<p>Does anyone else occasionally find the presence of the admissions officers on a specific school's forum unsettling? I feel like it is hard for students/current parents to give a realistic description sometimes... like some people tiptoe around the negative stuff.</p>
<p>I don’t frequent forums that have an adcom as a regular presence. Do you mean people – prospies or current parents/kids – are afraid to be honestly critical of the institution?</p>
<p>Yes, that is what I mean. A thread will be moving along with some interesting info juusssttt coming to light, and the Admissions person will jump in with a comment. Dead useful sometimes, but it feels stifling at other times. I think prospies can be reluctant about what they post (don’t want to be identified, and afraid to bring up any negatives they have heard in case they are identified).</p>
<p>I see where that could be a problem if you know someone who could have your future in their hands is watching. There are a couple of times where I’ve seen parents whose kids are at a certain school get really defensive at any implied criticism, but an actual adcom is a different matter. You could try writing the mods about the stifling effect it has and see if they could get the adcom to pull back a bit.</p>
<p>I really like the Dean’s posts (if you are talking about who I’m thinking of ;)) Most of the comments are from kids who hear rumors and tend to dramatize a lot of the time. Having that voice of authority present I think reminds me that there are real people reading those applications who want us to be informed of the process. As far as the negative comments, I think the only valid ones would come from current/former students of the school and they don’t seem to care about admissions. I was reading the Dean’s comments before S EVER even talked about applying to that school and I thought it was helpful.</p>
<p>^ I agree with rom828. I think it’s wonderful that the Dean cares enough to provide an insider’s viewpoint to the whole process.</p>
<p>The two adcom types I’ve seen post have both been pretty measured/helpful in their responses, but I accept that there might be others out there who aren’t. I guess I’d have to read it for myself to see if I really think there was a problem.</p>
<p>Not the Dean, actually. But in general on any thread with an admissions person on it… I sort of forget they are there, then am startled when they post (and immediately do a mental review of what I have posted – too much info? was I critical of the school? etc.). I haven’t done/said anything I have regretted, but it just feels kind of big-brotherish.</p>
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<p>Is a good question to ask when posting on a public forum, just in general, imho.</p>
<p>I like Dean J’s posts, but I also realize it is a brilliant marketing move to be in contact on this board. fwiw</p>
<p>This topic is particularly timely for me…As a parent, I have become somewhat disenchanted by the very active participation of the admissions officer on the forum where D goes to school. Initially, s/he only popped up once in a while, but now there are multiple posts at least once a day. It seems very helpful to applicants and potential applicants, but there seems to be a significant chilling effect on participation from current students and parents, including me.</p>
<p>Poetgirl, for example, one of my kids has a learning disability. I would like to know how the college deals with things like that from the viewpoint of parents and students (not just what the college has to say about it). And we may or may not choose to reveal this in the admission process, not sure yet. We certainly will look very carefully at the options once acceptances are in hand to make sure she is in an appropriate environment. But I feel VERY uncomfortable asking questions like that on the forum… if I ask that, and the admissions person manages to glean something else from my posts that identifies my kid, then I have lost the anonymity of asking that type of question.</p>
<p>No. I understand. </p>
<p>My oldest is a gifted dyslexic. SHE chose to disclose. She said she didn’t want to go to a school that didn’t want her just the way she was. She got some excellent acceptances from top 25 schools, and then chose the school she liked the best (not top 25 US News, but top 1 D 
)</p>
<p>I’m for disclosing, personally. Pro transparency in the app process.</p>
<p>But, then, I think the process works very well, with a very few exceptions, and most of the kids end up at schools where they do well and are pretty happy. (all things considered.) YMMV</p>
<p>Oh, and for what it’s worth, I don’t think the admissions officers are on here to detect kids faults so much as to market the school and to present a positive image. I think they are way more concerned with how YOU are seeing them on this board than with how THEY are seeing you. JMO</p>
<p>I really don’t think ad officers are spending any time trying to figure out who is who. At least the ones I have observed spend their time allaying kid’s fears, explaining deadlines and answering questions about the college or the application process. When I introduced myself to the one at the college my son will be attending, he recognized a couple of names. </p>
<p>For me the only downside is that I sometimes I wonder if I should answer a question or wait for the official response which generally appears eventually. On balance I think they are a good thing and wonder why every college doesn’t participate.</p>
<p>While they are very helpful to incoming/prospective students and their parents, constant and voluminous participation changes the character of the discussion on the forum…it certainly has in the case of D’s college. When I looked at the entire threads for the five new posts appearing this morning, almost half of the posts were from the admissions officer. I went back in time looking at the thread listings, and well over 90% of the threads in the last 6 months were “ended” by a post from the admin officer. </p>
<p>One of today’s posts was critical of input by a parent. This has happened before and seems inappropriate. It is also odd when the admin officer participates in answering questions addressed to students, or threads students start to help with new applicants or accepted students.</p>
<p>Eyeballing the record of posts, I estimate there are at most 50 unique current or future applicants that are being served by the info from this admin officer. There seem to be many more “chance” inquiries than in past years, and s(he) addresses them all, so maybe word is getting around and more students are joining or using CC because of it…a good thing for CC. But I wonder about those who don’t know about CC and whether they are also getting responsive replies.</p>
<p>ok - came across the posts you are talking about. I agree the tone is a bit stiffling. I understand now exactly where you are coming from.</p>
<p>I am grateful for admissions officers who take the time to post on CC. While I don’t know which threads are referred to above, I do know that sometimes the reason that threads are ended by an admissions officer is that an AO is able to end rampant, uninformed speculation by revealing the truth.</p>
<p>I appreciate informational messages like “we just sent out 100 offers of admission to several candidates, the remainder will be sent in 3 weeks” or “it’s easy to change your ED application to an ED one if you just do X Y and Z.”</p>
<p>However, this:</p>
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<p>is too much. Chancing students, raving about the wonderful town that college X is located in, and bragging about the latest thing Professor Y has done isn’t really informational - it’s advertising.</p>
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The admissions officers I’ve seen here on CC have explicitly stated that they don’t do chances threads. I’ve also occasionally corrected one of them. (He said that Linear Algebra would always be more difficult than AP Stats. I have no doubt that it looks more impressive, but in fact at our school the AP Stats teacher finishes the AP curriculum in November spending the rest of the year on real stats, while the Lin Alg teacher didn’t even do a semester’s worth of college material.)</p>
<p>mathmom, this one does respond to chance threads, commenting on strengths and weaknesses in the info provided in the request. </p>
<p>My point is that the character of the forum has changed from one that I enjoyed because of the variety of voices to be “heard,” to one I visit far less frequently and often don’t read even when I do.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for the Parent Cafe!</p>
<p>OK, found what you’re talking about and definitely agree. Nothing I read seemed wrong individually, but when looked at collectively, the person does present as the authority on the board, and that’s really different from how most of the forums operate. People are deferential to him/her and even start threads looking for him/her. I think the school could accomplish the same thing on its own site on a blog.</p>
<p>I think you should PM him/her and let him/her know how he/she is coming off. I’m sure the poster doesn’t mean to come across as he/she does and is well-meaning. But I will tell you it gives me a negative impression of the school, and I’m not sure that’s what they mean to do.</p>