<p>S has applied to a number of schools and has received some great acceptances. He is now trying to decide where to attend. One of the things that he has noted is the responsiveness and organization of the different admissions departments. A couple really stand out. A couple had problems tracking the information and seem a bit unready for the tidal wave of applications. They have been uniformly nice and helpful.</p>
<p>Do you think the quality, efficiency and responsiveness of the admissions department is an indication of the performance of the other administrative departments? A couple of the smaller LACs (with student body of about 2,500) have been amazing in their responsiveness. I wonder if that is due to the counselor assigned to our state, the admissoins department itself, or the school just being very good administratively across the board.</p>
<p>Its like buying a car - the salesman might be nice and helpful when purchasing, but how is the dealership to work with when you have a problem with your new car...</p>
<p>I think it may reflect on the general responsiveness of the administration somewhat, but I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in it. Admissions has a different mission than the rest of the school. how about emailing or calling the department of your S’s planned major with some specific questions and see how responsive they are. Also call the registrar’s office with specific questions and see how much help you get from them. You are smart to be thinking about this!</p>
<p>S’s & D’s experiences at their schools is you are DONE with admissions department after orientation. Regsitration for classes, housing, etc. are very different.</p>
<p>I’m sure that exceptionally well-managed institutions have well-managed admissions departments. I am also sure that there are plenty of well-managed admissions departments at institutions that otherwise have crummy administration, as well as disorganized admissions departments at institutions whose housing office or bursar’s office are pleasant and responsive. And I am pretty sure that, unless you have dealt with the admissions department over a number of years and a number of applicants, you probably aren’t in a position to judge how well it is managed (as opposed to having good luck with the rep assigned to your region).</p>
<p>So, no, I don’t think how easy it is to deal with the salespeople gives you a whole lot of reliable information about the rest of the institution. If the admissions office seems to run well, that makes it more likely that the rest of the institution will run well, too, but only more likely, not anything like certain.</p>
<p>I work at a university, and in my experience here, no, the admissions department does not necessarily reflect the rest of the university as far as organization/efficiency.</p>
<p>My institution is a public school that admits almost all applicants, so it is probably not reflective of more selective schools where extensive analysis/decision-making takes place in admissions.</p>
<p>Our admissions office has a fairly high turnover of staff and relies on student workers to do a lot of the processing. They also have several lowly paid staff members who do the bulk of the entry into the computer system. They tend to be somewhat lax regarding quality control. In fact, in my job I often have to correct their errors and spend a lot of my time devoted to this. Their director’s attitude is that they are too busy to be careful, and we can’t expect them to be error-free.</p>
<p>Our registrar’s office, in contrast, feels it is their duty to NEVER make an error, because they are dealing with the student’s academic record. They are organized, careful, methodical, fair, and sometimes a tad bit legalistic.</p>
<p>These two offices are right next to each other and share some office space. It’s a pretty interesting juxtaposition!</p>
<p>And, as mentioned above, most students once enrolled do not deal with the admissions office, unless they are a student worker/student ambassador/tour guide.</p>
<p>I agree that there really isn’t much correlation between the quality of the admissions office and the caliber of other administrative offices and departments. Admissions is part of a college’s marketing arm; they hire youngish, attractive, enthusiastic people to sell the product. These reps work for the college for a while and then go on to other things.</p>