<p>DS and I attended a junior open house a week ago Monday. When he was there he introduced himself to the regional adcom and got his email address.</p>
<p>As soon as he got home, he emailed the adcom with a nice thank you note and a few general questions.</p>
<p>It's been a week, and no response. </p>
<p>I'm always unsure of what to do in these situations. Here is someone you don't want to criticize due to his or her position of influence, but it's just not right that they wouldn't even acknowledge receiving the email.</p>
<p>This is the second time this has happened at this school, which is my son's first choice. A few months ago he emailed the admissions office with questions about AP versus Comm College classes. No response.</p>
<p>Yikes. Sounds like the school my D attends! Seriously though, there could be good reasons for all this. The Adcom could still be "on the road" and not checking email, or s/he could be taking a well-deserved break after six straight weeks away from home. The admissions office may have a policy not to respond to individuals who haven't applied. Give the school another chance. Perhaps your son would be willing to send a second email to the AdCom, something along the lines of "Oh, I have one additional question ...."</p>
<p>I'm curious about this too. My daughter visited two schools at open houses and realized at school number 2 (which is number one choice, lol) that there were two very important questions that were unanswered at school number one. She emailed two short, succinct, specific questions (pardon the alliteration) two weeks ago and hasn't heard back. The answers to these questions really will decide whether she applies to this school or doesn't, and she is a very passive personality so it would be tough for her to press.</p>
<p>SBDad--I would give it a bit more time. I am guessing that this is the downtime for the admissions department. Maybe your regional rep is on a much needed vacation.</p>
<p>Big school or small school? I would consider that this is a very busy time for admissions people..would the school's website answer your son's questions? Can he call admissions office and ask over the phone? As far as AP vs comm college I do know that my son is in CA and he took some classes at comm college vs. AP. Best decision he made. The Comm college classes automatically transfer to college credit without the AP test, he had the experience of being in the comm college classes with working adults, and others not in high school....At our hs they also appear on the hs transcript but if that is not the case, just be sure he gets the transcript from the comm college before application time.<br>
As far as not responding to emails, not good. I would weigh it in when considering this school...but consider volume of emails and time of year too.</p>
<p>I would play dumb and call the admissions office, tell them that you have several questions about the school and ask who you should communicate with. If they give you the name of the person you have already contacted, tell them that you sent an email and haven't heard back and were wondering if they were on vacation or if you should give them more time to respond. When in doubt, play dumb.</p>
<p>I might give it a little more time. The admissions officers are frequently travelling. Still, some are much more responsive than others. Don't forget that they are being swamped with emails these days, especially since many college guides are promoting contact as a way to demonstrate your interest! I might be inclined to call the admissions office to find out what the officer prefers, for example email or a phone call for questions of this kind. If a phone call, what time of the day, or which particular day would be best to call? If you don't hear back at all for several weeks, I don't think there's anything wrong with a repeat email or followup phone call. Your frustration is understandable but your instincts are right on target, criticizing the admissions officer in any way would not be a very good move!! </p>
<p>As far as your son's questions, is it possible that this is something that you could answer yourself by searching the school's website? Most schools have a wealth of info available there if you look for it. In our case, though, when all else failed the bottom line usually was a phone call.</p>
<p>If your son has specific questions or concerns that relate to any of the academic areas of the school, email the dean or head of the department directly. Believe it or not, my son did this for Penn State, Ohio State, and Ohio Univ (all very large schools) and got an answers within 2 days!!! He had several questions and conerns about integrating music with engineering; opprotunities to play in ensembles, instrument storage, and I don't know what all. I was pretty impressed with that!</p>
<p>Another good person to ask questions to is a dean of first year students, if the school has one.</p>
<p>I concur that admissions people are super busy and this might be a bad time of year for them and they travel a lot...</p>
<p>I would say give it a little time as most admissions officers are just wrapping up their class of 2010 admissions. There is really no time lost as most schools will not have their applications made available until the summer.</p>
<p>You don't want to be remembered for being a pest (and turning people off)</p>
<p>After a large program, the number of these messages coming in is large and while I try to keep up with them and send short acknowledgements, I know a few slip through. Sometimes, I find one that I lost track of a few days ago, sometimes [whisper] it's from a few weeks ago[/whisper]. </p>
<p>Not many of my colleagues do this, but I have my IM address on my business card and encourage students to use it. It's easy to put aside what I'm doing to chat for a few minutes and answer questions. I hope more start doing this so those quick questions CAN get answered without a long wait.</p>
<p>definitely give it more time, since some schools are just gong thru wait lists. </p>
<p>btw: Son and I went to a college tour and info session. Since it was our local rep that was presenting. S went up and introduced himself after the meeting. It was a quiet day, so I asked about legacy status, which really got his attention (since I had attended). Since everyone else had long goneThe discussion turned into a 20 min impromptu interview. When we got home, S sent a letter (snail mail), thanking him for his time, and asking a few additional questions. Rep got back to S four months later, AFTER the app deadline. NKeedless to say, S did not apply.</p>
<p>Any of us in the working world know how difficult it can be to answer every email that comes in. Yes, the admissions folks are professionals involved in dealing with the outside. Still, the avalanche of email can be unnerving.</p>
<p>If you really want the answer, and did not send the f/u email just to build a correspondence record, you might forward the original email after about two weeks again to the contact (so they know you sent it before) along with a short intro to the effect that "you might have missed this last time...."</p>
<p>Keep in mind, too, that the email recipient may not know the answer. Sometimes a different approach, like "can you put me in contact with the person who might know...." will work better. </p>
<p>Believe it or not, a call to action, which you think should be understood, will usually result in more responses.</p>
<p>If you must know the answer to the questions right now,call the admissions office.Someone will pick up the phone,and if they don't know the answer,will transfer you to speak to someone who does know.If you are e mailing so there is a so called "paper trail of interest" know that the admissions offices are still in a busy time period,wait lists and admitted freshman questions and all...give it a few more weeks..June is time enough to get those questions answered..the new 2007-2008 applications arent even out yet.</p>
<p>MANY admissions people take time off during the month of May, the downtime between the end of this year's admissions season and the start of next year's. I would not read anything into this about the school or the admissions counselor. Also keep in mind that schools that get large number of applicants may not answer all emails. Again, don't read too much into this.</p>
<p>As Cathy suggests, if it is a question your son really needs answered immediately, then a phone call is in order. If it's something that is just a general question, look on the website for the information and perhaps send a polite follow up email in a week or two.</p>
<p>These are certainly not questions that require an immediate response. The issue that was puzzling to DS was the mixed message.</p>
<p>At the presentation, the adcom's said things like "we love to hear from you" and "we want your questions", ect. </p>
<p>My point is, if you can't effeciently handle the emails, maybe you shouldn't encourage them.</p>
<p>Also, maybe they should consider an auto reply system - "Hi, thanks for the email, I'm taking a little time off and promise I will get back with you soon."</p>
<p>Well, I would think this sign of miscommunication is a problem. Right now it is a tiny one and I would encourage your son to follow up on that, he can email to another admission person or dean of admissions, call etc. If it is a repeated problem I would think twice about applying to such place- just think about all aggravation one has to do trying to communicate with such place for years. Thankfully, even that my D kept communcations channels with several schools all of them were extremely responsive in returing calls, sending emails and answering all questions. There was one incident when admission person she kept in touch with did not answer to her email, later we learnt that person quit his position.</p>
<p>Okay, MANY adcom people are on the road right now, doing tours, all over the country...they may visit several schools in a day, do group meetings with other schools, etc...</p>
<p>Imagine living out of a hotel for weeks, seeing hundreds and hundreds of kids, and then going back at night sitting in front of a computer</p>
<p>Give the person a break</p>
<p>In this week alone, we have recieved invitations to six different college things</p>
<p>As well, you have kids coming off of waitlists, the schools trying to do all the admitted students, figuring who is in who is not, etc</p>
<p>Take a breath, and do not read too much into this, because from what I have seen, the adcom people are out and about the country now</p>
<p>I would say if you don't need to contact an admissions person, don't. They aren't going to remember you first of all - at large schools they see thousands of students - very few students are remembered - and it's usually the annoying ones. </p>
<p>Just find the answers on the web. 99% of the answers you seek are on the web. :)</p>
<p>Just a couple notes. First, the adcoms really encouraged the kids to email them with questions. If they are too busy to respond, they shouldn't encourage them. Second, the answers to the questions are not found on the website.</p>
<p>It's interesting. We can read articles, forums and books about colleges until we are blue in the face, but when it comes down to it, it is our personal interactions with the institution that will carry the most weight. </p>
<p>From some of your comments, it sounds like you believe timely responses to emails is a level of service which we should not expect. Call me crazy, but when we are about to spend $200,000 with an institution, I would expect a higher standard than that.</p>