Observing a class at a prospective college (question)

chicabuena
Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:49:44 +0000

I know observing a class at a prospective college is a fairly common procedure, and my daughter (senior) has toured 3 college campuses already, and 2 of those 3 times she was asked in advance, while setting up the tour, if she wanted to observe a class [Yes]. The third college allowed her to sit in on a class after she requested doing so. All Admissions departments handled the details.

Dilemma: Two days ago D asked me to call college #4, one that she had already toured in July, when school had not yet started. She wants to observe a class.

So I contacted Admissions and I was told this was an unusual request and to contact the College of Arts & Sciences directly.

I just called them this afternoon. The person answering the 'phone had no idea how to coordinate a classroom observation, she said one has never been requested. She turned me over to her supervisor, who again, told me that the only way she could suggest that D could do this is–

1) to look over the list of online courses offered by the college
2) send an email to each of the instructors asking to observe their classes
3) wait and see if she receives any responses
4) show up at the college and locate the classroom, etc.

I was somewhat incredulous at this and said that D doesn’t have a list of the instructor’s email addresses (not being a student yet!) and not only that, D has no letter of authorization as an on-campus visitor, etc. etc. and this seems an odd way of doing things.

The college of A & S people shrugged me off, saying well, that’s all we can think off, don’t know what more we can tell you, etc.

Is this a normal way of doing things? Is this a red flag that the student body doesn’t seem to care much about the academics if nobody has ever asked to sit in on a class! BTW, this is a standard state university (NOT top tier) and it is D’s “safety”.