Is a summer visit to Haverford worth it?

Colleges & Universities Haverford College
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We will be in Philly for a few days this summer, so we plan to swing through a few campuses. I’m normally not a big believer in summer visits as a way to get a vibe check, but since we are there anyway…

Haverford is so small, is there anyone on the campus in the summer or really is it just a drive through to see the campus at that point? Will a tour be worth anything if campus is a ghost town? We will be stopping at Villanova and Penn.

Philly is close enough we can do a trip during the school year.

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So during a summer visit you will obviously get to at least see the campus, which I think is good because it is fairly distinctive. I think another big thing you will get out of it is a major “demonstrated interest” credit, which Haverford considers (this is assuming you do a registered visit). Finally, some kids just get more focused in terms of questions during a visit.

Obviously if you can visit during the term, that would add seeing more of the kids around. But if you can only make it work during the summer, and it is not a big financial burden, I think it is still worth it.

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If this is when you can go…then go. Just keep in mind that there will be less “action” with students on campus. Also, summer is when many colleges do maintenance to their campuses, so you might see some of that too.

But…you will be closeby…so go. Reach out to admissions. Many colleges do summer tours and info sessions.

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By the way, if you can manage to toss in a quick hop over to Bryn Mawr’s campus, I think that is a very good idea. The “BiCo” relationship is very active, with lots of Haverford students at least taking some classes at Bryn Mawr, other social or event stuff, sometimes doing joint majors or activities, and so on.

So getting a sense of the distance (not far) and then what that campus is like can maybe help generate a more informed picture of what is really available for Haverford students.

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If you want to get the vibe of a campus, I wouldn’t do more than a drive-through of Haverford in the summer. I don’t pay attention to Haverford, though I have lived nearby for over 50 years and been on campus a number of times for various reasons (not for consideration of attendance for me or my three kids). I never have witnessed a busy, bustling sort of campus, even when school is in session, so summer would not be good for vibe.

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We did a few summer visits out of necessity too. It at least can give a sense of campus layout, facilities, and there are always at least small groups of students around for summer session or lab work/jobs.

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We visited Swat, Haverford and Penn in summer. Penn was obviously busiest -the area, not the school.

In the end, if you want to see a campus, walk it for distance - end to end, or check out some buildings (my kids are into aesthetics) - then heck yeah, go.

It’s better than nothing - and if it becomes an option, you can always get back.

Haverford tracks demonstrated interest - so get on their email list before you go and email your regional admissions counselor. Let them know you’re coming in the summer (tell them the day) and ask them if you can come say hello. They’ll say something like - come to our office for a map - or something.

Bottom line - you want them to note that you were there. Not sure they will but it wouldn’t hurt.

in other words, you want credit. Or go and if you like it, email after to the admissions rep - how you went, truly enjoyed it and something that ties to how it would be a great school for you.

Or better yet - inform you are coming, go get a map, etc. and then write after how wonderful it was to see - and something that ties from campus to your interest.

Applying to college isn’t just about grades and activities, etc. For schools like Haverford, it matters. Bryn Maw too. For Penn, Nova, and Swat, they don’t track interest.

But for Haverford, since you will be there, make sure you get credit.

You can google a school name + demonstrated interest to see who tracks. Or look at the common data set for each school - the last row of the table in section C7 to see if a school tracks (finding on their website is better as the CDS is sometimes wrong).

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I completely agree. You’ve gotten all the way to being physically present, it seems to me like getting the demonstrated interest credit should be a priority.

I note it currently looks like Haverford has M-F campus visit slots available all through the summer:

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Wow, thank you for the quick responses. You’ve all sort of validated my thoughts. Pros are campus and DI. Cons of course are missing the student body, and vibe will be very very important for D28. Haverford will be at a college fair near us in late April, so we will make a point of stopping by and laying groundwork.

And excellent point on Bryan Mawr. D28 doesn’t think she wants an all female school but maybe we’ll swing through there and Swat as well

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Kids can burn out on the visits, but personally, as a sort fan of college campuses, these are all campuses I have enjoyed seeing. Interestingly different, in fact, but with some overlap as well.

More relevant to your D28, perhaps, is that they also have different vibes, again understanding there will be some overlap in this area too. In fact all are what I would call academicky schools in their own ways, but it is interesting to me how that can still overlay quite a bit of variation.

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That’s why maybe just a walk through is what you do now. For all you know, she might not like it and done.

But if she likes it and it becomes a finalist (even if after you apply and she gets in), you can come back when school is in session. On the other hand, she doesn’t like the school - then it comes off the list and done. My son liked neither Haverford or Swat - but I’m glad we stopped by. We were able to eliminate them and schools like them.

I loved Swat personally - beautiful place to walk. But for him, they were off. He wouldn’t have applied anyway given his final choice of major but initially both worked for his initial major - except he didn’t like them. But that’s why you should stop and see since you are there anyway. It’s smart to do on trips - visit a school or two, even informally.

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Guess who is also there in the summer? Faculty. Guess who has time to notice a family wandering around holding a map or their phones? Faculty.

Our summer visits (necessities based on parents work schedules) were incredibly productive. Kid was invited to “come see my lab- I’ll show you how to put on a hairnet” and it was only afterwards that we realized “famous professor” had actually given a HS kid a in-depth look at a really cool multi-year research project. Kid was invited- by the admissions officer running the Q and A– “tell me what you’re interested in and we’ll find someone who can answer your questions” which turned out to be an academic dean. And probably the most intense and valuable experience- a symposium on the Johns Hopkins campus (yes, professors work 12 months a year) which the admissions office encouraged us all to attend when we signed up for the tour/presentation ahead of time. It was incredible even if, like me, you only understood about half of the debate.

All the people who complain “We didn’t get to talk to professors” or “they never let us see inside a dorm” or “you needed to swipe in to see the labs” are folks who are there Columbus day weekend and all the other “favorite” times to visit. Even small campuses employ people year round!!!

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It was during Covid - but same idea - we had a wonderful professor, who was on the W&L campus ask if we needed help as we looked at buildings.

30 minutes later - my daughter and I both learned a ton - about the school, law school (he just had a student score in the 99th percentile and when I asked where they’d go - he said anywhere they want), the DC program and working there (in DC).

I loved it - not sure about my kid :slight_smile:

So you make a great point

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Haverford and Villanova are so close to each other (2 miles), it’s hard to imagine visiting one without at least driving through the other uncless you are absolutely sure you are not interested (sounds like that’s not the case). And Bryn Mawr is smack in the middle of them…so again, hard to imagine not at least driving through. And FWIW, the “college town” area is the same for all 3. Most of the restaurants, bars etc. are in Bryn Mawr, about a mile from each of the other campuses.

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Almost all of our college visits were in the summers or on spring breaks, when students were not around (for some reason, our own spring break coincided with spring break for most of the colleges we saw at that time of year). We couldn’t really do anything about that, because of limitations in our own schedules. It was still very much worth it to visit, and I think we got a pretty good feel for the campuses even when students weren’t there (one of those campus visits was Haverford, which my S26 really liked).

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I am a big believer in the summer tour, and generally find the summer drive through or pass through mostly useless. I have direct experience with these at Haverford and Bryn Mawr and will explain more below. But if you don’t have time for more, Haverford offers frequent summer tours, I would highly recommend signing up for one since you will be in town anyway. They also have summer info sessions, though not as many as tours. Those can be useful too.

Ok, long version. We are a week from when my D26 has to make her decision on where to attend, and Haverford is still one of 2-3 schools in contention. It moved to the top 3 after her summer tour between junior and senior years, and has remained there.

First, while we were in the admissions office waiting for our tour, Haverford had 3 students hanging in the lounge area with the families who were there to answer questions, share info on what they study, their activities, etc. Even if your kid or you have no questions, you can listen in on what others are asking/chatting about. I found this valuable to get a sense of a few students lives at Haverford even if they all are admissions reps.

Second, the tour not only lets you see the campus, but the tour guide if decent offers a lot of tidbits and nuggets that are useful (things that come to mind for me are ours’ explanation of the PE class they took that was designed to help them learn to use the gym equipment and design workouts for themself, or discussion of the relationship with and classes the guide took at Bryn Mawr and the ease of doing so).

Third, there were admissions staff around to answer questions and provide information which I also found useful.

I agree with others, had we wanted to connect with certain departments I think it would have been doable in the summer, we just weren’t that interested in that.

So, I am a big fan of the summer tour. I felt like D26 got much of the vibe of the place despite there being few students on campus. We went back to campus for admitted students day recently. And our sense of the vibe is pretty consistent with what it was over the summer. Haverford is not really a campus that feels bustling or students everywhere vibe like a big school might.

Ok, on to why I find the summer drive or walk through useless. We did that at Bryn Mawr. All you get to see is that it is a beautiful campus. You learn nothing useful really in my opinion beyond what the shops and town nearby are like. And, 99% of the schools D26 was interested in had beautiful campuses. The school year walk through can be far more useful, because there are actually students on campus. I don’t see what you get out of no interaction with knowledgeable people on campus in the summer when nobody is there to observe doing their day to day activities. We did the pass through with no tour at Bryn Mawr. Unlike Haverford, it gave D26 nothing to be interested in about the school.

Lastly, I’ll say whether the time of signing up for a tour and/or info session makes sense may depend where you are in the process which is not clear from OP’s post. If your kid has already done the research and narrowed down to the type of school they are interested in, or maybe already even done preliminary research into the school (as my kid had when we visited Haverford in the summer), then signing up for a tour 100% makes sense. If you are not there though, and are just trying to get a sense of the difference between big, medium and small schools by seeing Penn, Villanova and Haverford, then maybe it doesn’t make sense in the summer where all will seem pretty quiet.

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FWIW, both of my kids say they felt NO different about summer and in-session visits, especially Saturday in-session visits (which were mainly at 10-11 am and campus was relatively dead anyway).

They got the most out of physically seeing the campus, setting, etc. Yes, seeing kids mattered, but less than I would have thought. YMMV, and it goes against conventional wisdom.

Edit, I am comparing - real tours to real tours, not just “self-guided” walking around on your own ones..we haven’t really attempted those in earnest.

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Just to back up what ECCA2026 said, my D26 did three total tours of Haverford - one was a very random self-tour in August around campus (the audio guide that you access on your phone is actually QUITE good) along with a live info session, which is what convinced her to apply. Then, she did an actual student-led tour the following summer, which was also quite good. Finally, she got a tour as part of the admitted student day, which was essentially exactly like the tour she had the previous summer. In both cases, the real tour was the same.

Now, she did learn some new things during the admitted student day that’s changed her mind, but I think it’s mostly when she’s getting to the “push comes to shove” stage of her decision. But I do think you can get at least a bit of a vibe check just from the tour guide, as long as you know the questions to ask that matter to you.

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Our summer tour guide at Haverford was also quite good. I’d say one of the better tours we had.

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If you are going to be there anyway, just go since Haverford tracks DI. But I agree that summer tours aren’t as good as when students are on campus. We did one of Swat 3 years ago because we were in the area and the campus was completely dead - we saw more facilities staff than anyone who looked under 23. We had to go back and toured it with Haverford and other Philly schools. My D will approach random kids and talk to them for a while. While hardly a scientific survey, it did provide to her a much better feel of the students and culture than the curated tours and canned answers from the guides. From there, my daughter knew she was a better fit at Haverford than Swat.

We’re from California so it’s not easy to see these schools but it was worthwhile. We think doing an in-person tour helped my D get admitted since small places like Haverford regularly deny applicants who might have stronger numbers and profiles than my D had. Talking to the students in person helped her craft essays that showed she was a good fit for Haverford and its Honor Code. It’s one of her two final choices and she’s really agonizing over her decision.

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