Virtual Accepted Student Days

[Anonymous]

How are these events going at different universities? Are they helpful in deciding which college or university to pick? Are they mostly just virtual classes and meet & greets with various professors?

[Anonymous]

Oberlin gets big time kudos from me. They have offered free enrollment to admitted students in a 2 credit COVID-19 through the lens of liberal arts class. There is an hour lecture from a professors from a different department each week (epidemiology of pandemics, psychology of loneliness, biochemistry of COVID, creative writing and trauma, etc). Assigned reading each week Then a breakout session with peer leaders where they discuss the lecture and answer questions about life at Oberlin.

My kid loves the class, and it’s the most thoughtful and innovative way I’ve seen to show students what the school is like. It’s probably not worth 2 college credits. But it’s been a great experience.

He’s been admitted to 7 other colleges— largely LACs. And none have anything close to Oberlin. Several are just now rolling out Webinars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin gets big time kudos from me. They have offered free enrollment to admitted students in a 2 credit COVID-19 through the lens of liberal arts class. There is an hour lecture from a professors from a different department each week (epidemiology of pandemics, psychology of loneliness, biochemistry of COVID, creative writing and trauma, etc). Assigned reading each week Then a breakout session with peer leaders where they discuss the lecture and answer questions about life at Oberlin.

My kid loves the class, and it’s the most thoughtful and innovative way I’ve seen to show students what the school is like. It’s probably not worth 2 college credits. But it’s been a great experience.

He’s been admitted to 7 other colleges— largely LACs. And none have anything close to Oberlin. Several are just now rolling out Webinars.

+1 Oberlin has the best virtual admitted student programs that we’ve seen. Heads and shoulders above the rest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin gets big time kudos from me. They have offered free enrollment to admitted students in a 2 credit COVID-19 through the lens of liberal arts class. There is an hour lecture from a professors from a different department each week (epidemiology of pandemics, psychology of loneliness, biochemistry of COVID, creative writing and trauma, etc). Assigned reading each week Then a breakout session with peer leaders where they discuss the lecture and answer questions about life at Oberlin.

My kid loves the class, and it’s the most thoughtful and innovative way I’ve seen to show students what the school is like. It’s probably not worth 2 college credits. But it’s been a great experience.

He’s been admitted to 7 other colleges— largely LACs. And none have anything close to Oberlin. Several are just now rolling out Webinars.

Wow. Huge kudos to Oberlin for being so creative and thoughtful. My kid got into an ivy ED for Engineering and their accepted students virtual events have been predictable and boring. 30 min zoom class - standard Intro to Engineering class taught by a competent but not particularly engaging professor. Zoom sessions with a few professors who talked about their lab research. I had trouble following the technical stuff and my kid just completely tuned out.

[Anonymous]

Vandy has a couple student panels and a couple parent ones. They start tomorrow.
https://myappvu.vanderbilt.edu/portal/onlineadmitted


UVA has panels for the different colleges, a bunch with students, and then ones with administration in different offices.
https://admission.virginia.edu/virtualuva

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin gets big time kudos from me. They have offered free enrollment to admitted students in a 2 credit COVID-19 through the lens of liberal arts class. There is an hour lecture from a professors from a different department each week (epidemiology of pandemics, psychology of loneliness, biochemistry of COVID, creative writing and trauma, etc). Assigned reading each week Then a breakout session with peer leaders where they discuss the lecture and answer questions about life at Oberlin.

My kid loves the class, and it’s the most thoughtful and innovative way I’ve seen to show students what the school is like. It’s probably not worth 2 college credits. But it’s been a great experience.

He’s been admitted to 7 other colleges— largely LACs. And none have anything close to Oberlin. Several are just now rolling out Webinars.

Wow. Huge kudos to Oberlin for being so creative and thoughtful. My kid got into an ivy ED for Engineering and their accepted students virtual events have been predictable and boring. 30 min zoom class - standard Intro to Engineering class taught by a competent but not particularly engaging professor. Zoom sessions with a few professors who talked about their lab research. I had trouble following the technical stuff and my kid just completely tuned out.

Another bravo to Oberlin. The class the first PP describes doesn't surprise me -- I got the strong impression, when DC visited there on a day-long event, that the school is good at thinking outside the box and applying the "real world" to the liberal arts. DC didn't choose to go there in the end, and is at a different LAC, but Oberlin really impressed us all. Not surprised to hear they are running an excellent virtual accepted students' event like the class described.

[Anonymous]

The UMD virtual event filled up so quickly that my kid got shut out and they didn’t even video tape it. Heard from a friend that the session was meh. I guess they don’t need to try very hard especially this year

[Anonymous]

Univ of Mary Washington has done a great job with communication and setting up topics, schedules, formats.

The topics were spread out over 2 weeks. Professors from different departments presented.
Sessions were in the evenings at 4, 5, and 6 p.m.
Then there's a zoom meeting at 7 from current students to discuss topics from the sessions.

While we were really excited about going to the Admitted Student Day, this format enabled us to see way more briefings than we would have gone to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Univ of Mary Washington has done a great job with communication and setting up topics, schedules, formats.

The topics were spread out over 2 weeks. Professors from different departments presented.
Sessions were in the evenings at 4, 5, and 6 p.m.
Then there's a zoom meeting at 7 from current students to discuss topics from the sessions.

While we were really excited about going to the Admitted Student Day, this format enabled us to see way more briefings than we would have gone to.

That sounds very nice. Did your kid watch the lectures? My kid who will be attending a different school refuses to watch any of the lectures or professor panels. Finds it boring virtually.

[Anonymous]

I called Oberlin today with a question and mentioned how much my kid was enjoying their COVID class. They said that they were blown away by enrollment— over 500 kids currently participating. Their average class size is only 750, which includes the conservatory kids.

Talk about brilliant marketing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I called Oberlin today with a question and mentioned how much my kid was enjoying their COVID class. They said that they were blown away by enrollment— over 500 kids currently participating. Their average class size is only 750, which includes the conservatory kids.

Talk about brilliant marketing.

You over-reaching oberlin boosters are wildly over-compensating for the one crazy oberlin basher on this board and you look pretty silly and pathetic.

[Anonymous]

^^^^oh, and insanely insecure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I called Oberlin today with a question and mentioned how much my kid was enjoying their COVID class. They said that they were blown away by enrollment— over 500 kids currently participating. Their average class size is only 750, which includes the conservatory kids.

Talk about brilliant marketing.

You over-reaching oberlin boosters are wildly over-compensating for the one crazy oberlin basher on this board and you look pretty silly and pathetic.

Stop being so mean. I have no connection to Oberlin but I’m impressed by their strategy. The virtual events we have watched have been pretty boring and lifeless. You can’t just take an in-person panel and convert it into a zoom conference call. Much better to think outside the box like Oberlin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Univ of Mary Washington has done a great job with communication and setting up topics, schedules, formats.

The topics were spread out over 2 weeks. Professors from different departments presented.
Sessions were in the evenings at 4, 5, and 6 p.m.
Then there's a zoom meeting at 7 from current students to discuss topics from the sessions.

While we were really excited about going to the Admitted Student Day, this format enabled us to see way more briefings than we would have gone to.

That sounds very nice. Did your kid watch the lectures? My kid who will be attending a different school refuses to watch any of the lectures or professor panels. Finds it boring virtually.

Yes my kid watched the lectures. Not all of them but definitely the ones she was interested in, plus the ones that I "made" her listen to.
She actually appreciated getting info and would get excited about little tidbits of info that she didn't expect. The lectures also had chats so it was pretty interactive.
It's usually 1 or 2 professors doing the presentations. Tonight we watched Geographic Information Science, which my kid had no interest in, but it was good to see what it was about. The other night, they had the Travel Abroad Program, Residence Life. Next week they have a webinar for "If you don't know what to major in"

The zoom meetings are all current students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin gets big time kudos from me. They have offered free enrollment to admitted students in a 2 credit COVID-19 through the lens of liberal arts class. There is an hour lecture from a professors from a different department each week (epidemiology of pandemics, psychology of loneliness, biochemistry of COVID, creative writing and trauma, etc). Assigned reading each week Then a breakout session with peer leaders where they discuss the lecture and answer questions about life at Oberlin.

My kid loves the class, and it’s the most thoughtful and innovative way I’ve seen to show students what the school is like. It’s probably not worth 2 college credits. But it’s been a great experience.

He’s been admitted to 7 other colleges— largely LACs. And none have anything close to Oberlin. Several are just now rolling out Webinars.

You have exactly described our views on the Oberlin program. The online class for credit has truly been a godsend when DS is missing out on so many senior year rituals. It's been an affirming experience, and has given him sustained exposure to professors and possible future classmates. The breakout session of 15 students has become the highlight of each week. He said yes this week and we sent in the deposit. He loved the college already, but this course sealed it for him. And for us as parents, it's great to see how well the school put together such an innovative experience.