Revisit Day is the experience offered to admitted students before they must commit to attending. Especially if you were not able to visit any or all campuses, revisit day is a terrific opportunity to understand what daily life at a school actually looks and feels like, and to make an enrollment decision with real information rather than impressions gathered during a formal tour.
Note about the timing of this article: This article was written before decision day (March 10th), and is therefore based on web research / student tour guide insights. Should my daughter be honored with an opportunity to revisit a campus, I'll write about it in a follow-up article.
What Revisit Day Is
Revisit Days are typically offered in late March or April, after admissions decisions have been sent and before the enrollment commitment deadline (usually April 10th). Schools invite admitted students to spend time (usually one to two days) on campus as a quasi-member of the community.
Formats vary by school, but most Revisit Days include: attending actual classes (often with a student host or in a subject of the admitted student's choosing), sharing meals in the dining hall with current students, spending time in dorms, participating in organized activities or panels, and conversations with faculty, coaches, or program leads relevant to the student's interests.
Why It Matters More Than You Think
The campus tour you took during the application process was curated. Tours are not scripted, but cover the same broad spectrum of topics that have been optimized to fit into 40 minutes for everyone.
Revisit Day is different, especially insomuch as it's for an extended period of time and is more relaxed. Your child can focus on taking everything in (vs. stressing about interviews and the rest of the application process).
This is also your child's first chance to spend time with other admitted students from their potential incoming class — the people they'd be living with, studying with, and building friendships with. That social chemistry is harder to assess from a tour, and it matters.
What to Pay Attention To
Encourage your child to notice: How do students interact with each other in the dining hall — is it warm and social, or more fragmented and clique-driven? How does the classroom environment feel — is the energy collaborative or competitive? Do students seem genuinely happy, or performatively so? Does the dorm feel livable and comfortable, or cold and institutional?
As a parent, pay attention to: how the school's staff and faculty interact with visiting families, whether the logistics of the day feel welcoming and organized or rushed and impersonal, and the overall impression of how the school communicates its values versus what you're actually observing.
Questions Worth Asking During Revisit Day
This is also the moment to ask the questions you couldn't ask during the formal tour — because now the stakes are real and the audience is honest:
- What do you wish you'd known before you enrolled?
- What's the hardest part of being here?
- What do you do on Saturday afternoons?
- How do you feel about your advisor / dorm parent?
- What surprised you most about life here?
If You're Choosing Between Schools
If your child has been admitted to more than one school, treat the Revisit Days as a comparison exercise. Try to attend both. The impression left by each Revisit Day is often the deciding factor for students who arrive with competing offers and genuine uncertainty.
Pay attention to the gut feeling your child has at the end of a Revisit Day — the one they can't fully articulate but won't stop talking about.