I agree with some comments above that students often reach the point of just saying “enough.” They’ve found a perfectly satisfactory (i.e., excellent) college they’ve been admitted to, so why fly off to another venue on the off-chance it will be better? That’s what happened when my son concluded “this will do” after doing an overnight on admitted students day at UChicago. He never did visit Carleton, even though they’d offered him a nice merit award. When we got home he said “maybe I should visit Carleton.” But he wasn’t adamant about it. So Chicago it was. Done. He did visit a couple of other colleges after being admitted (but not on admitted students day), including Williams, which he didn’t like – too small, too isolated, too preppy for his taste. He really needed a big city or big university.
We went to 3 and canceled another 3 after her decision was made. None had Freshman students available to chat. Rather they had very impressive UpperClassmen available for lunches or sitting on panels… Only one had “regular” classes available to sit in on. Others had various break out sessions on varying topics. I don’t think we learned anything about the school that wasn’t available on the website. Free tee shirt at 1 if you filled out a survey about the day. Compare that to shadowing a student for a couple of classes, having an overnight visit, eating in the actual cafeterias and not having a highly curated experience and your child will get a much better sense of what life will be like at a school IMHO.
As a funny aside - my daughter chatted with a Freshman on a regular college tour and asked her how she met her roommate, and the girl told her she met her roommate at Admitted Students Day…at a different university!
@mackinaw just so everyone knows, Carleton does not give merit awards.
@homerdog: Carleton offered my son a $10K national merit scholarship. Maybe Carleton doesn’t do that any more. I may be misremembering the exact amount. But it was significant.
@happy4u maybe one doesn’t learn more if they’ve already done their homework but they can pick up the vibe. Our S already knows he likes the bubble rural school and many of his schools are just that -but they have different feels and that’s what he will need to discern on a visit.
I appreciate the posts about kids finding their school after one or two revisits and hope that happens for us too. I’d be happy to cancel any travel plans that we do not need!
@mackinaw Carleton’s NMF scholarship is $2k and has been for the last three years at least. Maybe he got a grant as part of your financial aid package and it was need based.
These visits were invaluable for my daughter and myself. It was very clear to my daughter after speaking with faculty and department heads which school would fit her best. She ended up selecting a school which was equally academically challenging but less well known in our area.
We were lucky with our daughter in that we were able to visit every school she applied to. A couple of contenders were safeties in the event she didn’t get into her first choice. Luckily, she’s 4/4 for acceptances. We will go to the admitted students day for the top two picks, but really the only reason she wants to go to admitted day at the school in second place is because a friend is also going to the event. My husband was encouraging her to go to all admitted events and finally last night he told her that if she still felt strongly that choice #1 was right for her, she should just accept and be over it. Also, the fact that they husband and daughter went to the #1 choice school bookstore and picked up sweatshirts for the entire family probably made her choice pretty clear.
Good luck to all who are still weighing all their options. It’s a good problem to have.
@homerdog. I’m not talking about recent years. This was more than 15 years ago. I know that when he accepted at Chicago with a $750 (!!!) NMS award – a token that allowed Chicago to goose its “NMS stats” – Carleton’s offer was definitely aimed to attract him to attend. I’m not disagreeing with your description of recent practice at Carleton. We did not qualify for need-based financial aid, and did not request it on applications.
@mackinaw. Got it! I didn’t think anyone was still on CC when their kids were so far past college age!
Carleton has not given any merit except the $2K NMF for at least 10 years.
@homerdog There are definitely some other old-timers on this board. I recognize their names. In a couple of cases even from other discussion boards, such as Princeton Review. My younger kid was most recently in college just 4-5 years ago, earning an MBA. I’m in the higher education business (professor), and have some knowledge of how things work at different levels of higher education.
I agree that twisting the family schedule and finances into knots in order to get to admitted student days may not be necessary when one can coordinate with Admissions to come up with something similar, at least in terms of the student experience of attending class, meeting with faculty, meals, events etc. However, what I, as a parent, could see on Admitted student days was the way the school portrayed itself and its values through panels etc., including the topic, the individuals asked to participate etc. And more practically speaking, there were usually “open house” hours to meet with financial aid, disability services, academic support, career services etc.
The general admitted student day wasn’t nearly as impactful the weekend (Friday and Saturday) where DS18 interviewed for his competitive scholarship. Meeting the other students interviewing as well as current participants in the program. When he left a dinner event that Friday night, he was certain that if he received the scholarship his decision was made. Not because of the financial package but rather the other students. He had found his tribe.
My daughter narrowed her choices down to three…and attended one accepted students weekend. Midway through the weekend she made her decision and asked us to cancel the other two trips. What sealed the deal? I don’t think it could be narrowed down to one specific thing…she felt an immediate connection to the students and to everything that the school had to offer. She attended several panels that were of interest to her, and concluded that it was time to pay the deposit.
I am sure she would have loved some of the other schools, but her decision was made…
@intparent: Carleton College DOES offer some other merit scholarships (other than the $2,000 National Merit), which are aimed at the generously-defined “middle-income” student. These scholarships are called the Fritch and the Strong scholarships. They are each worth $10,000/year for four years, with $4,500 of that $10,000 replacing what would otherwise be college-provided need-based aid. See the following link to the Carleton website page describing the Fritch and Strong scholarships:
https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/sfs/prospective/fritch/
Our junior-year Carleton student has been receiving a Fritch scholarship. It’s a simple online application for prospective students to fill out.
“Support and might not otherwise be able to afford Carleton”. So these two scholarships aren’t really just merit. You have to have some need as well.
Attending the Admitted Student Day was helpful for my daughter in making her choice. The activities for the day were largely focused on academic departments. She spent the day visiting the school where students typically do placements, attended a class and met with the chair of the department. By the end of the day, she was pretty sure that the school was the right place for her.