Hello! This will probably sound like an odd question, but do colleges think a student is annoying when he or she calls about a transcript, notification date, etc.? My friends and I are split on two sides: the college thinks that the applicant is interested and enjoys his or her call OR the college thinks that the applicant is annoying and does not like answering these calls. What is your opinion?
- There is no universal answer to your question; each college has its own philosophy and concomitant policies.
- Some institution specifically value "interest," while others do not.
- However, no admissions employee wants to squander his time; therefore, be certain your questions are germane, concise, clear, and cannot be answered simply by referring to the school's website.
- Finally, some times during the annual admissions cycle are especially demanding and hectic for admissions personnel -- January through March are particularly bad -- accordingly, be sensitive to admissions' situation and imagine how your call/e-mail will be perceived BEFORE you contact the university.
People have a job to do. Let them do it. A telephone call for something easily found (such as a posted notification date) would annoy you if you had to field it. It’d annoy me. Apply the same logic.
It seems like most of the time if you call the admissions office with a question like that you talk to a student or staff member anyway.
And you don’t think their staff members are busy right now?? Agree with the above posts. Only call or email if you have a question that isn’t answered on the website.
If you call your admissions officer it should be for something that cannot be found online and cannot be handled by calling the general admission number (probably staffed by a student worker). IMO, admissions officers are a bit busy at this time and are not looking for calls.
This is common sense. Don’t call unless there is a real, unique reason for doing so.
D once emailed an admission office with a question and they called her back. She was very surprised but it turned out to be a very productive conversation for both sides. Keep in mind, she had a legitimate question about the school’s application - she wasn’t calling “to show interest”. I think her question may have arisen because she had looked carefully at the college’s website and course offerings.
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Lol I remember my interviewer saying Dartmouth likes interest and since I had an update to make to my application because of a project I was working on, I called them and the admissions officer just straight up ranted to me about how some other kids did this, and sent 10 page essays lmao. He said it’s fine as long as mine is only like a page.
Bottom line is, they’re kind, but also human. This whole thing must be quite stressful for them too. Don’t call them just to pass time and converse.
Agreed - I tell applicants at alumni interviews that if they have any updates to their application, like if they won an award or an article of theirs was published, they should call admissions and ask the best way to update their application.
I also think a call to the FA office is appropriate if a student has submitted FAFSA and there was a significant change in family circumstances. Yes, in both cases the website may be able to be searched to find answers, but both I think are significant enough to make a call.
Also consider that making a call might take only five minutes of their time, and sending an email that they have to read along with a zillion others may actually be worse. A call can be anonymous also.