus devoted a full day to each college. Interviews were an important part of the process and he interviewed wherever interviews were available which turned out to be 8 out of the 14 schools that he visited. Appointments were made by e-mail prior to the trip.</p>
<p>Of the 8, 5 of the interviews were with adcom members, 3 with current students. Many of the adcom members were also alums. 2 were the top person in admissions. They were all gracious, friendly and encouraging people.</p>
<p>Ironically the school that my son ultimately chose was one that didnt offer interviews. Having said that I think the interviews were extremely positive experiences at least from my sons point of view. He felt that he was able to make a personal connection and he walked away feeling upbeat and enthusiastic about each school, even the schools that were technically his safeties. In addition to meeting the candidate, the interviewers also sell their college, which can help build confidence in the less selectives. He saw that people on involved with all the colleges even the non-elites were intelligent, engaged and accomplished and that ending up at a safety would not be a negative.</p>
<p>Once back home, he kept up an e-mail communication with several of his interviewers, including one of the directors of admissions. It was great to have a relationship with a real person on the inside. </p>
<p>Of the schools that offered interviews, Brown was the only one that wouldn't even talk about an interview before the application was received. We attempted to get around this policy so that our son could have an on campus interview but were not successful. Maybe if we'd tried harder something could have worked out, but since we knew that there were Brown alumni/ae interviewers in our city we decided not to pursue the on campus interview aggressively.</p>
<p>December is a very busy time for colleges. People are getting ready for their holidays, students and professors are involved in finals and the adcoms are crunching the ED/EA applications. Youll get a more relaxed environment in the summer.</p>