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How beneficial would it be to visit a school after applying ED if you have median numbers? I know visiting is a good way to show interest, but ED is the ultimate interest. Can you boost your chances by showing up in person to make a good impression? Any experiences?

adampres wrote:How beneficial would it be to visit a school after applying ED if you have median numbers? I know visiting is a good way to show interest, but ED is the ultimate interest. Can you boost your chances by showing up in person to make a good impression? Any experiences?

It can't hurt. Though, the person that is giving you a tour will probably be a 3L, not an admissions officer. For example, I just took a tour at GW with a 3L and I didn't have to give any information that they could use to link me to my application. Just my name, which is pretty common. Again, it can't hurt but I doubt it will give you any significant advantage.

evandm wrote:

adampres wrote:How beneficial would it be to visit a school after applying ED if you have median numbers? I know visiting is a good way to show interest, but ED is the ultimate interest. Can you boost your chances by showing up in person to make a good impression? Any experiences?

It can't hurt. Though, the person that is giving you a tour will probably be a 3L, not an admissions officer. For example, I just took a tour at GW with a 3L and I didn't have to give any information that they could use to link me to my application. Just my name, which is pretty common. Again, it can't hurt but I doubt it will give you any significant advantage.

FWIW, the admissions office at my school asks the tour guides for advice regarding the prospective students that are given the tour. The dean of admissions didn't make it seem like this was a trivial piece of information when deciding on an applicant, either. This could help or this could hurt, depending on what kind of impression you give.

Thought I'd post this LSN profile - read the Additional Information portion - to give you a positive idea about how visiting might work out. Though this person delivered the ED contract while touring, it seemed to work out very well for him to visit the campus:

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/sundance95

Helmholtz wrote:

evandm wrote:

adampres wrote:How beneficial would it be to visit a school after applying ED if you have median numbers? I know visiting is a good way to show interest, but ED is the ultimate interest. Can you boost your chances by showing up in person to make a good impression? Any experiences?

It can't hurt. Though, the person that is giving you a tour will probably be a 3L, not an admissions officer. For example, I just took a tour at GW with a 3L and I didn't have to give any information that they could use to link me to my application. Just my name, which is pretty common. Again, it can't hurt but I doubt it will give you any significant advantage.

FWIW, the admissions office at my school asks the tour guides for advice regarding the prospective students that are given the tour. The dean of admissions didn't make it seem like this was a trivial piece of information when deciding on an applicant, either. This could help or this could hurt, depending on what kind of impression you give.

Interesting, I guess it depends on the school. My guide never asked for our names or anything else so there is no way she would've been able to report back to admissions.

esq wrote:Thought I'd post this LSN profile - read the Additional Information portion - to give you a positive idea about how visiting might work out. Though this person delivered the ED contract while touring, it seemed to work out very well for him to visit the campus:

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/sundance95

He's a member here on LSN too so a PM could be useful. Sounds like it made a positive difference.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess it will just come down to travel costs and weighing that against an unknown positive benefit. Probably deserves a call to the admissions committee once the app is in, wouldn't you think?

2014 wrote:

esq wrote:Thought I'd post this LSN profile - read the Additional Information portion - to give you a positive idea about how visiting might work out. Though this person delivered the ED contract while touring, it seemed to work out very well for him to visit the campus:

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/sundance95

He's a member here on LSN too so a PM could be useful. Sounds like it made a positive difference.

Eh, I dunno. His numbers (170+ 3.0+) made him auto-admit for UVA ED, so I'm not sure if visiting the school actually made a difference in his cycle. If I wanted to be cynical (and I do), I'd say this just proves how numbers-based the admissions process (and particularly UVA's ED admissions process) is: they saw his numbers, quickly glanced over his application, and gave him the call. It was a nice touch on behalf of UVA, but I'm not sure it says anything about the effect of visiting a school.

Do you have any additional info to suggest that ED to Virginia is a very strong benefit? It doesn't seem that 170+/3.0+ is auto-admit with UVA. Does ED make that big of a difference there?

I know this may be a long shot; but has anyone applied ED to Notre Dame and then visited as OP said? If so, help, hurt, no noticeable difference?

adampres wrote:Do you have any additional info to suggest that ED to Virginia is a very strong benefit? It doesn't seem that 170+/3.0+ is auto-admit with UVA. Does ED make that big of a difference there?

Yes. Search the forums (UVA Class of '14 thread provides the most recent data), or check out the ED applicants on LSN. UVA is incredibly formulaic with their ED admissions. For traditional splitters (such as the case in question), everyone with a 170+ has been accepted; 169s have all been waitlisted.

You might as well do it even they already know how interested you are. I went on a visit to Michigan this September -- October is a busy month for me and Nov. it will be cold lol -- ans I managed having a sit down interview/ Q and A with one of the admissions officials. It was probably just because I did it before there were too many people but you never know. If your numbers are at the median it could hurt you if you not a great interviewer I guess but probably not. At the same time, there are people who apply ED at a slight reach to get a leg up and there are people who apply ED because there is nowhere else they would rather be and want it to be 1000% sure thats where they go. If you come off ans the latter then that could help you -- those people become donors.