My D was invited to 2 of these overnights. One was called a “scholars weekend” and the other a “preview”.

Transportation was paid by the university for both.

She had high stats and is not a URM.

There are such programs where you mu apply first. But she didn’t apply for these at all. They had her test scores though since we sent them very early.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter was able to arrange overnights at 6 of her 7 admits. You will find (at least for SLAC’s) that they often offer this option on the Admitted Student Day weekends. We asked for it at each school. Only the public SLAC declined (though said she could arrange it on her own, if she had contacts).

These visits were her unscripted window into the schools (vs paid tour guides) and did influence her decision.

Even unpaid tour guides, like Princeton's, are supposed to give a positive spin on everything. Random students are much more frank.

My bad. They've been paid since 2011. Princeton tour guides were chipper even when they were unpaid, however.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter was able to arrange overnights at 6 of her 7 admits. You will find (at least for SLAC’s) that they often offer this option on the Admitted Student Day weekends. We asked for it at each school. Only the public SLAC declined (though said she could arrange it on her own, if she had contacts).

These visits were her unscripted window into the schools (vs paid tour guides) and did influence her decision.

Even unpaid tour guides, like Princeton's, are supposed to give a positive spin on everything. Random students are much more frank.

Anonymous wrote:DC has friends at all his top choices, so he did unofficial stays by just texting them and crashing in their dorms. At one school, the RA gave him the key to an empty room. Some have a system for prospective students to attend classes. Others prohibit drop-ins to seminars but anyone can walk into a lecture. DC liked them because there were no smarmy backwards-walking tour guides or canned promotional speeches, just him and actual potential schoolmates, classes, and campus life.

Many private colleges will at least let your child visit classes and perhaps the cafeteria with enough advanced notice. Great experience for my DD!

Bryn Mawr does

My daughter was able to arrange overnights at 6 of her 7 admits. You will find (at least for SLAC’s) that they often offer this option on the Admitted Student Day weekends. We asked for it at each school. Only the public SLAC declined (though said she could arrange it on her own, if she had contacts).

These visits were her unscripted window into the schools (vs paid tour guides) and did influence her decision.

DC has friends at all his top choices, so he did unofficial stays by just texting them and crashing in their dorms. At one school, the RA gave him the key to an empty room. Some have a system for prospective students to attend classes. Others prohibit drop-ins to seminars but anyone can walk into a lecture. DC liked them because there were no smarmy backwards-walking tour guides or canned promotional speeches, just him and actual potential schoolmates, classes, and campus life.

DD did it as an athletic recruit.

While it does seem a lot of these are for accepted (but not yet committed) students these days -- some colleges definitely do let prospective applicants spend the night. Some of DD's friends did it at various colleges before they were accepted, I know. DD did it as a accepted student at the college she now attends (freshman, so all this is pretty recent, FYI).

OP, are you looking at what's listed on university and college admissions websites? That's a good start, but once your DD has some places that are truly of interest to her, I recommend that she (not you) e-mail the admissions office and ask if she can arrange an individual overnight. If she can't get an overnight she should contact departments of interest and see if they'll let her come by when she's visiting campus to see the department facilities--my DD did that and to our pleasant surprise, four departments at two colleges were very receptive, and one department chair invited her to attend classes the day she was on campus.

My son did one.

Many of the SLACs still do this and some even host fly-in events where students can visit with a group of others from their region. I know my older daughter did this when she was applying to college a few years ago. She visited Kenyon, Oberlin, Grinnell, Bates etc..

Not sure a bigger school would arrange a chance to spend the night, but most schools allow you to attend classes as a senior.

There are some programs that focus on disadvantaged URMs. They are typically referred to as fly-in programs.

Some colleges might still offer overnight stays, though it does seem more common for accepted students (and even then, many colleges do not offer them).

The section of the college's admission website will describe what types of tours and visits are available to prospective applicants.

I did this during the 1990s as a prospective student applying to Northwestern. It looks like colleges and universities have these programs reserved for accepted students now.

It makes sense with the numbers of students applying and it helps students make up their minds on where they will actually attend. Probably some yield protection hopes in there too.

You will see overnights for athletic recruits.

About a thousand years ago when I was doing my own college search, I told the universities I was coming and they set up overnight stays for me, hosted by a freshman student. I stayed in their dorm room, hung out with them during the day, and they typically took me to a frat party in the evening.

Now that my dd is a junior I'm looking around and haven't seen anything like this. Am I looking the wrong place or does this kind of thing no longer exist?