DD26 will tour colleges in New England this April. She would love to sit in on a class or two as part of the visits. Has anyone’s kid had luck cold-emailing professors to set this up? She can’t find any process for this on the school websites but we’ve heard rumors that students do this.
TIA!
Different schools each have their own policy. Some will say yes, some only allow seniors and some only allow accepted students. I would just call admissions at each of the schools to set this up.
My daughter was able to sit in at a few schools and also meet with professors in her intended field but it was very hit or miss. I’d start with admissions to see if it’s even permitted.
D20 did this at one school and set it up through admissions - they asked about course interests and found a class for her to visit where the professor had time, it fit with the syllabus, etc. I would not expect to get to do it at all schools.
Depends on the college. I’d recommend she work through the admissions department to see what can be arranged. My D was able to shadow a student for a day (attend classes, have lunch, etc.) at the LAC she ultimately attended.
Hamilton welcomes such an interest and provides information on suitable courses for prospective students:
Our daughters sat in on classes at multiple universities back when they were high school seniors and touring universities. In multiple cases they also got to talk with a professor. In some cases we sat in on the conversations as parents, in some (probably most) we did not. As far as I can recall we set all of this up via talking to admissions.
We even had one case where a school did not offer tours during February break. We asked (politely) if we could have a tour anyway and much to our surprise they said yes. I think that it might have been the head of admissions that gave us a tour (it is only just now that it occurs to me that this could have gone badly, but it didn’t).
I know that we toured both BU and NEU but I do not recall whether or not this included sitting in on any classes.
It’s an integral part of Admitted Students Day at Wesleyan (which is in two weeks.) There’s probably a questionnaire you can fill out.
Same for Bates (and likely Bowdoin and Colby - the Maine SLACs). Bates had admitted students day yesterday and you could sit in on several different classes. Outside of official days, I’m not sure – would ask admissions for the colleges you are interested in.
@circuitrider Ah ha. We’ll be at Wesleyan on 4/16 but they don’t have any campus tours listed for 4/16-4/18. We’ve been wondering why these are the only three days in April when this is the case - maybe those are the admitted students days? Luckily DD has a friend there who can show her around. Thanks for the heads up!
Thanks for the replies! It sounds like admissions is the place to start with this ask. And good to know that some schools have the option on their website - will keep in mind if we do other visit trips.
Yes, the 16th indeed falls on Admitted Students days. What sorts of subject matter would you be interested in?