<p>@ roderick : I am no more informed than you are, but I’ve done the road trip between Minneapolis and Chicago as a college student – in the dead of winter – and it’s not a walk in the woods. Unless you skid off the Interstate and down an embankment, that is. A trip of that length is not something to be expected. As niceday and dadx3 point out, they’re not even penalizing those who don’t make the trek from Minneapolis-to-Northfield.</p>
<p>I think for people who did get accepted and did make a visit, they had lots of warm and fuzzy feelings and felt as though their experience was so good that it must have had a positive impact. Yet these people know just as little as you or I about what the admission office took into account when deciding to accept them. The fact that they received an offer of admission gives them no special insights that you or I can’t glean from the admissions office.</p>
<p>Considering that Carleton has taken a public position that interest is not a factor, they should expect that people are relying on that and not going the extra mile…or hundreds of miles…to ensure that item gets addressed by a campus visit. And since they understand people are relying on that, I strongly doubt that they’re secretly penalizing applicants for taking them at their word.</p>
<p>Still, I think there’s good advice here. The “Why?” essay will be important because other applicants who do visit will have more fodder to draw from. And, for that reason, the regional visits and local alumni interviews will be important. Not just for crafting the essay but also for coming to an informed decision should that be an option come April.</p>
<p>If you’re asking because you’re hoping to weed out some application fees from son’s list – with the idea that it’s not worth applying to Carleton because he’ll be too harshly penalized by the “no visit” to make it practical – I think you’ll need to continue looking for low hanging fruit. We had a tough time thinning out son’s list so I feel your pain.</p>