Is there a big advantage going to the admitted student days vs. a regular tour day? My daughter will be deciding between St. Olaf, DU, and Marquette. I’m not sure whether it makes more sense to wait until April for their admitted student days (DU will be in early March) or go earlier so she has more time to think things over before the May 1st deadline. We have yet to visit any of these schools and it will be a 3 hour plane ride to get there, so she’ll only be able to see them once.
If the dates work out, I think you get much more information at Accepted Student Days than you do during a regular tour. And if things work out, you might meet your next roommate or group of friends. Some people say it gives them an idea of the type of people that will be their future classmates and that swayed them one way or another.
Also, you may not end up visiting all three. After our first Admitted Students Day, S23’s mind was made up and he asked us to cancel the other visits.
+1 for admitted students day. You don’t have to sit through info on application that is no longer relevant, you get more info, you often get to see buildings and dorms that you may not or only get a superficial look at on a regular tour, and you will have a better idea who your actual classmates might be. Plus, swag.
To me, get there - admitted student day or otherwise. What fits your schedule.
In some ways, admitted student days are good - you have other admits so you can make friends, but the school is doing a sales job. When we were at School of Mines, the Student Panel (which was excellent) noted they loved admitted student day because it was the one day the food was good - so the experience is polished, etc. They’re selling.
A regular day - you can walk the campus, stop kids, talk to them -so more raw, more authentic, in my opinion. But the student day will have things like faculty sessions -but you can make an appointment on your own within an area of interest.
Often, kids want to go to the admitted student day but there are conflicts time wise, etc. - so just get there - that’s the main thing - if you need a viewing of the campus. Eat in the dining hall, walk the surrounds, etc.
For us, admitted student days were very different affairs than a standard tour and at least for our kid made a big difference. One major advantage is that typically many key campus offices or departments have representatives available on panels or Q&A sessions. It facilitates opportunities to talk with housing, the registrar, financial aid, career services, international programs. Often there is a student organization fair as well. It is truly a deep dive in ways that a regular tour simply cannot match.
Admitted student days also typically give you the opportunity to interact with a large number of campus members and this means your perspective is less likely to be skewed by a singular bad tour or interaction.
If the logistics for an admitted student day don’t pan out, then I would try hard to add on a department tour in a prospective major and sitting in on a class. Those are the other two add-ons that have been valuable in our searches.
If there is only a chance for one visit, I would not go sooner on a regular day if it’s possible to tour later at an admitted student event.
FWIW, D26 and I attended a few open house events for prospective students. A couple of them were really crowded and actually didn’t help her to get a feel for the place. It all felt too big and too crowded with people being herded from one place to another. So for her, the current thinking is that she’ll try to do admitted students days at smaller colleges and then likely request a specific department visit (sit in on a class, etc.) at the larger schools. I’m not sure if it’ll work in the end, but the overcrowded campuses at the open houses were a definite negative.
That - and they’re often on Saturdays. You’re not getting a true feel in some cases.
At Penn State, it was great - however many were there - yelling - we are Penn State - but that’s not getting you a sense of the real day. It was nice though they had tours of the nearby accuweather or local meteorological facility.
These are absolute sales pitches - and while have some great things, for people that choose to go or not go because of that day are often simply falling for a one day thing with polished presenters. Some, of course, aren’t polished and the kid chooses not to go because of that - also sort of strange.
Make sure no matter when you go that you walk the surrounds of campus, not just campus and stop kids and adults on the quads. We learned so much at Emory, UGA, W&L, etc. by doing this. Make an appointment with a club lead or prof too.
There’s many ways to get a truer sense than the ultimate sales pitch.
S24 is at DU. We did a regular visit and admitted students day as well. The admitted students day at DU was helpful because he attended the department specific events, met students and faculty in his department. Also learned about support for accomodations and disabilities. I was also just not really sold on DU (mostly because it is not really on anyone’s radar in our circle) so I really wanted him to be sure.
You can certainly get all of that information from virtual sessions if the scheduling does not work out. (If you have any DU specific questions, feel free to reach out).
The crowding is a good point. At one of C26’s admits we had the option of the big flagship day with 5000 cap (including guests) vs smaller admitted student days with 550 cap (it’s a big college) and went for the latter. If OP has these kind of options also something to consider.
