College Rep Visits to High Schools (public)

[Anonymous]

Check if the schools even use interest. Most don't.

[Anonymous]

My kid went to a very small magnet high school. He was only one that showed up for Notre Dame, it was quite nice and they developed a nice relationship. Also, got off waitlist at an Ivy and the AO referenced convo from their school visit. Go if you can, can only help.

[Anonymous]

My 11th grader (no longer in the DC area) attended one yesterday at their public HS. T20 university.

<10 kids present, so my kid got to ask tons of questions.

Connected with the AO afterwards via email. They’ve already exchanged multiple messages and may meet during on campus visit in a few months.

Will it help admissions odds? I have no idea, but it’s already been a useful and meaningful experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid went to a very small magnet high school. He was only one that showed up for Notre Dame, it was quite nice and they developed a nice relationship. Also, got off waitlist at an Ivy and the AO referenced convo from their school visit. Go if you can, can only help.

This. It depends on the school and the setting, but it can absolutely help your student forge a rapport with the officer.

You would be surprised how few students attend these things. They show up for the big publics, but it’s just a handful of kids for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

I’m also of the opinion that if you want the schools to keep attending, then you need to support the visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 11th grader (no longer in the DC area) attended one yesterday at their public HS. T20 university.

<10 kids present, so my kid got to ask tons of questions.

Connected with the AO afterwards via email. They’ve already exchanged multiple messages and may meet during on campus visit in a few months.

Will it help admissions odds? I have no idea, but it’s already been a useful and meaningful experience.

OP here. Thanks everyone! A few on DS’s list definitely consider DI. So he’ll be there for those, and probably the others, too, unless he has a test.

What kind of questions did your DS ask? That may sound dumb, but we’ve visited the DI schools and learned a lot there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 11th grader (no longer in the DC area) attended one yesterday at their public HS. T20 university.

<10 kids present, so my kid got to ask tons of questions.

Connected with the AO afterwards via email. They’ve already exchanged multiple messages and may meet during on campus visit in a few months.

Will it help admissions odds? I have no idea, but it’s already been a useful and meaningful experience.

OP here. Thanks everyone! A few on DS’s list definitely consider DI. So he’ll be there for those, and probably the others, too, unless he has a test.

What kind of questions did your DS ask? That may sound dumb, but we’ve visited the DI schools and learned a lot there.

Anything not easily answered on website is fine.

[Anonymous]

Forget the big state schools that a zillion kids are going to apply to anyway. It may be worth attending the sessions of smaller private schools. Even if they say they don't consider DI, the regional rep may remember you and be able to help you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m also of the opinion that if you want the schools to keep attending, then you need to support the visit.

On that note, I’ve noticed less schools visiting this year. Maybe due to budget cuts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For public schools I wouldn't bother. It felt like a college fair, which my DC also hated. It's a very superficial presentation and interaction. I would not miss class for this. Grades in grade 12 are really important and too much is missed in an hour. If it's during lunch or a study hall, then fine.

Colleges wouldn’t invest in visiting if it was superficial. If the college is spending money on travel, they care. If they care, you should care. Or, keep arrogantly thinking you know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check if the schools even use interest. Most don't.

Not true.

[Anonymous]

My kid’s friend at McLean high school went to the Harvey Mudd presentation and was the only kid there. He is attending now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 11th grader (no longer in the DC area) attended one yesterday at their public HS. T20 university.

<10 kids present, so my kid got to ask tons of questions.

Connected with the AO afterwards via email. They’ve already exchanged multiple messages and may meet during on campus visit in a few months.

Will it help admissions odds? I have no idea, but it’s already been a useful and meaningful experience.

OP here. Thanks everyone! A few on DS’s list definitely consider DI. So he’ll be there for those, and probably the others, too, unless he has a test.

What kind of questions did your DS ask? That may sound dumb, but we’ve visited the DI schools and learned a lot there.

Anything not easily answered on website is fine.

Any examples? I’m awed by how much information is on the websites or available by a simple google search.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For public schools I wouldn't bother. It felt like a college fair, which my DC also hated. It's a very superficial presentation and interaction. I would not miss class for this. Grades in grade 12 are really important and too much is missed in an hour. If it's during lunch or a study hall, then fine.

Colleges wouldn’t invest in visiting if it was superficial. If the college is spending money on travel, they care. If they care, you should care. Or, keep arrogantly thinking you know better.

There are two reasons a school would make the effort and investment. Only the second one matters to me in helping DC decide whether to skip class to attend.

(1) To market the school and drum up more interest in order to get more applicants. This helps the school improve its selectivity number. (When the denominator (number of apps) rises and numerator (number of students accepted) stays the same, the percentage of students accepted goes down and makes the school look more desireable.)

(2) To give the AO extra insight into top applicants to their school - either by meeting them in person and seeing what they’re like, or even so
Ply seeing if they sign up and show up.

DS doesn’t care about 1. He has his list of schools. But 2 would be worth his time for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For public schools I wouldn't bother. It felt like a college fair, which my DC also hated. It's a very superficial presentation and interaction. I would not miss class for this. Grades in grade 12 are really important and too much is missed in an hour. If it's during lunch or a study hall, then fine.

Colleges wouldn’t invest in visiting if it was superficial. If the college is spending money on travel, they care. If they care, you should care. Or, keep arrogantly thinking you know better.

I expect successful visits would help them understand how competent the counselors are, the general caliber of the students, the vibe of the high school, etc. It would give some life to processing the holistic stats. And help them understand why some programs, like IB, can create strong applicant pipelines for certain programs.

From what I read on here, and what I can see online at my sophomore's university, the fancy private schools and selective magnets get more relationship management type of experienced AOs (older looking mid-career types). The other schools get the peppy recent grad types. And those young AOs change and rotate territories more often. So I suppose that part of the school visit process for the younger AOs is "learning the territory" and getting the school-specific context. For the fancier schools and experienced AOs, it's likely more about prestige management, yield, and maintaining an applicant pipeline at preferred "feeder schools". Those are my inferences from a limited amount of evidence and checking to see if my high school junior would likely see the same AOs as my college sophomore. I have a lot of names from webinars and post-acceptance e-mails (was not tracking this intentionally but realized I had the info).