Sarah Ball, 18, of Alexandria, Va., attended an accepted-student weekend at Stanford in 2003, and found the experience far too heavy on “obligatory bonding activities” like scavenger hunts. She’d have preferred meeting faculty. “Nothing but an overblown sales pitch,” she says. Georgetown schedules open houses during the week, so students can sit in on classes. Some schools make it a family thing. At George Washington University, parents are treated to nighttime tours of the nation’s capital, while siblings are treated to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Well, it beats having to traipse around the National Gallery.
