<p>DD applied early action everywhere she could and has 4 acceptances in hand, 3 from state flagships. She took the advice to only apply to colleges where she could see herself, so has ruled out none and is in a state of "no clue" at this point and trying not to think about it too hard as she still has 2 more applications outstanding. Student callers from all 4 schools where she's been accepted have called (multiple calls from 1 school), and she hates it because she feels like she is not ready to talk about the school even though it might end up being her choice. I end up feeling sorry for the student on the other end because the conversations have been very awkward. Since all the schools have called, it seems like it's almost standard now among the tier of schools to which she applied (somewhere below the most selective but still well within best school guidebook tiers.) I was a student caller way back when for admissions at my up-and-coming MBA program; I know back then the theory was that the person called would get a warm fuzzy feeling if called. So I'm wondering, how do other students feel about/handle such calls?</p>
<p>mystery2me - my D is similar - she was accepted to three schools in the fall and is waiting to hear from 6 others (The wait is driving us crazy!). One of the three schools she really liked. She visited twice prior to applying but has not revisited for an accepted student's day. Frankly she felt any one of the 9 schools she applied to she would be happy at. She didn't want to get her all excited about one without knowing what all the options are - especially when the price may make one look more or less appealing! She too has received phone calls and e-mails and thanks them and tells them she doesn't have any questions now but will contact them if she does. SO I am thinking if your D and my D are doing this they certainly can't be alone and those making the phone calls probably call on a fair number of students like this. Good luck to your D in making her decision.</p>
<p>As long as your D's are polite on the phone, because they might be at the other end of the line some day ;), it's fine to be non-committal. Just thank the caller for taking the time to call, and say that you're looking forward to making a decision next month.</p>
<p>Same with my daughter: 3 accepted, 7 waiting (oh...and one rejection). D's schools fit the OP's description in terms of selectivity; I wonder if the schools beyond the top 30 or so are in a very low yield situation where they get lots of applicants for whom their school is a safety and they try to gauge interest by phone responses to help their admissions people determine how many RD applicants to accept to get the desired yield.</p>
<p>my d received calls like this. it was interesting and she was pleased to be singled out but it was not the school she wanted to go to and was her very last choice. my guess is they call kids that seem over qualified for their school and see if they can interest them in coming. my d was looking for pre med and this school had it but not at the level she wanted. actually, when the honors part of the call came up, it did give us a reason to pause. but overall it was not the school for her and we all knew it.</p>
<p>S2 got one of these calls last night from a school he is 99.9% sure he will not be attending. He was not home at the time so I just told the caller that and that maybe she could catch him at another time. I'm not going to be the one to say he is not coming. S2's stats were prob. average to a tiny bit above average for this school but many in our area do use it for a safety school.</p>
<p>College recruitment student callers??? I'm an older parent, so this is a new one for me.</p>
<p>College recruitment student callers (who might be legitimate college students or who might be subcontracted "boiler room" employees claiming to be college students) sound like slickly-coached telemarketers who intend to intimidate your daughter into making a hasty commitment to their college. They know when they are going to call your daughter, and they know what they are going to say to your daughter, but your daughter is caught off-guard by their calls, and so, she is forced to scramble to respond to their calls discreetly and diplomatically. Your daughter already has enough on her plate; she should not have to deal with telemarketers. </p>
<p>I hate telemarketers. I don't care who they are or why they call. I think they should all be boiled in oil.</p>
<p>I suggest that you start screening all incoming calls with Caller ID (if you don't have it, get it ASAP) and an answering machine (if you don't already have one, get one ASAP), so that your daughter can respond to "ambush" calls from college recruitment student callers as she sees fit. Your daughter is not obligated to speak with prospective college "classmates." Period.</p>
<p>My son also got one of these calls, and thank goodness we have caller ID so he was prepared for the call. The student was very gracious but asked him if he planned to attend college X. My son politely told her he was still unsure but reassured her college X was in the running (true). This student subsequently sent him an email, encouraging him to email her if he had questions. While my son felt awkward, he still decided to answer the call.</p>
<p>My son has gotten several of these calls from two of our State Universities. I know he finds it awkward.</p>
<p>When my son got these calls, all of them except for one school, came from undergraduate students. One school actually did have a professional telemarketing company call to find out whether our son was attending!
Most students just asked our son if he had any questions that they could answer about their school, and then asked if he had made up his mind yet. He politely told everyone that he had not decided yet. I told my son not to worry about the final decision until all financial awards were on the table. This made it easy because 5 acceptances came off the table, and 5 stayed on the table based upon what we could afford. Our son had no problem with that because we warned him from the beginnning not to fixate on any one school, but only to apply to schools that he could make work. I did not want to end up with him saying that he was going to miserable at several schools which we could afford, and thankfully that did not happen.</p>
<p>My S actually got some good information from the student who called from Case Western, even though she was a humanities/social sciences major and he plans engineering. With all the engineering students at Case one would think they could have scraped together an engineering major to call him, but....</p>
<p>My D seems indifferent except from her first choice. But that seems normal to me.</p>
<p>Since we live out of the US, S used Grandma's phone number. He only got calls from one college, but Grandma said the caller was very nice, and she enjoyed talking to her.....</p>
<p>I am a "mom" and I got a call from another "mom" of a Seton Hall student this week. She said she had volunteered to call all the parents of accepted students in the midwest. Poor woman!</p>
<p>Thanks for all your perspectives.<br>
Karen Colleges, I love the grandmother story--it was probably enjoyable for the student, too, if s/he had just been through several calls like the ones with my D.<br>
Timecruncher, Although you are right that by definition they are telemarketing, these were not hard sales calls, and I am sure they were all students (albeit probably a job for at least some.) I think the thought is that students will feel good that a school is reaching out to them instead of it being one way. Even if they have to go through lots of kids like mine, when they do get someone like hikids D for whom it's a clear first choice, it's probably worth it. Before thinking about that, I was wondering if it was a waste of resources.
And, I'm just glad we don't have caller ID as I probably would have to answer the phone a lot more than I do now.</p>
<p>We received calls from 3 of the 4 schools my d was accepted to and they were all very nice. We did not get the impression that they were trying to hard sell or pressure her, rather they were students willing to answer any questions she might have. I also received calls from 2 mothers to see if I had any questions or concerns. I like the calls - it makes you feel like they care.</p>
<p>My D received one call from a college to see if she still wanted to apply, and she told them that she didn't. She received one call from a college asking if she was still planning to apply, and she told them she had already been accepted. So we don't have a great track record with the calls. At this point we're both so nervous about acceptances I think we'd LOVE a phone call!!</p>
<p>Yes, Grandma said the student was very nice, they chatted, and the student asked S to call if he had any questions, or wanted to know more about the program. Grandma hates telemarketers- she would have hung up on her, if she thought they were trying to drum up business.</p>
<p>Regardless of the "intentions" of the person calling, it is a good opportunity to ask a few questions and get to know the school better from an insiders point of view. If it is a paid telemarketing group, then most likely you will not get too much info and can politely leave the conversation. The schools are also trying to gauge the acceptance rate in order to build their RD or waitlist numbers. If you already have several acceptances in hand and are sure you will not be going to that school, then let them know, give someone else the opportunity to receive that wonderful acceptance letter that all of our kids are waiting to receive or elp someone get off the waitlist earlier.</p>