Now that revisit days are done, and the clock is ticking fast for your final decision, I wonder if any incoming students or parents would share their latest revisit day impressions, e.g. interesting surprises on the upside or downside, and how they have shaped your final decisions.
I am not in the game this year, but have been consulted by several friends for advice. Therefore, I thought such feedback could be of benefit to some families. Thank you!
I just visited Deerfield and Andover. I am going to Andover but I will say that Deerfield does a wonderful job with revisit days. In both schools I loved my host. I will say that for some people the host is what may be the difference between a Yes and a No. In my opinion, when I went to Andover, I was surprised with the new Falls music center along with 2 museums. I was also surprised with the Dining hall. There was a variety of food and I felt happy about this. This also along with the fact that Andover has a downtown also may have influenced my decision.
I will say that for Deerfield I did love the sense of community but didn’t really care for the lunch table seating arrangements. Although some may love this, I didn’t prefer this. I LOVED my host for Deerfield as we had the same humor and such. I also loved the classes that I took.
All in all I think that I was looking for a better fit and a place that I could envision myself growing in and in both places it was possible but Andover was a little bit better like I saw on revisits.
Anyone attend St George’s? I’d love to hear feedback
I guess I think all the schools do revisits well. Whether one school resonates or doesn’t is almost entirely due to the personality/wants/needs of the prospective student. So any feedback wouldn’t be of much value to other applicants.
Our daughter had already committed to Culver (she had an early decision deadline to accept a scholarship), but we went to their revisit day anyway so she could meet more people, get a head start on exploring some academic and activities options, and just get more excited in general.
It reminded me a lot of our S24’s college revisit days, which did not surprise me. In fact, I too would be surprised if any of these well-resourced boarding schools did not do a good job.
I did like that our daughter had two different one-on-one guides, a senior who did the campus tour, and a first-year who took her to two of her classes. Both of them were very good personality fits for our daughter, but at this point that doesn’t really count as a surprise–over and over it has been pretty clear that the student culture/vibe at Culver was a great fit for her.
As a parent, I particularly enjoyed meeting some teachers and discussing course progression options. A very nice Bio teacher/current-parent recommended we help her plot out some possible course progressions to make sure she was on track to do some of the things she particularly wanted to do. That’s something I have really enjoyed helping S24 with, and I am looking forward to doing with her.
In terms of downside surprises, nothing in particular comes to mind for us, but to be fair this was my second visit, and the third for my daughter and wife. But just overhearing some chatter from families who apparently were visiting for the first time, there were a few comments about travel (it is not the easiest place to get to). But mostly I heard a lot of positive comments about the campus–it is indeed a very attractive campus, particularly if you like Collegiate Gothic, which I very much do, with a lovely lakeside setting.
Speaking of which, I guess one nice surprise is the student-run coffee shop in the science building was free for the day, so while she was doing classes, we grabbed some chai lattes and took a walk along the lake. Again not unique to Culver, but I do like revisit programs where there is an extended time that the kids are separated from the parents. I think it gives us all time to discuss certain things frankly, them with other admitted and current students, us with each other and fellow parents.
We just completed our revisit day at Mercersburg Academy where our DD30 is now committed. This was the 4th revisit day that we have attended at three different schools for two different kids.
Mercersburg really does a fantastic job with these events.
After the morning meet and greet with brief opening remarks from the HOS, the kids go with their student host to explore the dorms and attend 2 or 3 classes.
While the kids are off exploring the campus, the parents attend several panels with current students, faculty and staff.
Mercersburg pulls no punches when it comes to answering the questions that everyone is thinking about, but no one wants to ask. Topics included sensitive topics such as romantic relationships, and what happens if there are major school policy violations – students as well as administrators, counselors, and teachers help answer these questions. More common questions from the parents were answered about things like homesickness, roommate disputes, academic load, weekend activities, campus safety, etc.
This is in sharp contrast to two of the other schools we visited where (in hindsight) the student and teacher interactions were highly choreographed and where complicated questions were relegated to “lets talk about that offline.”
Parents were invited to sit in on a class – and again Mercersburg differentiated itself by simply having a regular class with a few extra “older students” in attendance – a few parents may have found themselves trying to answer questions about biology, pre-calc, or history.
At the some of the other schools other revisit days that we attended, we did not have the ability to sit in on a full class– however we did “drop in” for about 5 minutes. In the case of our other kiddo, they did sit in on two classes at one of the other schools with their host, but came away with the impression that it wasn’t a “normal” day.
After attending classes, Mercersburg hosts parents and students for lunch (while we are all in the same dining hall, our DD sat with her host while we sat with host students and staff). Don’t miss the pretzel pie.
After lunch, parents attended a student-life panel, while our DD was off to another class with her host.
I really have to give Mercersburg credit for the way they handle reuniting students with parents before everyone heads off to the activities fair. (Sorry, not going to give this one away but both times we got that warm fuzzy feeling).
I will also say that in both instances our kiddos chose to sit with other accepted students for the final remarks, while we sat with other parents who were equally astonished how fast their kids made new friends.
Mercersburg concludes their day with an activities fair that includes access to every coach, director (dance, theater, band, choral), leader (Model UN, Robotics, etc), student life, college counseling services, health services, and academic department chairs. Many of the stations are also staffed by students who are part of those groups. Our DD was invited to watch sports practice for one of the teams that she is interested.
After she exchanged contact information with 10 or 15 of her newest friends, we concluded our visit with a trip to the school store. We are well stocked on merch for when she moves onto campus in August!
I would say my biggest surprise was watching how fast our DD made new friends – to be honest I thought it was fluke when our other kiddo did the same thing at their Mercersburg revisit day.
Not sure I agree that all schools do revisits well. Some schools do the “You are among the few, the happy few, who got selected” and others do “We are honored to have you consider us among the choices you may have.” And some do more of a “Day in the life” while others are more focused on “Why you should come here.”
If you’re saying each approach may resonate differently, ok sure. But I think there is a difference between an assumptive close and the proactive.
Otherwise, the thread is uninformative by definition. I think the feedback is useful for both current and future candidates, FWIW.
@dadof-II This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. Thank you so much for the thoughtful and informative note!
M’burg has been getting nothing but rave reviews from parents here, including an extremely knowledgeable family that transferred their child from one of the Phillips schools. I will definitely recommend it to our family friends down the road.
Congratulations on landing at a warm, fuzzy school with great camaraderie, beautiful architecture and strong financial resources. I am truly happy for your family.
@IndySceptic Thank you for sharing. That was our experience as well. Back in the day, we were fortunate to have been accepted to all the schools that we applied to, chose to revisit 3 of them, then guess what? Our “dream school” dropped to the bottom after the revisit, because we failed to resonate with the mantras and overall vibe of the school. That is why I created this thread, hoping to benefit prospective families during this very important process.
Yeap. Same thing happened to us. The one she was sure she was going to dropped to third for us as well. That’s why they are so important to attend, understanding that may not be possible for all, of course.
Revisits totally changed the game. Two schools that weren’t at the top of the list became top picks and DS went with one of them. Really surprised but was impressed by the reasoning DS gave - he felt the smaller school would be better for him as an incoming true 9th grader, felt a wonderful sense of community and said he absolutely sees himself making wonderful friends and enjoying classes.
Revisits are important. If possible, really take the time for your initial visits too. Even though the process takes months, in the end, we still wish we had more time. Congrats to all!
The year we did visits, he had miserable weather for all but one of our 6 schools. We ended up visiting the school that was our top choice 4 times, and every time there was some form of precipitation ranging from misting to sloppy wet snow or torrential rain. We joked that if he went there, it would rain every day. Turns out, we had beautiful weather every time we visited except for Senior Night for both football and baseball, and it poured at graduation. I think the Gods just wanted us to remember how far he’d come since those visiting days.