<p>I just found this site by accident, and I think for some it might be a case of too much information being counterproductive. I think it might have been overwhelming to my daughter during her college search.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, we visited Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Pepperdine in July 2006. She applied to all but Pepperdine and was accepted to USC and Berkeley. None of the tours were disappointing, but we felt that the warmest reception and most genuine follow up was from USC. When we visited USC we spoke to the director of admissions when the tour was over, and we didn’t feel like we were at a school with over 16,000 students. But that’s where she ended up and she loves it.</p>
<p>Olin’s admissions team is totally cool! The emails we get are really personable and they seem very helpful, offering, if necessary, to come and pick us up at the airport at 5:30 AM bearing a large cup of coffee and taking us to the campus to curl up and nap in a comfy chair in the library. That made me laugh. :D</p>
<p>Hamilton College, Clinton, NY-D complained they were snobby. At Wheaton College (MA) we received warm freshly baked Chocolate Chip Cookies, At Skidmore College, D did not enjoy her interview by an older, retirement-aged man & decided not to apply & the student tour guide did a sloppy job. We were not impressed with Skidmore. Wells College scored high in the way we were treated as well. Maybe the schools with low acceptance rates do feel that they don’t have to impress anybody & can treat prospective applicants and their parents with indifference?</p>
<p>Notre Dame has been great. I’m not sure if i’m going there yet, but they offer an overnight stay with a student for early admits, and it REALLY helped, everyone I met was really nice and my student answered all my questions (even the really really dumb ones)</p>
<p>I know you shouldn’t pick a college because they do a good job of administration but huge kudos to Northeastern. Although it was the largest school, by far, to which my D applied the level and quality of communication is far better than all the other schools. The Dean of Admissions blogs are very informative, they were able to put admissions, merit $$ and honor porgram results all in the same communication, and emails to admissions, honors progam and the financial aid office have all been answered informatively within 24 hours. Very impressive!</p>
<p>“Maybe the schools with low acceptance rates do feel that they don’t have to impress anybody & can treat prospective applicants and their parents with indifference?”</p>
<p>That must play a role some places. Aside from a small LAC that suffered from being DD’s first tour–she thought it was wierd the admissions rep and tour guide were so “gushy” over the place (LOL), DD would say that worst was UNCCH–tour guide was unimpressive, tour woefully incomplete, and admissions officer conducting info session had absolutely no idea what she was talking about when she asked about a program that had really been played up in recent alumni publications. As silverweed and vc08 said, they did seem to have a mission of making “everyone feel like they had a chance” while not doing too much to further stoke enthusiasm of those they would later deny. E-mail responses to qustions beforehand were also snail-like. She didn’t apply so can’t speak beyond that.</p>
<p>Fit must also come into play. I counted 5 worsts and 5 bests for Tufts, but DD would call it best in terms of the tour/info session. She hadn’t wanted to bother visiting because she thought it too much of a reach, but as someone previously mentioned, being able to pick a tour group based on common interest and especially the information session got her “fired up and ready to go” (oops, did I just plagiarize?) take a chance on Tufts as a reach. The admissions rep conducting the session was head and shoulders above any other we saw for our tastes–at first I thought it might be just him, but another family from our town visited and attended a session with a different rep and had a similar reaction. He did make a big deal out of Tufts not being for everyone, so maybe even the “worsts” were strategic. Rest of contact with admissions office has been in line with elsewhere.</p>
<p>I am an international student so I didn’t have the opportunity to visit any colleges so most of my contact with the colleges were through emails. I found that adcom at Dickinson College replied to all my queries the fastest and they had a personal touch to them. On the other hand, each time I mailed Lafayette College it felt like I was wasting their time and they never gave me the answer to the questions I had. Once I mailed them to tell them that the courier service had misplaced my package so it would get there a few days late. I asked them since I had mailed my apps before the deadline, if it would affect my admission decision. They replied back telling me that admission decisions would be mailed in mid-March.</p>
<p>my yale info session was terrible. the guy literally told a room of packed ppl that he stayed up til 3am the night b4 getting drunk or something & then he just rambled on + on…</p>
<p>Tulane mislead me like woah on the tour. Just saying. They said things like, all class over 50 have sections, etc. i didn’t have ONE section my whole time there.</p>
<p>WOW. When I created this thread, I did not know it was going to get this big with this many views. I was just so disappointed with William and Mary’s admissions team that I couldn’t help but start a thread. I guess we all have bad experiences.</p>
<p>I had great experiences at all of the schools I applied to. However, I did not apply to RPI or Assumption. The tour guide at RPI was rude and brushed off my mom’s questions, and dodged other people’s inquiries about seeing a dorm (which we didn’t see). The tour guides at Assumption were a little weird and the admissions officer came in smelling completely of smoke - gross! He also was really creepy towards my mom. </p>
<p>The ones that stand out in my mind as being really good were Bowdoin, Colby and St. Anselm. They recognized me from college fairs which was really cool.</p>
<p>By far the best admission staff we encountered was at Duke. Very engaging, funny and informative. The tour wasn’t great but the two times that we met with admission staff (at local school and on campus) we were incredibly impressed!</p>
<p>MisterSinister, what was bad about your William and Mary visit? I thought they did a good job, and the presentation with the kid on the bike was funny.</p>
<p>Oh I almost forgot. I interviewed with Hobart and William Smith at a hotel in my state (I couldn’t go the the campus) and the lady I interviewed with was absolutely fabulous. Even though it was clear that she was tired and had been interviewing students all day, when I got home I had three emails waiting in my inbox, all from her, giving me more in-depth answers to questions I had asked during the interview. I was so impressed.</p>