My kid was fired up about Hollins University after meeting a very funny and personable representative at school. All fired up about it. Then I pulled up the website and told him that if he wanted to consider to a women’s college we should put Bryn Mawr back on the list. The college rep had neglected to mention that one small detail.
My S19 has gone to one admissions visit, but they held it in the auditorium (UVA at a Viirginia public high school). I believe he went because he wanted to miss English and because his girlfriend went. He somehow came away with the impression that they “said don’t care about grades, test scores or essays” so I’m not sure he was paying much attention, haha.
He was resistant to going to any of them, so maybe this will open the floodgates. I’ll remind him to pay attention and ask questions if he goes to a smaller session!
@eh1234 LOL about the not caring about grades or test scores. Though having been to a lot of info sessions I do think most schools oversell their “holistic” application review. Statistically (and perhaps because of the statistics) most schools holistic review still places the greatest emphasis on grades by far. Princeton had the most honest info session I ever attended. The admissions person using hand gestures to indicate height on a scale basically said grades are the dominant factor with test scores and everything else much lower.
I found that at college fairs, the admission rep seemed to be the main factor in D’s like/dislike of a school. Honestly, I felt that the large college fairs were mostly useless. There really was nothing we could learn at these fairs that we couldn’t learn online; in fact, we could learn more online.
At the CTCL college fair, an admissions rep from Knox College (I think) engaged a student standing next to us in a conversation about why college is a complete waste of money. I kid you not. Plus he did it in a way that sounded kind of angry. Another admissions rep, from Hampshire College, had a disheveled appearance, didn’t make much eye contact when she was talking to us, and seemed incapable of smiling. It also seemed that nearly 100% of the schools liked to talk about how diverse they were, but had admissions reps who fit the stereotype of the blandest white people ever. Seriously, at a fair with 40 colleges, I think only one or possibly two had POC at the info tables. At the Eight of the Best Colleges fair, the rep from Claremont McKenna spoke in a droning monotone that was completely incongruent with the positive things she was saying about the school. At the same fair, in contrast, the rep from Grinnell was so personable and enthusiastic that it sparked my daughter’s interest in a school that she had initially written off.
So yes, the admissions rep certainly makes a difference. Same thing is true for tour guides and people who lead information sessions. That’s why in our family we really made an effort to visit campuses when classes were in session, so we had other factors to use to judge the environment of the school.
Regarding college fair contacts. The worst I remember was Haverford. The whole vibe was you-will-never-be-good-enough. Many people here have commented how Lafayette’s admission people can be snooty, but I found them relatively warm compared to the Haverford rep’s chilliness. It was so disappointing.
Dickinson’s rep was really the best I encountered after hours at the fair. He showed interest in talking to D and he was very knowledgeable about their programs. I was shocked at how little some reps seem to know about their own colleges.
Ohio U’s rep was great, too.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if any of them made an impact on D.
Yes but we have had it both ways. You never really know what will spark a fire or smother it out. I think the HS visits are a good way to show interest without taking a trip. Better than flying out, paying for a hotel only to have school rejected! Our entire week long college visit last year produced zero schools on list.
@Veryapparent , I feel your pain (“Our entire week long college visit last year produced zero schools on list.”). We went to NY & PA for a week last Spring Break to see schools, but it turns out that my son is not applying to any of the ones we toured. I do think that it’s good that he learned from the trip, but it was harder than I expected to cross every one of the schools off the list after that expenditure of time, money, and energy. We did have fun, though, and being together was enjoyable.
@LoveTheBard Is your kid now attending Stanford? How does she like it?
^Ha. What’s not to love?!
@MACmiracle, so sorry to hear this! This wasn’t our experience at all.
@citymama9 DS did have a similar experience to @MACmiracle when he visited UW (Washignton) Honors table at a fair. The rep could not have been more dismissive and rude. DS, not intimidated, continued to ask questions. When the rep found out where he went to highschool her tone changed. Not impressed with her professionalism nor the program.
DS had such a positive experience with the Carleton rep that it not only quickly got onto his college list, but he wanted to visit it prior to making an ED decision. It was definitely a top contender after the visit as well. As an aside, DS couldn’t attend that visit due to a class he couldn’t miss. He went early to meet the rep and let her know he would have liked to attend. The rep ended up speaking with just DS one on one for 10 min before son had to run to a test. Remind your students if they can’t make the rep visit to atleast drop in, introduce themselves and let them know they are unfortunately unable to attend.
Not a college fair experience, or a rep visit, but the turning tide for Haverford from one of the top schools, to #1 for DS was a lengthy interview with a local alum. My son walked out of that interview elated, both at how the interview went as well as what he learned about the school. A happy, intelligent, down to earth alum really sold it!
Interviewers make a difference too. My daughter had an offsite interview with an alumnus of one very selective schools, and the woman did not show up. My daughter waited for her for 20 minutes and then called her, and a woman answered and gave the explanation that she had choosing to stay with her family out-of-state for an extra day (this was during the Thanksgiving weekend last year) and she would need to reschedule. It made my daughter pretty angry - me too! Clearly she either completely forgot about it and didn’t remember until my daughter called, or worse, she didn’t bother to cancel and let a nervous prospective student sit there in a coffee shop waiting for an interview that was never going to happen. My daughter still wanted to apply, so I was reluctant to call the school and complain about this. But it was pretty terrible.
@IBviolamom That is such a sad picture your painted - in the coffee shop waiting after all the prep (what do I say/what do I wear/how early should I get there/should I bring a resume??? etc). ugh. You can just feel all of it thinking about it - sorry that happened to her! She didn’t end up attending there did she?
@websensation - I don’t want to hijack the thread, so I’ll pm you.
Suffice it to say that there are few things in life that live up to the hype. Hamilton is one; Stanford is another.
My D had an interview a couple of months after back surgery and was in a back brace. A few months later she attended a diversity event at the same school. Her interviewer was running the program. D was out of the brace by then. They were supposed to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor in a lounge. The interviewer remembered about her back and asked if she’d be more comfortable on a couch. My D probably would have asked for a couch but was so impressed that the interviewer remembered her and her back. That welcoming feeling was one of the reasons she decided to apply ED and is happily a sophomore now.
Following @doschicos post above about the student making a good impression with the rep coming to a high school: I totally agree. Especially when the student gets a one-on-one session. And that rep will often be the very one presenting the application to the admissions committee. The same applies to CTCL events
Not an interviewer or a college fair, but we are about to make our fourth or fifth official college visit and for the first time, we got an actual phone call from a person at the school tonight, 10 days away from the visit.
It’s a big preview day visit at WVU, a big public u. that I certainly didn’t expect personal service from. We got confirmation emails and personal emails every time from schools once we set up visits - but not one ever called personally.
This was a student, not an admissions person. But obviously it’s something admissions does as a matter of course. (Well, either that or they are way overbooked and they’re hoping for cancellations, but I really doubt that - WVU is so big I think they just add another posse of buses.) The student introduced herself, made small talk, told us where we would need to be, asked if there were other things we wanted to see and gave us some information about that - it was a really nice call and it was much appreciated.
@CADREAMIN Nope! She didn’t get in! Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because she’s an ecstatically happy freshman at a different school now!
“there are few things in life that live up to the hype. Hamilton is one; Stanford is another.”
@LoveTheBard, a third is Shakespeare!
@homerdog – I have a senior DS at Grinnell – it has been a wonderful experience. We also visited URichmond. We like Richmond too but it definitely has a preppier feeling to it.
@pickledginger, the story about none of the schools you visited in NY/PA being a fit for yours reminds me of the Thomas Edison quotation: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” And you had fun doing it!
We visited a couple of schools while on a trip to the other side of the country, but not counting those, my youngest ended up attending the first of about 12 schools we visited. But visiting the rest made the choice, as they gradually started to compare each school to that first one, and liked it the best.
@thinmints It will be interesting to compare Grinnell and Richmond. I didn’t find Grinnell hippy or granola at all, maybe casual is the better adjective. And certainly the students on the panel and our tour guide were preppy. Button downs, khakis, boat shoes…the whole nine yards. I’m guessing that the overall feeling of Richmond is more buttoned up and maybe a tiny bit more formal since it’s in the south versus the Midwest.