As of late, I’ve been attending lots of conference type events where college representatives from many top universities come to my area and give presentations on their universities and answer questions and so on. Much of the time, they are assistant directors and other people with positions on the admission board. They give out business cards and encourage students to shoot them an email if they have any questions.
Is there any kind of real advantage in contacting college admissions reps?
If so, what should I be asking them, other than general questions about their college.
Don’t ask them anything that cannot be found elsewhere; they have enough to do. If you have a legitimate reason to contact them, that’s fine. But don’t contact just to say you did.
"what should I be asking them, other than general questions about their college. "
Neither/nor. Do not risk annoying them or appearing clueless by asking general questions about their college, especially as skieurope notes for things that can easily be researched on your own. There’s nothing really you should be asking them, unless you genuinely have a question or interest that you can’t research on your own.
Does that mean you shouldn’t contact them? Nope. It means be smart about whether you contact them and think hard about the content of your contact. What you ask and how you ask it gives them information about you. Are you lazy (asking questions when the answers appear on page one of the college website), are you articulate, are you showing you’ve researched the college and have a real question about an interesting facet that’s not obvious?
Agree with all above. If you do have a real question that you haven’t found the answer to, make it clear that you have actually tried. As a simple hypothetical, suppose you are a prospective engineering major interested in study abroad (sometimes this can be difficult). You’ve looked at the study abroad pages (ALL of them) and it’s not clear how many engineering students are able to take advantage of this. You might write something like “I’m a prospective electrical engineering student, and am also interested in study abroad. I’ve looked at your pages … and while they say that X% of students study abroad, I haven’t been able to find out if it is a similar percentage for engineering students. Can you tell me whether the engineering curriculum allows for…”
But don’t make up questions just to pester them!