My kid sat in on two classes. Whether it will be a factor in decision is TBD since she still is not decided. But, I thinks she thought the classes were helpful. Less due to instruction, and more because of the opportunity to see the students engage with each other and the professor in a classroom setting. I’d describe it as a vibe check on the academic front. Sure it is a random sample, but so is the vibe check she is getting from the students we see on the quad, or in the dining hall, or at the pool party that was going on at Pitzer. It is a datapoint that she found valuable and she wished all of her admitted student days had class visit options (for weekend admitted student days the only option would be mock class which is a different animal).
In the end, I’ve come to realize that most of what you are getting on an admitted student campus visit as an undecided, unhooked student without some niche interest to explore, is a sense of people and place and how you feel about that place. You can pick up some new tidbits of useful info/data from conversations, but most of the objective side work has already been done at home. At least that was our experience.
While I doubt it made a difference in this decision to apply or not apply to certain schools, both of my kids sat in on classes at most of the schools we visited. I do recall a younger son having a negative reaction to one class which really turned him off to that particular school. He did not apply to that school and couldn’t wait to get out of there.
I have no idea if my kids attended any classes or not. I’m pretty sure my younger S would not have. Not his style. Older S might have when he went with his HS teacher to visit what would become his college. I also sent them both by themselves to admitted students days, so they could have gone then, though neither of them mentioned it, nor did I think to ask.
I would say that made it of low importance to them
Adding to mine and also a confession… I had no idea back then that people used admitted students days to help make a decision. I saw them as a fun excuse for the kids to get out of school and get a taste of college life. Mine only went to the local in-state ones and they mostly went with a group of friends. Often they were during the school week, so it was like a senior skip day. I did take older S and his then GF to UVA for that one, but I dropped them off and then ran on the trails for a few hours and picked them up later.
S26 attended classes at his top 2, and, although he’s STILL undecided, he felt that the classes/studios helped the most. Folks on this forum suggested this, and we are grateful for the schools that offered it. First, he felt he got a more unbiased (less tour guide) description of the school and program from the students in the class, who seemed happy to discuss with him, and he felt the interactions with a professor or two also extremely helpful. One professor was quite welcoming, encouraged him to participate, and spent time talking to him after class, which is one of those intangible things that might sway this big decision.
I would agree with that. Seeing a college to get a sense of what the atmosphere is like is far more important than sitting in on a class. Many colleges have multiple professors for each subject, so there is no guarantee the professor you saw in class during your visit will be someone you actually get assigned when class schedules are handed out.
I would agree with your daughter’s take. My daughter found just being on campus and seeing other students and prospective students and just catching the vibe to be very helpful. She did some programs but I don’t think she audited a class.
He was basically sold on his final choice because he met some like-minded fellow admits. They ate lunch together and self-toured the athletic facilities together and generally enjoyed their time.
He didn’t really have that same experience anywhere else, and although a lot of other things also went into his decision, I think that helped cement it.
Both parent and student were offered the opportunity to sit in on any class of interest to them at both the elite prep boarding school level and at a highly ranked private National University currently attended by the student as well as at an LAC and at two public flagship honors colleges during the application/pre-admission time frame. (Also happened at a couple of law schools, but not as much to be derived from this experience.)
The class visits were valuable in helping to assess several factors about each school. However, I would not place much value in a visit to a mock class as that is essentially a staged event for guests.
Very valuable experience overall; much more helpful if able to attend more than one actual class as individual preferences and reactions vary.
P.S. Very important for a college applicants who attended/attends an elite prep school /possibly magnet school as there is a significant risk of a let down regarding the level of academic intensity. Was a particular concern regarding public state flagship honors colleges.
As someone who teaches at a small liberal arts college-
I usually decline to have my classes on the list of classes prospective students can visit. Why? Because some of my classes have fabulous and engaged students who do the reading, ask questions, and have lively debates and discussions with me and their classmates. Those classes are a joy to teach, and they represent a certain segment of our student body. But then I have some sections where the bulk of the students don’t do the reading, stay silent most of the time, and are not engaged at all. Those classes can be a slog to teach. The syllabus, assignments, and my pedagogy in the classroom might be the same, but sometimes you just get a class with a large amount of unengaged students and a funky vibe. And then there are some days that otherwise fabulous students are tired and not as engaged due to the weather, a long homecoming weekend partying, a late night studying for a difficult midterm in another class, etc. So depending on the semester and class, a visitor would get a very different view of academic life at our college. Admissions gives us the option of deciding which classes are available for visitors, but I got tired of needing to update the list every semester depending on the class dynamic. So now I don’t even bother and just decline all around.
It’s impossible to represent the full scope of our students in one class, so I would take any classroom visit with a large grain of salt. The only classes that appear on those lists are the ones that professors have submitted as options. That means, of course, they’re going to be great classes.
(And you should know that at my college, Admissions only asks certain professors anyway. There are some classes they don’t want prospective students visiting due to a less-than-stellar professor.)
So by all means go to a class if you’re interested, but just know you’re only getting a tiny (and curated) slice of the academic environment.
Agree, which is why my son returned to two of the schools he was considering on his own to attend classes, connect with HS classmates attending same school and then dine in college dining halls, etc. He still returned for admitted student days. This would not have been possible were it not for the fact that both schools were a train ride away.
For my S25, attending classes was important bc he was specifically looking for an active classroom experience. There will always be “off” classes, but any school where the students were raising hands, discussing the reading, not online shopping in class went way up for him. One of his likely schools, that he really liked, held a 2 day admitted students event & he got to attend 3 classes; in all 3, very few students engaged actively, so he dropped it off his list. For my S27, who is fine to take notes at the back of big lecture-hall classes, observing a class might not matter as much.
And also, one class may not be representative of the 30-36 different classes a student may take at a typical college, because of the subject of the class and what level the class is, whether it is a lecture / discussion type of class or a lab / studio / performance type of class, etc..
All of the “one class is not representative” folks are making great points.
But if a kid is looking for a highly engaged student body- specifically around academics- sitting in a lecture hall of 250 students where a couple of kids are looking at their phones is one thing. Sitting in on a seminar of 20 kids where HALF the kids are not listening, clearly didn’t do the reading or are playing online poker is something else.
Yes, that seminar could be an anomaly. But if the school is already giving off “we’re here for the social life” vibes, it might be a pretty solid datapoint.