Better to visit during ASW or normal life?

[bedefan]

Hey all, I'm scheduling my visits and am wondering if anyone can say anything about the experience of visiting during an ASW v. the experience of arranging your own visit during a normal week.

My gut feeling is that I'll get a better sense for what life at the law school will really be like if I visit during the week and have the admissions office set up a class visit or two, lunch with a student, and a couple meetings with faculty...

...But that if I go to an ASW I'll get more more MORE! More meetings! More info sessions! Group lunches! Going out drinking with strangers! I.e. it will be more fun.

Anybody done visits both ways? Thoughts on pros/cons of different kinds of visits?

[SupraVln180]

I would say ASW simply because you get to meet some of your prospective classmates. (if you care about that sort of thing). I would say if you can't attend ASW, then a normal school day is fine. They kind of roll out the red carpet for admitted students week, so that can be nice.

[law_monkey]

I think there are pros and cons to both. I agree with the above poster that ASWs are a great way to meet potential classmates, and that's probably quite telling for what the school culture will be like. But some schools put a lot of effort into individual visits, so it's more personalized and you can get exact questions about certain programs answered or maybe even get the opportunity to meet with the people running/participating in those programs.

[mths]

I'd say coming to visit during an ASW is probably beneficial cause you'll still get the experience and some of the current students might be more inclined to hang out when there is an official weekend. It's hard to come during "normal life" cause you might catch the students at a time where everyone has some sort of assignment due and is logging ridiculous hours in the library.

[bedefan]

Thanks for the thoughts. Due to my own scheduling constraints I'll probably do at least one school visit non-ASW and at least one during an ASW... So if I remember I'll come back and post about what I saw as the relative benefits/drawbacks of the two kinds of visits.