Re the information sessions - I would look at these mostly through my daughter’s eyes, and she indeed found some of them a waste of time. (We did these all in person pre-pandemic.) She really liked the one at GWU, and I felt they were pretty informative for parents. My daughter actually liked GWU so much that she decided she would ED2 at GWU if her ED1 school (NYU) did not come through (it did, and she was almost sad at not sending in an application to GWU after lovingly crafting her essay for it!). Interestingly, she didn’t love Brandeis either, but she liked Fordham a lot, so it made her shortlist. BU and American rounded out her top 5. I don’t think American is particularly generous with merit, although it’s a good DC option for international affairs.