<p>Would it be better to visit during the open house at the end of March, or have an individual visit on a different date(probably the weekend of April 21st)? Any advantages/disadvantages? We will be flying in, and planning a two night stay.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I would recommend visiting Smith College during the Open House event because there will be discussions and events scheduled that will give you more information and greater insight into academics and life at Smith College. A visit during another time will allow you to just take a tour and sit in on an information session.</p>
<p>OOPS I had to delete my original post as I didn’t realize the Spring Preview was on a Saturday. </p>
<p>However, I still believe going to that program is preferable to others as there are many good presentations for both prospie and parent.</p>
<p>I would add, however, if you could come in a day earlier, it would be great to be able to see the campus on a school day and attend a class or two.</p>
<p>In any case, good luck and have a good visit!</p>
<p>While Open Campus can be a little bit of a cattle call (lots of families and students!), it does offer a number of advantages over a personal visit. There’s a student activities fair, when you get to meet the heads of the various student organizations all in one place; there’s the special panels for parents; as well as the various other events and programs. So it’s a little more “bang for your buck.” If you are trying to get an overall feel for what Smith could offer your daughter, that’s probably the best way to go. </p>
<p>If your daughter has very specific interests she’s looking to serve in college (specific academic wants, athletic program wants, etc.), then it might be better to visit individually, when you have more time and flexibility to tailor your program around her specific needs. For example, if she’s a student athlete and you want her to have a lot of time to talk to a coach and maybe spend time with the team, or if she’s a musician and you want to sit in on an orchestra rehearsal, or if she has particular academic interests and she wants to visit some classes, an individual visit makes that a lot easier.</p>
<p>We visited at a time convenient to our schedule and it turned out that very few other people were visiting at the same time. Our time in Admissions and the tour were very non-hectic and informative. Our D had arranged by e-mail to visit with the orchestra director and to take a ballet class. With respect to the former, he invited her to come back that evening and sit with her section during rehearsal. That made a deep and lasting impression about the college.</p>
<p>You can have the best of both worlds if you come a day early as Bossf51 suggests, if your schedule allows it. If you’re making the effort and expense to fly there, I think it’s worth your while.</p>
<p>I like the idea of flying in early to do an individual visit before the open house, thanks for that sugguestion! Thanks for the replies, they are appreciated!</p>
<p>As if we had some sense before hand, we spent a couple of hours at Smith after the Hahvahd information session & tour, much of the next morning & early afternoon, which was when D had an appointment with the orchestra director, went down to Mount Holyoke (unsuccessful plea of “Dad, you don’t have to park the car”), returned to Smith for dinner in NoHo and then orchestra rehearsal that night, ducking down to New Haven and thence to NYC the next morning. </p>
<p>When visiting NYC, D discovered that Columbia, while #1 on paper, really wasn’t for her. And that’s when things really started getting stirred about in the pot.</p>