We will soon be attending Admitted Students Days at some very different schools - Private 5,000 students, Public 50,000+ students. From those who have been there, what should we be asking, especially those questions that aren’t easily found on the websites? I am curious about:
Are there enough seats for everyone in the lecture hall for the largest class or must some students attend online?
If there are questions for a large class who does a student turn to? TAs etc?
Is there a hierarchy for who gets to select classes first? (i.e. honors kids, direct admits to major etc)
If a student needs extra help, what resources are available at the school?
Are lectures recorded?
If a student is (legit) sick do they need to email someone (especially for smaller school)? Are there note-taking facilities available to them for missed lectures?
Most important question to ask is about outcomes? What % of students go on to Grad school? What % are working in their field within 6 months after graduation? For certain majors you might ask what the pass rate is for any professional exams (teaching, nursing, engineering…)
Ask about internships and research opportunities?
Ask students what they do on the weekends? Do they stay on campus?
Ask students what their favorite traditions are?
Ask about the process of declaring your major, can you double major? how easy is it to switch majors? to switch schools? Do any majors require you to apply for and get accepted to
What type of pre-professional support is provided (Medical School? Law School, Grad School)
@NiceUnparticularMan - agree! what type of programs (interview, resume help) does career center provide
@peppermilo - I would ask about difficulty in securing housing beyond year 1 e.g., # years guaranteed, what resources there are for off-campus housing search, what typical lease terms there are, etc. I was really surprised to hear first year students already talking about off campus housing during Thanksgiving break!
In addition to the general questions mentioned above, admitted students day can also be a great time to meet students in specific clubs or groups of interest to your student.
For example my son was interested in student race car teams, so he wrote to each team in advance of attending admitted students day, and arranged a time to meet with the team and visit their workshop. This turned out to be the most valuable part of most of the school visits for him.
At at least 2 of my kids’ schools, leases were signed in October for the following fall. There were many off campus options, but the popular ones fill fast.
The way we learned the most at Accepted Students Day was to hang out in the building that housed S23’s major. There was a Student Success Office in the building so we went in to see what they offered and students who worked in that office spontaneously came out and just chatted with us for about an hour about classes, research opportunities, professors, etc. None of it was planned, but the information we received was the most helpful in making our decision.
I second this. We had an amazing admin who answered my D’s questions (also about ease of getting into classes for her major, space, etc…). She offered to give my D a tour of the building and labs and ended up spending an hour with us. She talked about everything from gender balance in the major, hiring trends for professors, class sizes, to new funding grants for labs/equipment, research, etc… It was one of the turning points for my D.
I also loved seeing the flyers on the bulletin boards about upcoming events. It was a nice overview of what was available for students in his major. Everything from clubs, to resume workshops to guest speakers. I was pretty impressed.
My student really wanted to know what the other admitted students were like. Friendly? Open? Competitive? Happy? Could the student see him/herself in class with these students?
The illness question is very important. My son was hospitalized for a while when the semester was nearly over his sophomore year and it would have been devastating had the school not been willing to work with him to finish the semester after he recovered. Not every school would be sympathetic.
I’d recommend asking lots of questions about how easy it is to take advantage of what the school has to offer. In some schools, things like course selection, access to clubs and activities, on-campus housing, study abroad can be pretty cutthroat, and students head off to these schools assuming they’ll have easy access to all of the classes they want, the best dorms, clubs, etc only to be disillusioned by extreme competition for all of these aspects of school life. Here are some questions I would ask:
How hard is it to get into the classes you want to take in general? Did you get repeatedly shut out of classes you needed to take for your major or for a general requirement to graduate, and have to go to Plan B or C (and beyond) to fulfill requirements?
How accessible are the school’s clubs? Are some clubs very selective, with students getting shut out of certain desirable clubs/activities?
[Assuming there is housing available beyond freshman year] Describe the process for getting housing sophomore, junior, senior year? Are there dorms that are more or less popular? How hard is it to get one of the more desireable dorms? Are singles available for students who want/need them?
Is study abroad competitive? Describe the process for study abroad - can students mostly just sign up for what they want, or so they need to provide multiple potential choices in order to be assured they’ll get something.
[If the school has popular sports teams] What is the process for students getting tickets to football/basketball/hockey games? Can students pretty easily get into every game, or is there a lottery?
We asked about security. )The blue light teams that escorted people after dark.)
We also second going to the department of the intended major; you find out a lot. We wandered (impromptu) into the engineering department and asked questions at the department desk, and she invited us to speak to the department chair.
He invited our son into his office and asked questions about his background. He asked our son about the high school, his extracurriculars, and then proceeded to tell son about internships.
At the UC’s, they were given information about their quarter schedules and about how PASS works.
What you should ask depends on what sort of things you care about or want to know more about. Some questions that are relevant to my kid, for example, are:
Is it easy to get on campus housing for sophomore year on up? Or do most students move off campus? How hard is it to secure off campus housing after freshman year?
What are considered the “weed out” classes for D24’s major?
For the classes required in D24’s major, how many of them are primarily taught either totally online or in a hybrid model (i.e., where all of the lectures are online but you only go in person for labs or tests)?
How hard (or not) is it to get the classes you need/want if you do NOT want any online or hybrid instruction classes?
How is major advising handled? Are students assigned an advisor at the start of the school year who they meet with regularly or is it something that you have to seek out on your own and have to wait several weeks for an appointment time slot to open up?
How does it work to get medical care through Student Health?
How are freshman dorm roommate assignments handled?
What is the dining hall food like? Or are the majority of the eating options on campus non-dining hall (aka variations of fast food)?
How easy (or not) is it to park a car on campus? Is it hard to find a parking space?
You and your student can talk about these topics in advance, and do bring physical notes on the day of the visit to ensure you don’t forget things that are important to you.
Then make sure that it’s your student that is doing the talking when you arrive (and prepare them in advance for this if they are perhaps subconsciously assuming that you will be asking these things of the school, as you likely did/do while they are in high school!).
Not just because it’s important for them to take these next steps independently, but also because they need to gauge how they feel interacting with various entities and professors on campus themselves.
Have a meal and enjoy the day together, it’s exciting that they have so many good options ahead of them!
These are great questions, and when I read them I think of the large state schools we will be visiting. Is this also an issue at smaller private and LACs?
So we have done a ton of larger schools and smaller lacs. All the great questions above will be answered and most are on their website already. It was important for our kids to find their peeps and to feel comfortable. Is it a good fit? Do you see yourself here. At the smaller schools my daughter shadowed a student for part of the day and had lunch. At some schools she met with the heads of the departments. Great way to get insight. All the school acceptance talks become the same. Rah Rah this school. We also planned on staying longer to have dinner. Just walk around and observe. All the schools had her major, clubs etc but if your not feeling comfortable. Your not going to excel. Which means. Stop looking at rank. Also… Is the pizza good?? Lol
And is it bad enough that students frequently do their “weed out” class requirements via concurrent enrollment at a local community college, in order to avoid the harsh grading in these courses at the university? (We visited several universities where this was the recommendation from students!)
Pretty much every school has a policy of allowing incompletes, especially in cases of verified medical problems, which can be made up later. Sometimes individual professors are more or less sympathetic, but the policies typically allow students a semester or a year to make up an incomplete grade.
Is club participation competitive, or can anyone generally join whatever club they want to? (If possible, get in touch with current officers of clubs of interest.)
How is first-year housing determined, and is it necessary to put down a deposit even before selecting the school?
What percentage of students double-major? Go abroad? (the answers to these questions give you some indication of how flexible the general studies curriculum is.)
What are students’ impressions of the quality of academic advising?
What are current students’ experiences with the career center? Does the career center offer any funding to support students who take unpaid internships?
What do students do with their free time?
In you get a chance to talk to current students – why did they choose this school? Any regrets, or anything they wish now that they’d known when making the choice?
