<p>The William and Mary person does seem to chance people that are not seniors already (giving suggestions as to how they can improve their chances). The William and Mary board does seem to currently have lots of posts by their admissions person. The UVa board’s Dean J posts fairly often but the threads seem more balanced with many other posters posting and responding to issues as well. The William and Mary board does seem to currently be dominated by posts from their admissions person. Perhaps those that have a William and Mary connection could address the issue on that board specifically(or PM the admissions person as Youdon’tsay suggested). The William and Mary person does seem to be trying to be helpful and many posters do seem to appreciate the posts.</p>
<p>At least if you know the person is a dean, you can take what he says with that understanding. On the forum of one school there’s a poster who I suspect is really an admissions officer in disguise. He seems to have a little too much information about administrative deadlines, admissions policies, and ALL things school-related. IMO, he has a suspicious amount of time and interest in posting detailed and uniformly positive replies, given that he’s supposedly a freshman at an elite school. I’ve been tempted at times to say, “Really? You’re posting again? Don’t you have to study or something? Aren’t you passionately involved in some amazing extra-curricular that you should be engaged in now?”</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know who or what college you are talking about. I occasionally follow three forums where there is an admissions staff person who posts regularly, as well as student aides in the admissions office who also post regularly. In each case, it is enormously helpful almost all the time. Even when they are parroting some official line that doesn’t make complete sense, it’s useful to know that is the official line, and others are usually willing to point out its flaws. (My favorite: Interviews can only help you, not hurt you, and the lack of an interview doesn’t matter.) But none of these people (and none of the student aides, either, for that matter) would touch a “chances” post with a 10-foot cyberpole.</p>
<p>I’m sure admissions people are deeply ambivalent about something like CC. They would prefer to drive kids to their own blogs and forums, where they can control the message and tone a little better. (Not to mention capture IP addresses if it seems useful.) But the open-forum discussions here are often decent sources of mostly-unfiltered information, and on the whole they tend to show the colleges in a favorable (and accurate) light. So it’s a good context for intervening to correct misleading folklore and to present the appearance of friendliness and hipness.</p>
<p>There is an Admissions Rep on the forum for the U my S attended. I found it extremely helpful. The Rep was accessible to answer all kinds of questions, gave a lot of valuable information.</p>
<p>These are very busy people. I cannot imagine that they would spend any time trying to track down the id of a kid/parent who posted questions or criticisms.</p>
<p>If someone behaved outlandishly on the forum… maybe they’d put in a bit of effort; not even sure about that.</p>
<p>ETA: That rep, like me, does not <em>do</em> chances.</p>
<p>I think the Admissions Rep on the University of Rochester thread is the perfect example of how it should be done.</p>
<p>He answers questions without being invasive. I don’t know these other threads being talked about but maybe the questionable rep should head over to that thread and see how it can work very well.</p>
<p>An honest question – what’s the reason for the “chilling” effect? What do posters fear the officer will do if there’s a disagreement on the thread, especially where the student is already enrolled? I guess if someone were being abusive, that might cause me to avoid the forum, but I feel entitled to disagree with university staff, doubly so if I were a current student/parent.</p>
<p>Okay, I went to the William and Mary board and EVERY single thread, with the exception of two, on the front page, ends with a post by “W&M Admissions”…I could see where that would be incredibly chilling on the conversation. EEK!</p>
<p>Dean J on the UVA board just seems (even in his choice of name) to be so much more amiable and unobtrusive. JMO</p>
<p>poetgrl,Dean J on the UVa board is actually a woman and is usually very helpful and does not dominate the board(as the William and Mary person seems to be doing recently) .</p>
<p>I’m the parent of a student whose admissions rep is on the board. I don’t find it chilling in the least, since once a kid’s in, s/he has little to do with the admissions office. It doesn’t matter whether the rep likes what I have to say or not; it couldn’t possibly affect my child.</p>
<p>That being said, the rep on my kid’s board seems to be one who “gets it right.”</p>
<p>Let me join the Dean J fan club. I think she offers exactly the right balance of correcting posts that offer inaccurate information, but also directs the students in how to research the answers to their questions and resolve their problems. I think that’s a real plus - while she certainly answers questions, she’ll also direct posters to the sources of accurate and reliable information.</p>
<p>I noticed in the Featured Discussions that another college rep(for the University of Oregon) was announced recently by Roger Dooley. I wonder how many schools on CC actually do have active college reps on their schools’s board and what if any guidelines for participation the reps are given by the moderators?</p>