<p>Hi I'm a rising senior from Chicago and I'm trying to plan college visits this summer. I'm definitely interested in USC, but my parents and I are trying to decide if we want to fly all the way out to LA for the MeetUSC program they have outlined on their website. Is the financial aid presentation helpful? Are the tours on campus good? I'd appreciate any feedback about your personal experiences with on-campus programs! Thanks!</p>
<p>I'm new to College Confidential, so not sure how this forum exactly works. Do I get notified every time someone responds? Or do i just have to check in periodically?</p>
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<p>As far as the visit, for our family it was worth it…but we live about an hour and a half away. Although D had been on campus overnight as part of the Catalina Sciencce program, the tour and information sessions were very helpful to her. Your experience may be different. Some students don’t tour campuses until they are admitted. Keep in mind that can make for a busy April–especially if you have other commitments (EC’s, etc).</p>
<p>We did the MeetUSC program as a family a couple of years ago. The simple truth is that the info sessions, tours and financial aid presentations at most schools are pretty generic. There is virtually no information presented that you can’t find on the web sites. I will say that the breakout session for your specific school of interest (in our case Marshall Business) was helpful and did a lot to answer specific questions my son had. </p>
<p>The real value of these sessions is getting a sense of the place and the school. You meet administrators, hear from students and get a feel for the campus. At the end of any of these visits it all comes down to: Can I see myself coming here, being happy and performing well? </p>
<p>Personally, you’re making a decision about where you want to spend the next four years of your life and where you’re going to commit to spending/borrowing some portion of $250,000. If it’s financially possible, I certainly think it’s valuable to visit a school before jumping into those decisions.</p>
<p>If you are majoring in the arts, I would make a trip during auditions. If not, USC puts on a nice regioal info session that will most likely visit Chicago this fall. As Vinceh said- the real value is in trying to see if you can actually visualize yourself on campus. </p>
<p>Side note- D (college Jr) attends a school in DC that she didnt have on her list but I suggested we visit since we would be visiting other schools - she ended up visiting in Oct and applied ED. S will attend USC next fall but originally thought he would go to NY - the visits do help in this regard.</p>
<p>We did the campus tour over spring break and it was highly helpful to all of us. As another poster mentioned, most of the campus highlights/admission info is available online. And after being on a few campus tours, they all start to sound the same. But what we came away with was a better feel for the campus, the surrounding area etc. and a sense of what it would be like to be a student there. We could not have gotten that simply from the online tour. However, the online tours are informative as well. </p>
<p>For S. the most helpful part of the tour was the last segment where smaller groups met with individual schools of interest. He met with the engineering school and there were only 6 of them in the group.</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t visit when school is not in session.</p>
<p>I would put off the campus visit until after you applied and were admitted. There is a chance of being invited to campus for an scholarship interview in Feb/March; which they will pay a portion of. Also, in April admitted students are invited to “explore USC” prior to comitting.</p>