<p>Question: I’m a high school junior. Last week I visited a college, which is about an hour from home and which may be my first choice. I stayed in the dorm with a family acquaintance. She is a junior majoring in economics, which is a possible major for me, too. She took me on a [...]</p>
<p>Do the colleges “that favor the ‘holistic’ admission process” include top-level schools?</p>
<p>Brown is definitely included.</p>
<p>so if i don’t have enough money to visit my top/most selective colleges, will my chances be hurt? considering so many others would be visiting</p>
<p>I can see where interest would come in for matters such as yield protection but I don’t think you should look down on some students because they did not step foot on campus yet.</p>
<p>Visiting doesn’t help you at the HYPS places. Other schools like Tufts and Emory and stuff very curious about things like visiting, and it does help. Visit if you can, but if you cant, then why worry about it</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>No wonder I was rejected by Pton, I don’t get your logic at all. I’ll be worried if I can’t visit a school and I’ll find ways to visit. -.-</p>
<p>I didn’t visit any of the school I applied to, and was accepted to two Ivies (one HYP) and Northwestern. I don’t think it has much on an affect on admissions at this level of quality.</p>
<p>i don’t think it’s as much quality as size. most lac’s care if you’ve visited/showed interest. swarthmore definitely does. with such a small community, they want to make sure you’ll be a good, productive fit.</p>
<p>smallab - hate to burst your bubble, but I highly doubt you were rejected from Princeton because you didn’t do an official visit. I’m not sure their admit rate this year, but usually about 90% of applicants are rejected.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>There are actually schools who keep track of not only your visits but phone calls and e-mail contact as well! If it comes down to deciding between equally qualified candidates, the one with the green check marks (you get those for any sort of self-initiated contact) will be selected.
My D will be a Vocal Performance major at Cleveland Instituted of Music (CIM), and one would think that school visits would be necessary for performance majors, but that’s why this topic interests me. Believe it or not, I know of kids who were visiting schools just days before the May 1st deadline- touring performance and practice facilites, dorms, trying to arrange sample lessons with faculty members… Insanity! I certainly don’t want to argue, but rather, I’m curious; wouldn’t it be better to begin the investigation process earlier, narrow the list of schools actually applied to and be able to visit the places where one is intending to spend the next four years? I know I wouldn’t have been comfortable mailing a check to a school that we had no real first-hand knowledge of- never have been one to place a lot of faith in PR offices! Of course, once again, things may have been a bit different for us since my D is a performance major but this is how it went: D began to go to college music fairs as a 9th grader and the contacts made at those proved valuable when it came time to apply (schools send asst. admissions directors on the road!), we kept a file of materials picked up on those occasions, communications began to come in via e-mail from the schools (also filed), and then used Peterson’s Guides and the internet. We made a couple of visits in the fall of her junior year and also were able to work in sample lessons. Those visits were the most valuable tool in the whole process since schools were in session and had time to actually pay attention to prospective students! D ruled out one well-known school (with a great PR dept, by the way!) on the basis of that visit, which saved a lot of hassle. By the way, she did end up auditioning at one school that we had not visited before that weekend, and, from my point of view, attempting to access a college’s good and bad points on the basis of a weekend geared entirely towards impressing prospective students was not a good thing! It is an artificial reality and there is so much on the table that nothing gets done and important things get missed. Despite a couple of years of on-going communication with that school, and an ED acceptance (another weird thing with peformance majors- some school ends up as an ED choice simply because of logistics!), D chose another school! All of the advance research/legwork for 3 years made it possible for D to pare her list down to only 3 schools, although some of her clasmates applied to as many as 15 schools!
For those of you who applied to schools, were accepted and then made the visit, why did you choose to do it that way? In what way did the economy impact your decision regarding the visitation process? Would you do it this way again? It might be nice to compile this info for students entering into this process next year.</p>
<p>He was put on wait list where he didn’t visit. His 1st and 3rd choices. He wrote a two page letter and called the office… Once he said that his first choice was ASU he was accepted later that week!</p>
<p>A rep told him that NOT visiting campus hurt his chances BECAUSE they didn’t know if he was serious about matriculation/how bad he wanted to do. They didn’t know if he was visiting his other top choices… Only a “Commitment Concern”. </p>
<p>They would rather accept the kid that has had an ASU banner in his room, a sticker in his locker and about 10 Campus events(Campus Debates was something he wanted to attend, but never did)… Than some kid that has never had any interest until he realized he can’t get into Yale or something.</p>
<p>We visited Brown a short while back - for just this reason. My son saw no reason for visiting - he had attended “Summer at Brown” last summer and felt (rightly so) that he knew the campus, the surrounding area, and the programs very well. I insisted we go on an “official” visit - the whole routine - info session, tour… so that he would get his name officially on the admissions radar.<br>
We arrived, went to the info session, went on the tour (which was great) and they never asked him to sign anything, to fill out an interest card, or even verbally asked his name. So - we had a great day in Providence - but no extra “points”…
Wondering why the thought that “Brown is included” in schools that care to know you’ve visited. Didn’t seem that way to me the day we were there.</p>
<p>^ Yep. The same thing happened when I visited Brown but, sure enough, Level of Interest is up there on the College Board’s list of factors that are considered.</p>
<p>Hmmm… So does anyone have information as to how you express your “level of interest” at Brown or another school that doesn’t keep a record of visits (not sure if there are others - but I figure there must be)?</p>
<p>My son learned the hard way that when it comes to this college admissions game, honesty is not always the best policy. Last september I suggested he visit a certain small selective LAC in Colorado because I thought he could be a good match. They really were not yet on his radar screen but he agreed to go visit especially when he was able to combine the college visit with a visit to a good friend of his who was convalescing from a freak accident in a Denver rehab hospital. (We live about 7 hours away.) The college really impressed my son; so much so that he decided to apply Early Admission to them. His stats were all above or even well above their middle 50%. He had a well written creative common app essay, good rec’s, indepth ec’s…should have been a very good bet especially for EA. The big flaw in this application was that on the college specific portion of the common app where they asked why he wanted to attend he wrote that in all honesty he had not even heard of this school 3 months ago and that his visit, in part was motivated by an opportunity to visit his now wheelchair bound friend in the hospital nearby BUT, once he discovered this college and learned of their wonderfulness, etc, etc. he was sold and was now considering it one of his top three choices.
I questioned the wisdom of writing this but he was sure that his honesty would be appreciated more so than some BS response…this was one of those parent times when you really wish that you were wrong but know that you are unfortunately correct in your intuition.</p>
<p>The moral (or immoral) of the story is that flattery is important, and longer term flattery even more so. Of course we won’t know for sure, but I almost think that had he waited for Regular Decision and in the interim conversed more with an admissions counselor(s) he would have had better results. Like we told him, it is that college’s loss of a truly honest, creative individual. (He’s attending one of the other choices, btw)</p>
<p>I think colleges must need some indication of interest now, because so many kids are applying to 20+ schools, often without visiting. The students then visit whichever schools they got into, and then choose.</p>
<p>In the past, and not that long ago, students only applied to schools that they were truly interested in, after visiting and often interviewing, to really see if it was a fit, both ways.</p>
<p>With the common application, and Internet sites with virtual tours etc., and guidance offices recommending so many applications, things have changed quite a bit.</p>
<p>Figuring out “yield” potential must be a nightmare for colleges.</p>
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<p>Not visiting certainly doesn’t hurt candidates at all colleges, and admission officials do distinguish between candidates who live near campus and who could thus visit for next to nothing vs. those who live farther afield and for whom the travel could be costly. They also distinguish between students who clearly come from well-heeled backgrounds and those who don’t. </p>
<p>Note, too, that many colleges host programs throughout the country that even far-away students can attend. For students in remote areas, even these programs may be inaccessible, but some applicants who can’t get to campus can let the college come to them.</p>
<p>Basically, if you are poor or live far away and visiting would be difficult, the college you are applying to most likely knows this. If you can’t visit (which is important for showing “demonstrated interest”), then you should request information, an off-campus interview, and/or contact an admissions officer(s) by phone or e-mail. So long as you are showing as much interest as is reasonilbe/economically feasible, you should be in the clear in the “demonstrated interest” department.</p>
<p>An “under the radar” college visit is not going to hurt college acceptance chances. It just may not be recognized as a visit unless you make it very clear to the admissions office that you made the visit and your impression of it. You should also go on an official visit and tour if this is one of your first choice school and it is one of the those colleges where demonstrated interest is important. Most of those schools will tell that it is important.</p>
<p>For schools like Brown, demonstrated interest is not through visits and tours. Such schools often look for where the student will fit and benefit the college community. Making reference to that in the short essays can help. I know for transfer students, it is particularly important. You have to show that you know the college very well, and how you will be an asset to it upon acceptance. Referring specifically to courses and other things particular to the school is a sign of demonstrated interest.</p>