Harvard Visitas Draws Mixed Reviews as Students Compare Peer Admit Weekends

Students admitted to Harvard’s Class of 2030 said this year’s Visitas felt less structured than admitted student programs at peer institutions, with several describing the looser format of the College’s programming as both a selling point and a drawback.

Prospective students were welcomed to campus with an address by Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76. The two-day programming also included academic and extracurricular fairs, a forum with Dean of the College David J. Deming, and the annual debate between the Harvard College Democrats and the Harvard Republican Club. Admitted students have until Thursday to decide whether to enroll.

The Crimson spoke to more than a dozen Visitas attendees. Several had also attended Yale University’s “Bulldog Days” or Stanford University’s “Admit Weekend” and contrasted Harvard’s programming with what they labeled more centralized schedules at those schools.

Annie Lee, who said she was still deciding between Harvard and Yale, said Bulldog Days felt more “welcoming” because the day’s events were laid out clearly in advance.

“You had a lot of events to choose from to go to, whereas I feel like a lot of the Harvard events, you had to find out about them as you were going about the day,” Lee said. “So I think that made it a little more disorienting.”

Raymond Chen, who is also weighing offers from Stanford and Yale, placed Harvard’s Visitas programming at the bottom of his ranking.

“Most of the events that I found out about, especially startup events or informal student organization events like the Chinese Students Association, were mainly through flyers that I saw on campus or stuff that my friends told me about,” he said. “It made it a bit more difficult to plan things.”

Chen said he appreciated “the go with the flow aspect” of the weekend but still preferred Bulldog Days.

But other admitted students said they found the format appealing. Beau R. Chiasson, who chose Harvard over Yale and Stanford, said Visitas felt less like a recruiting pitch than an early version of student life.

“With Visitas, it’s kind of like you’re a Harvard student for two days,” Chiasson said.

“The reason I chose to commit was actually because of the fact that the Stanford and Yale events were so awesome,” he added. “If I choose not to do this, I’m gonna hold a regret for that for the rest of my life.”

Isabella L. Divietro, who attended both Bulldog Days and Visitas, said she thought the slate of Visitas events worked in Harvard’s favor by funneling admitted students into the same rooms.

“I think Harvard’s similar in that sense, but they had less options, which I think pushed more people to go to the same events and meant that you could meet more students,” Devitro said, adding that she was leaning toward Harvard.

For some admitted students, the more pressing question was not the schedule but Harvard’s finances. The University is locked in a months-long dispute with the Trump administration, which has frozen billions of dollars in federal research funding, and several departments have announced budget cuts and layoffs.

Jaemin Lee, who plans to concentrate in a STEM field — the field of study hit hardest by the cuts — said the funding fight had not changed his decision to commit.

“I don’t think it impacted my decision, but — more so as a future student — my level of concern,” he said. “It’s not something that has dissuaded me from coming to attend.”

Zeviel A. “Zevi” Pineda said Harvard had been his “dream school” two years ago, but that the cuts were now a major factor in his decision to commit. He cited a friend who had switched out of environmental engineering after losing program funding.

“I have one friend in particular who was doing environmental engineering, and then soon after that, some of her funding got cut, so she switched to electrical engineering,” Pineda said, adding that her experience had made him “wary” of Harvard.

Chen said he worried about how the cuts would affect undergraduates.

“With all the funding cuts, I was concerned, and I still remain slightly concerned, that Harvard might end up focusing on its graduate students more than its undergrads, which might jeopardize research opportunities and startup funding,” he said.

—Staff writer Celine Muir can be reached at [email protected] or Signal at celinem.33. Follow her on X @celinemuir1.

—Staff writer Alexa M. Schmitt can be reached at [email protected] or Signal at alexaschmitt.15. Follow her on X ​​@alexa_m15_s.