<p>Would it be unprofessional or come off looking needy, if i were to request to talk to an admission officer and to ask them how i would look in the applicant pool with my application in detail? My counslor told me that this was okay, but kinda frowned upon. Anyone has done this or anything?</p>
<p>Is there something unusual about your candidacy that the common data set and other data points can’t give you a good read?</p>
<p>There is a general separation of admission from financial aid office. Need blind schools are adament about it. You should not talk to financial aid about where you stand in the applicant pool. They have no clues. Furthermore, financial aid is only involved after you are selected for admission. I don’t know why your councilor thinks otherwise.</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP is taking about Financial Aid. I think they mean that would it be a bad idea if:</p>
<p>they spoke to an admissions counselor with their transcript/EC’s/whatever and asked for a prediction in how they would stand in the applicant pool of a college presumably compared against the applicants this year as there’s no way of know how it’ll look next year.</p>
<p>Personally, I didn’t know that was possible but can understand how it would be frowned upon. If the admissions counselor doesn’t mind I’d say go for it if you’re that curious or something more accurate that your own judgments based off common data. Unless it’s a small enough school that the person will recall your application if you apply next year and that may put you at a disadvantage but at bigger schools I doubt they’d car enough to keep track even if it is “frowned upon”. I might try it myself.</p>
<p>Of course that’s all assuming you find an admissions counselor willing. I’m not sure at all but I’d think they’d be wary of doing that.</p>
<p>That’s what they do after you apply.</p>
<p>Any counselor worth his or her salt would not have such a discussion because it could lead to problems down the road. If the counselor says, “Your application would be strong” or “You’re the kind of kid we’re looking for”, the kid can, and probably would, hear, “You’re going to get in.” Then the kid doesn’t? Lawsuit or bad publicity. And if the counselor says the kid doesn’t meet the profile, the kid is discouraged from applying and selectivity goes down. And most counselors won’t have time for that anyway.</p>
<p>Besides, how can the counselor tell you how your application stacks up to “the applicant pool” for a pool that hasn’t been created yet? You may look good (or bad) in comparison to last year’s pool, but who knows about next year’s?</p>