<p>While I find tours to be a necessary evil (saves time, gets you into areas otherwise inaccessible, etc.) I find the info sessions to be incredibly valuable. At it’s best, it gives you the schools overriding philosophy (Dartmouth - languages and world citizen, Yale - peace on earth, gentleman/woman outlook, CMU - trade school from inception, Beloit - understands that they’re in Wisconsin [although 1 block from Illinois] so students really want to be there, etc.) at it’s worst, well, that tells you something right there (Grinnell comes to mind). My family would skip a tour before we’d skip an info session. I’m always surprised to find others don’t have the same experience. I’ll always champion attending info sessions!</p>
<p>I agree re info sessions. We loved to see what the school was highlighting- and also the student panels to see if they were D’s kind of people. (e.g. If they watched Jersey Shore she knew it was not a fit. ) Now all the schools are putting their best foot forward so if the school is a possibility, there is additional research needed still. I think at least half the time we ended up peeling off of the official tour and either leaving because the school was a “no go” or wanted to see something else. D basically wanted to see a representative dorm and a class room and then she was good as far as the tours went. YMMV</p>
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<p>I’ve now done tours and info sessions twice at some of the same colleges (three years apart), and while I think they can be useful, I have to say that they can differ wildly depending on who you get.
The first time, the info session at Harvard was dreadful, with two beaten-down dull students–the second time, it was one of the best, with two engaging and excited students.
At Brown, the first info session was great, with witty banter between a student and and old professor that gave some insights into how people at Brown look at themselves–the second time, it was a dull presentation of factoids by an admissions guy.
At Columbia, the first tour guide was a flamboyantly gay guy who was hip and funny–the second time, it was a nice sororiety girl who looked and dressed like Sarah Jessica Parker.</p>
<p>So take it all with a grain of salt.</p>
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<p>I think the time factor is a part of whether you want to go to an campus information session.</p>
<p>If your student has a major in mind, then spending an info session in the area of the intended major than doing a campus tour makes the most sense. Just that will take 2-3 hours. If the dept. is a dud, then you can just leave. It won’t matter how wonderful the school is. </p>
<p>Much of the info session is online and if it isn’t online then the school is missing out reaching students who may not be coming for a visit before applying.</p>
<p>“it gives you the schools overriding philosophy (Dartmouth - languages and world citizen, Yale - peace on earth, gentleman/woman outlook, CMU - trade school from inception,”</p>
<p>Do you really swallow their sales pitches? How do these generalities guide anybody’s (much less everybody’s) decisions and actions? While they are getting drunk at frat parties at Dartmouth, do they require everyone to speak French and drink German beer?</p>
<p>I think those philosophies trickle down in lots of ways-- even with some beer poured over. More so, a certain attitude is often evident, and that attitude can be “We’re a community of curious, thoughtful people,” or “We’re so great that we couldn’t care less about you,” or something subtler. Of course some presenters are better than others, but my experience with all kinds of institutions has been that a central attitude is evident throughout. </p>
<p>Also, I know a young woman who was signing up for classes, was denied…something… and pointed out that she’d been told in her info session that this would be available to her. She got what she wanted. So those ‘sales pitches’ can be worth listening to. But everyone has their own way of sensing these things of course.</p>
<p>
It’s all just one element in the college-shopping-data-gathering process. Just like some schools take a holistic approach to admissions, some students/families take a holistic approach to choosing schools.</p>
<p>School FaceBook sites are another source of data. On one (obviously private) college’s FB page, students were planning to go out for dinner together, and a girl was delighted that the cost another student quoted was <em>only</em> $40. If DD is admitted to this school, she will need to investigate whether this type of $pending is typical or an anomaly because she won’t have that type of money to burn and it is no fun to sit in a dorm while <em>all</em> one’s friends are out on the town living it up.</p>
<p>Each “sales pitch” is based on reality and how they want perspective students to see their college, therefore, when Dartmouth felt that being a world citizen is a main focus and that required working knowledge of two languages my daughter knew it was not the best place for her. Foreign language is something she stopped taking as soon as possible in high school. CMU being a trade school also allowed her to cross it off as she wanted a very strong MT program but also wanted to take math and history classes. As a matter of fact, based on the Northwestern session we attended during my daughter’s junior year in high school I knew immediately that that was the absolute best school for her. And I was right!</p>
<p>So, yes, we find the info sessions very helpful most of the time. I know you find drivebys helpful, we do not. Different strokes…</p>
<p>^ CMU may be a “trade school” as far as engineering (Carnegie Institute of Technology), but CMU is also world famous for theater and arts. Alumni have won 6 Oscars, 96 Emmys and 20 Tonys. Dozens of famous performers among their grads. Northwestern is outstanding, but CMU is right there.</p>
<p>vandygrad87. My daughter liked Washington College. They were very accommodating and gave us a tour without any prior notice. The campus was quite nice. They had a new science building. The student union seemed fairly new. Student guide was very nice and gave us a a good impression of the school. We didn’t make an appointment and dropped by the admissions office just to check out the campus on way back from the beach. The school is near a historic area, Chestertown, but it’s sort of off the beaten path. I am not sure it’s in her top 4 colleges, but she did have a favorable impression.</p>
<p>
I agree! It’s just one piece of the decision process.</p>
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<p>My D did a week of field hockey camp at Washington college. I thought it was very pretty and the dorms were very nice. It has a solid reputation. I have a coworker who graduated from there about 20 years ago and she seems to fit the pattern of the grads of this school–good all around education and excellent analytic/writing skills. I was hopeful that my D would consider it as a college option but she said it is too small and too close to home (2 hours from Northern Virginia).</p>
<p>We are done with our college tours. We have visited 9 colleges in the past year. Today we visited Gettysburg College. The information session was tailored to the questions from the students and parents. It was not a canned PowerPoint presentation. After the info session, we are able to choose among the student guides, who supplied us with biographical information. We went with a student who was a chemistry major/music minor, which is similar to my daughter. She tailored the tour to this, emphasizing these 2 areas. This is an efficient way to provide a good college visit experience.</p>
<p>Chardo - I never said CMU wasn’t an excellent school in all their specialties - my daughter was interested in it for MT, my husbands firm has recruited engineers from there. But it was started by Andrew Carnegie to train his employees kids in a trade (including daughters to learn domestic skills) and it has continued in that vein. There is little interaction or required classes outside of the chosen major, that’s all I’m saying, and that was not right for my daughter. That is what we learned from our info session and tour many years ago.</p>
<p>I have a good friend who’s a professor at Washington College. He likes it there and thinks it provides a solid education…it’s isolated but Annapolis isn’t far.</p>
<p>“when Dartmouth felt that being a world citizen is a main focus and that required working knowledge of two languages my daughter knew it was not the best place for her.”</p>
<p>I fully appreciate the “different strokes” approach, but are you saying that the school’s presentation was worthwhile because they told you they had a foreign language requirement? Was it one foreign language or two foreign languages? (I just checked the Dartmouth site and it said only one…but perhaps certain majors require 2?) Whatever, isn’t that something you could learn from their web site in about 30 seconds? And as for the “world citizen” thing…isn’t that also mentioned online? And I hope it’s more than a foreign language requirement and a study-abroad program…otherwise it would be just another hollow slogan.</p>
<p>I’m willing to change my strategy if I hear of something valuable that occurs in these sessions, but so far…</p>
<p>“I’m willing to change my strategy if I hear of something valuable that occurs in these sessions, but so far…”</p>
<p>I think there is a certain vibe, an intuitive sense, and certain cues you can pick up about a school that are much harder to get from a web site.</p>
<p>Sometimes it is even more obvious. When we visited Boston College, we expected a gorgeous campus (based on the pictures on the web site), and expected sort of a progressive Jesuit vibe, kind of a philosophical, intellectual approach to learning. Well, there were some beautiful buildings, but also a lot of what we thought were very plain and even ugly buildings. Not at all the campus we imagined. And the sense we got of the school was more of a traditional Catholic college. That’s not a bad thing - just different from what we expected. We would never have gotten this information from the web site or other literature we read about it.</p>
<p>So sometimes it can be a waste, but other times visiting can provide a wealth of information. Unfortunately, you don’t know in advance which schools you need to visit and which to cross off the list.</p>
<p>What they choose to emphasize in their sales pitch, and how they choose to do so, is very revealing about what core values they have. For example, American University’s presentation turned us off. They emphasized internships, internships, location, location, location that it made us feel - wow, this school really would be nothing without DC, which wasn’t appealing. (It might be to some, but not to us.) They also engaged in Georgetown (and GWU) bashing. I want places that tell me who they are and why they are what they are, not places that feel the need to tear down cross-rivals.</p>
<p>Some places (Georgetown in particular, though there were others) really focus on history and tradition and famous alumni and joining this rich stream of tradition. That says something, too. </p>
<p>I was able to encapsulate what I saw as the values that each school espoused, and posted in on my travel threads from a year ago. I found it quite helpful.</p>
<p>PG I remember when you posted on your visits, and I liked the synopsis you did.</p>
<p>Did you feel that you got most of your impressions from the info sessions, though or more from research you had done prior and then what you observed? I have dutifully attended all the info sessions and tours on the visits and didn’t really feel like they were particularly revealing.</p>