I have heard this many times on CC, but I’m in the minority on this. We found most of the info sessions helpful. We were all interested in seeing what the individual colleges emphasized. For example, Villanova’s presentation was VERY different from BC’s, Colgate was different from Hamilton and Bowdoin, GW was different from American, and Tufts was in its own category. My daughter didn’t even want to bother with the tour at Wesleyan after the info session, and the tour reinforced her dislike for the college. Skidmore and BC had student panels which we found extremely helpful, Bowdoin and Colgate had a student paired with an admissions rep, and Trinity (CT) actually did something different by having two current students lead 75% of the presentation. (That was one of my favorite info sessions!) The Provost at Dickinson conducted the info session there, and I loved his presentation on “Why a LA degree?” We appreciated the fact that Lafayette had a Latina admissions rep conduct their session, and she talked quite a bit about the college’s 5-year plan to expand their community and make it more diverse–in terms of both race/ethnicity and SES. She also mentioned that unlike many LACs, they did not see themselves set apart from the community, but an integral part of it. (Bowdoin emphasized the same.) Syracuse felt much smaller after we went to Whitman’s info session, and Fordham and GW felt much larger after very broad, general, and lackluster presentations.
So we found that overall the info sessions really helped us get a feel for the campus vibe and what each college thought was their strength. You can tell a lot about a college by what they emphasize.
FWIW, my D20 applied (and was accepted) ED to a college that was not originally on her list. We were doing a tour of upstate NY during spring break of her junior year, and I insisted we visit Hamilton since it was only 30 minutes from Colgate, one of the top schools on her list. Online, she was turned off by the thought of two distinct architectural styles that reflected the integration of a woman’s college (Kirkland) in the past. “That’s weird,” she replied after looking online one day. She loved it the minute she stepped on campus. Several visits later (including an interview on campus with a current student) and she was fully hooked. If we went based on the website and virtual tour only, she never would have even applied.