Deadly college caravan tours at hotels

College Search & Selection
1

<p>This week, I swore to my son that I would never ever take him to another of these caravan tours at hotels where five top colleges present their credentials to potential students.</p>

<p>If you have insomnia, or your dentist wants to do root canal and you need something to put you to sleep, attending these is an absolute surefire cure.</p>

<p>Here are some of the very top universities in the country sending admissions reps out on the road with slide shows, reciting one stat after another from their brochures, mailers and web sites, sometimes racing quickly through them for their allotted 7 - 8 minutes (which seem to take more like 15 minutes) until it truly seems like a blur and you can't even digest what they are saying.</p>

<p>At one hotel tour stop, my son was studying for Spanish by the third speaker and drawing some pretty intense abstract doodles. At the first break, my son begged us to leave. We were one step ahead of him.</p>

<p>Here you have some really top schools, attracting an audience comprised of some of the smartest kids in the county. Good chance they and/or their parents checked out the web site, are probably already on their mailing lists getting their brochures.</p>

<p>So what do these admissions officers do? Blast through a series of facts and numbers from these very brochures, repeat the same phrases (we're need blind, look at how beautiful our campus is, we're diverse, we have great professors, look at the sunset, etc.), cramming whatever they can into 7 or 8 minutes. The brochures are handed out before the event -- why are you repeating every single minute fact in them?</p>

<p>And those slideshows are more bullet points from the brochures -- OMG, you may as well talk about quantum physics!</p>

<p>It seems like such a huge waste of time when you can REALLY explain what makes your college DIFFERENT as opposed to reciting the brochure.</p>

<p>But frankly, I just can't see going to these anymore. I'd rather take my son and visit the schools and preserve both our sanity.</p>

2

<p>Oh, dear. I’m representing Harvard at one tomorrow night. I can’t argue with your experience…I will only say in the schools’ defense that it is really hard to make a one-size-fits-all presentation that’s suitable for the range of folks that attend these events. A lot of people don’t read brochures, or web sites. Some parents attending are university professors and others didn’t finish high school (and/or are immigrants barely familiar with the U.S. educational system). You’re seeing the schools converge on a message because it’s one that works with the widest variety of people. A smaller niche school with a distinct feel, like Hampshire or Washington & Lee, can do more niche branding. If you’re Stanford or whatever and trying to attract a cross section of personality types, majors, and cultures, it’s much harder to do that.</p>

<p>True story: The college reps are all having a drink together in the hotel bar after the event and discussing the fact that parent after parent came up to them after the slide show and asked a question that was covered in the slides (and the talk, and the brochure, and the web site). Just be glad that you’re good at retaining information, and seek other ways to compare schools because these sessions aren’t useful to you.</p>

3

<p>I posted a thread on this exact topic a few weeks ago. My son and I attended one of these infomercials, (Hanna might have been there too :slight_smile: ) a few weeks ago and I knew the instant I walked into the “Grand Ball Room” that D2, S2 and D3 would never attend one of these events and be jealous that I had taken the time to go with S1. BUT I will admit that I learned things about certain schools that neither my son nor I bothered to research, that also sparked an interest in him to find out more. So overall, been there done that kinda thing, but yet was educational. (yes, things that I could have found on their web-sites but didn’t bother to) BTW… the Harvard rep was fantastic…</p>

4

<p>Hanna, here’s what I really wanted to ask after one of these caravans (but obviously could not). What does it really mean when you host a multi-college tour the night before the AP Calculus test? Are you checking to see who isn’t studying? Are you comparing their AP score later with their attendance record to see if they made a good decision on attending?</p>

5

<p>We skipped all of those. I’d been warned ahead of time. ;)</p>

<p>However, for newbie parents without experience, they could plausibly be useful. Others I know who attend do it to “show the love” if they seriously want one of the schools. They’re often bored, but it’s like a box to check. It’s similar when college reps come to our school (though these are without parents). There are some kids who truly haven’t investigated a thing and others who are checking the “love” box.</p>

6

<p>I think the audiences to these college caravans are far more homogeneous than you think, Hanna. When you have one group presenting together that includes Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, Penn and Stanford, the group of students attending that are going to be the top of the class. They’ve been visiting schools and already bombarded by mailers. Plus, packets on each college are given out as students arrive, a classic speaking mistake because students will be reading all that material and not pay attention to what’s being presented.</p>

<p>The fact is – instead of reciting everything in the brochure, using the same set of boasts as the other schools, admissions officers seriously have to sit down and think to themselves – “Most of these students will be familiar with the stats. I can even open by saying please read the brochure, go to our web sites – you probably all the great numbers for our school. Now what can I say that will REALLY give students and parents a personal connection to understand what it’s like going to Harvard or wherever. What is really unique about my college that doesn’t sound like the other four schools on my panel that will make students relate and enjoy what they are hearing?”</p>

<p>Students are DYING to hear something different, eye-opening and provocative. It’s amazing that most admissions counselors have no idea how to accommodate that desire.</p>

7

<p>DD and I attended Exploring College Options last night. I found our experience different from yours. I agree that this is not for everyone and this will probably be the only group event that we attend but I found the event useful. It was a low stress environment to provide exposure to a variety of schools. If your child has older brother or sisters and have been on actual visits, this type of event will probably bore them. The room held probably about a 1,000 parents and students. My request to her was to listen and then tell me what you think during dinner. I didn’t identify any schools or give her my preferences. I told DD to relax, listen, and wear what makes you comfortable. After all this is what the schools are going to get. She was dress casual in her cheer jersey, shorts, and flip flops. </p>

<p>Her comments after the program were that Georgetown is at home and didn’t interest her. She knew Stanford fairly well because of the summer program she attended last summer there for 3 weeks. Duke no real reaction one way or the other. Penn was the school that stood out for her for many reasons. Finally, Penn gave me the opportunity to find out what was interesting and why she liked that school. The others gave me the opportunity to discuss what she didn’t like. </p>

<p>I used this as an opportunity to tell her how hard it is to get into these schools, the cost/FA, the number of applications, and the quality of students that attend. She could see from the room filled up with parents and students trying to impress that these schools are very popular. This was well worth 1.5 hours in an afternoon to start the college conversation and get my DD to explore college options.</p>

8

<p>We saw the Coast to Coast tour recently – very similar in school quality to Exploring College Options – and it made Exploring College Options look like an episode of Seinfeld.</p>

<p>Each rep going 100mph reciting facts about their schools that they were nearly a blur. I thought the rep from UC Berkeley was going to break the speed of light, she was reciting so fast. Vanderbilt rep said she was a recent transplanted New Yorker to Nashville, yet the only thing she could say about the transition was she went to her first ice hockey game. Princeton rep spoke at half volume that the room murmur dramatically rose. Continuous slide shows with bullets.</p>

<p>The whole thing was numbing, and this is our first child going to college.</p>

<p>My advice: make every effort to visit the schools and speak to people. It is far more valuable than going to any of these college caravans. These things are like going to the dullest sales conferences you can imagine.</p>

9

<p>Went to the Coast to Coast 2-3 years ago.</p>

<p>The worst was when the Vanderbilt rep showed an slide in which folks from admissions and some student helpers posed in front of the admissions building in a V formation. Then she spent time explaining that she was in the photo, and tried to point out where she was in relation to folks in the V.</p>

<p>I made jokes with my kid that a good answer for “Why Vanderbilt?” type of essay question would be “because I want to learn how to make human-Vs, and I know Vanderbilt has prominent experts who can teach me to do that”.</p>

10

<p>We have attended several, and they have varied in merit. It was definitely worth it to attend when a senior admissions person (in several cases, the head of admissions) was representing a school.
For sophomores, it’s a very fast way to consider three to five colleges at once, and then think about where the student might like to visit.</p>

11

<p>I think admissions people are far better speaking one on one than cramming all their brochure stats into a 7-minute presentation. Even when they set up their tables afterwards, they are surrounded by anywhere from 25 - 40 students.</p>

<p>Ironically, we went to a “cattle call” college fair with 300 schools in a civic auditorium, and my son was able to speak one on one with about five different people. Of course, half of them were alumni ambassadors who couldn’t answer many questions and weren’t really useful, but the schools that sent admissions people, it was actually valuable time.</p>

12

<p>Exploring College Options was incredibly dull. I still reuse one of the folders though.</p>

<p>The large college fair I attended was better - more interactive/fun environment.</p>

13

<p>Mehhh… Went to a Tulane one and spent the whole time listening to people talking about either…</p>

<p>A: Crawfish.
B: How Tulane expects you to be smart AND interesting. </p>

<p>Wasn’t really worth my time, but I did learn one tiny bit of information that made me want to apply.</p>

14

<p>“Students are DYING to hear something different, eye-opening and provocative. It’s amazing that most admissions counselors have no idea how to accommodate that desire.”</p>

<p>Sounds like the same advice a college admissions officer would give a student about their personal essay(s) and why they are unique and what they can add to the student body…holistic admissions anyone? LOL</p>

15

<p>“Students are DYING to hear something different, eye-opening and provocative. It’s amazing that most admissions counselors have no idea how to accommodate that desire.”</p>

<p>Maybe some are. Parents overwhelmingly are not, and they write the checks. Provocative means that you’re going to offend some of the people in the room. One of my parent clients this year was enraged over a comedic email from a young admissions officer that struck her as suggestive and unprofessional; the family declined a spot on the wait list over it. I’m not saying that the road shows are fascinating or even useful – I share your hope that they come up with something more innovative and compelling. I’m just saying that it’s much harder than you might think to give an interesting talk to 1000 nervous people without making some of them hate you.</p>

<p>I stayed for about 40 minutes afterwards answering questions from students with the other Harvard reps. I always enjoy that, even though the questions are dull and standard, and mostly answered on the web site (“What questions do interviewers ask?” “Can you double major at Harvard?” “Should I take a 6th AP class, or choir instead?”). If the kids were longing to know what was special and different about Harvard, they didn’t ask.</p>

16

<p>My wife and I are parents, we write the checks and these sessions have mostly been a snore, really.</p>

<p>When I say provocative, I don’t mean outrageous or “out there.” I mean telling kids things that they can’t see on the web site, they can’t read in the brochures. Anecdotes, stories, some personal observations or experiences. These are things that are uniquely part of the college/university that they can’t get from the other admissions officers.</p>

<p>I have seen that at a few normal info sessions (notably Tufts), and it absolutely went over successfully. But speeding through scripted stats and boasts that the other schools echo endlessly creates a monster blur effect that I am sure is the last thing an admissions officer would want to produce. That is not cutting through the clutter and standing out.</p>

<p>Worth mentioning: at a recent caravan hotel session. one admissions officer said to the audience that somebody brought to his attention Andrew Ferguson’s book “Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College” and one paragraph where the author says to avoid these college hotel presentations because you’re guaranteed to fall asleep by the third college slide show (or something along those lines). That got the biggest reaction the entire evening from the audience. Too bad the presentations that followed made Mr. Ferguson’s words sadly prophetic.</p>

17

<p>My son and a friend attended the “Eight of the Best Colleges” presentation last night at a local hotel, and both of them said they really enjoyed it. DS, who has previously expressed little interest in liberal arts schools, would now like to visit both Colorado College and Kenyon.</p>

18

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<p>Because I’d be happy to bet that within 5 questions someone would ask - ‘So, you’re not need blind like these other schools?’ (or whatever other point gets beaten to death - diversity, engaging professors, beautiful campus etc.) </p>

<p>Here’s the ugly little truth - What they should be saying is: "Look, we’re all pretty much the same. Your going to learn the same formulas and facts at Whatsamatta U as they do at Harvard, but Harvard’s been around longer and has a better public relations team. Your kid is going to get a chance at a decent education but remember, if they want med/business/law school it’s going to come down to a 3.9 GPA and getting a bazillion on the standardized test and not the insignia on the diploma. </p>

<p>We all cost pretty much the same and have the same access to federal financial aid programs. So from your seat it all comes down to size, setting, weather and whatever other criteria you care about but we can’t control. Fill out the app, pay the fee; if you get in we’d love to have you. Goodnight."</p>

<p>Hard to see how that would bring out the big crowds.</p>

19

<p>LOL, Vince</p>

<p>It’s kind of the flip side to the Infamous “Why do you want to go to our College” Essay, that the kids have to write out for each and every school they apply to, isn’t it!!!</p>

20

<p>“I have seen that at a few normal info sessions (notably Tufts), and it absolutely went over successfully.”</p>

<p>Funny you should mention Tufts. I wasn’t going to out them, but they’re the school that enraged my client with their goofy email. What goes over successfully with one parent is another parent’s inexcusable disrespect.</p>