Pre-Frosh Weekend Dates Clash

Students who received acceptance letters to multiple Ivy League-caliber institutions will have a test of time management this weekend as they learn they cannot be in two places at once.

Will it be Palo Alto, Providence or Boston?

Pre-frosh admitted to Stanford, Brown and Harvard will have to make a decision about which school’s visiting program to attend this weekend.

These three popular schools scheduled their visiting days on the same weekend.

Universities are constrained by the limited time between April 4, when acceptance letters are mailed, and May 1 when students must make final decisions about which school to attend.

April’s holiday schedule often creates time constraints for universities who decide to have weekend visiting programs. The universities do not consult each other about potential dates, so elite colleges often share visiting weekends and create a dilemma for students accepted to multiple schools, said Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath-Lewis ’70-’73.

Avoiding the conflicts created for students through open discussion of visiting program dates would “probably be illegal,” McGrath-Lewis said.

“If you are worried about restraint of trade, you probably should worry about dividing the calendar and making an agreement,” she said. “That would fall in the dangerous area.”

Attendance at pre-frosh weekend is thought by universities to promote admitted students’ enthusiasm for their school.

“For some students, the visiting program is the absolutely decisive event in their decision to come to Harvard,” McGrath-Lewis said.

Some Ivy League schools have avoided the visiting weekend entirely.

Yale’s Bulldog Days for admitted students were last Tuesday and Wednesday. The University of Pennsylvania allows its admits to attend a special program about undergraduate life any time between April 9 and 25.

Harvard’s April Visiting Program is intended to give accepted students an opportunity to meet current Harvard students as well as many of their future classmates and experience college life, according to the Freshman Dean’s Office website.

“For a lot of students, this is a victory tour,” McGrath-Lewis said. “It’s now sort of a ritual event and an important confirmation for students because most people who come to the program do in fact enroll.”

More than 1,000 pre-frosh are expected to converge on the Yard this weekend armed with traditional crimson folders.

—Nicole B. Usher can be reached at usher@fas.harvard.edu.