@Publisher you’re correct. It was CWRU.
@AboutTheSame i thought about it several times. If it was one of his top choices I would’ve followed up immediately. Pick your battles thing.
I agree with pretty much everyone’s comments. I talked to S20 about keeping an open mind. He’s done that with other schools so not concerned too much.
In the jsyk category, colleges occasionally will send alumni or students to college fairs if professionals from the admissions office are unavailable. They are often not the best representatives of a school!
If you have a bunch of schools on your list and feel relieved to have removed a few, so be it. But I wouldn’t drop a school that seemed like a good fit otherwise based on this alone if I weren’t in a whittling frame of mind.
@chmcnm: Similiar comments to those of the AO have been made by CWRU posters on CC.
I have no knowledge re: CWRU other than that CWRU’s business school receives solid ratings from US News.
“If you know and trust the dean of the business school based on your own experience, why would you cross a school off the list because of an ignorant AO? That makes no sense to me.”
It’s not the OP that crossed it off, it’s the OP’s kid. Once a 17 or 18 year old gets an opinion, good luck changing it. Right now if the OP’s kid is uncomfortable with the college, it’s out, you don’t push the issue, imo.
My D had so many schools on her list that she needed some way to trim it down. IMO, a bad visit was as good of a reason as any to cut a school off the list. A bad impression is hard to overcome.
@theloniusmonk couldn’t have said it better myself. Also like your username.
My daughter characterized the AO at Stanford as seeming “vindictive.” I said that a person had to be vindictive for a reason–that is, the person had to be taking revenge for something. She said she thought he was being vindictive about having to speak to the group of potential applicants. The AO also indicated that Stanford was interested in students who were “irreverent.” I think he meant irreverent about most things except for Stanford.
Most people have to make cuts somewhere, and having an unpleasant experience at a fair or interview is as good a reason as any.
However, you need to decide if another school can give you as much financial aid or as good an econ department or music department you really want. Harvard’s AO could be totally rude, miss appointments or tell you that freshmen are required to show up to classes wearing only underwear and people would still line up 10 deep to get in. Other schools have to try a little harder.
If an AO doesn’t show up at a high school, shouldn’t the GC follow up? If it wasn’t high on someone’s list, I can see crossing the school off as, again, some cuts are going to have to be made.
We went to a presentation on campus by the head AO of a top 10 liberal arts school, and someone asked if they look for progress in grades over highschool – she answered “we expect to see all vowels on your transcript.” Son and I just looked at each other and headed for the door! lol
That’s too good a story not to tell which college.
Similar story of a high ranked.AO at a high ranked school: “We’re looking for students who are not afraid to fail. Maybe you really struggled in a class, worked hard and asked for help, and in the end you pulled off an A. Or even a B+.”
Not the place for my kid.
With the kids applying to college, any little stupid thing can take a school off their lists. Sometimes it’s a good thing because though it’s foolish to blame a bad weather day as part of the school, it’s important to know that Syracuse is in the snow belt and a summer day visit is NOT indicative of how you are going to live during the year. But, yeah, things like an inclement tour day have thrown off kids who then keep schools in the same climate zone on their lists.
Bad tours, bad tour guides also take schools off lists. It’s unfortunate because that should not be a major factor.
The AO is more indicative as to how a school is run administratively. Also a distinctly bad face to face with someone deciding on whether you can attend, might be a waste of an application. If looking to cut schools off the list, it’s a legitimate factor to consider.
But really, if the school is primo, has everything your kid and you want, the finances fit, to strike it from the list due to a bad AO is not a smart move IMO
We went to a Wash U presentation at a local hotel a few years back. S19 and I thought it could be a contender. The student they chose to give a presentation of student life was so off putting. I don’t even know where to start. He was arrogant. Dressed in a suit and tie and a giant Rolex. Triple majoring and involved in many things on campus. All of S19’s friends who went to this presentation agreed he was a word that I can’t say on here that starts with a “p” and these are kids who never use words like that! It was seriously laughable. By the middle of the presentation, we were all having a hard time not rolling our eyes and laughing out loud. No junior in high school would want to be friends with this kid.
I did write a letter to admissions and told them they need to find a different student. They lost a whole bunch of kids from our high school that day. We all still talk about it. That kid was over the top obnoxious.
@allyphoe I really admire the willingness of my younger kid to challenge himself. He had a lot of B+s on his transcript - taking courses like Calc BC and Physics C even though he was so not a STEM kid. But he’s someone who is interested in everything and not afraid of being challenged. Colleges seemed to get him, because he got into a lot of places where he had the lowest grades anyone from his high school had gotten. His approach to college was similar. You’ll be glad to know he is now gainfully employed.
I find AOs who are candid to be more refreshing. Do we really need AOs to be salespersons for their colleges? Besides, a student would probably never deal with an AO once enrolled in the college. As long as the college has good professors in the areas your kids are interested in and a student body that’s collaborative and can challenge them as peers, should you care about what a single AO’s opinion on a subject that may not be relevant to or beyond the college application itself?
D19 had an AO tell her once not to bother applying because her scores were too low. We then knew that school’s priorities and she didn’t apply. Easy peasy decision.
Weird experience at Bowdoin College many years ago. All the head of admissions could talk about was “goat’s head soup” in Lewiston, Maine (home of Bates College & a large Somali population). In the 45 minute discussion, he never asked us to sit down or to come into his office or offered any coffee or water. Never offered or suggested a campus tour & we came a very long distance.
We had no interest whatsoever in Bates, Lewiston, Somalis or goat’s head soup. And there was no reason on earth to suspect that we would have any such interests.
Although offered admission, it was not considered even for one minute as a possible destination for college.
P.S. It was clear that this AO had a very healthy ego & that he wanted to talk about his interests & never once asked us about our concerns or interests. And this was not a fleeting conversation. Lasted at least 45 minutes. Just weird.
@1NJParent Candid is ok. I think S19 and D21 want to like the AOs. They both believe that these are the people who the school has chosen to represent them. They sent them out to find new students. If the AO isn’t friendly and knowledgeable, that says something. I do think the attitudes of the AOs can match up with the school. U Chicago loves to be snooty and flat out say in their presentations that so few of the kids there will get in…and you know what? School is like that there. Intense. Not forgiving. The AOs from S19’s school were very representative of what the school is like as a whole. They were serious about academics but also warm and welcoming.
D21 met with a Lehigh AO at school in a small setting last week - just a few kids. She thought the AO didn’t have anything interesting to say and didn’t seem enthusiastic. It’s off the list. She wants to hear why she should apply to a school and she just wasn’t getting that from him. I think AOs can have a big influence.
I wonder if our visit to Wash U was after your note to the admissions office. The WashU presentation and tour was by far the worst one we experienced but the student reps were the polar opposite of what you’re describing. Unfortunately, I think they were going for down to earth or relatable when they picked the student speakers but instead of down to earth they just came across as clueless at best, gormless at worst. The female student that spoke for approximately half of the info session went on and on about how much hand holding she needed from her three (?!?) kind advisors, how many stumbles she had, etc. It wasn’t endearing, unfortunately, and her snorting and sucking in spit occasionally during her talk didn’t make it better. Halfway through I wondered if this was a Saturday Night Live parody rather than an actual student. It sure wasn’t a student my kid wanted as a peer or friend.
Sadly, the tour leader wasn’t much more impressive and by the end of it I couldn’t even convince my kid to stick around another hour to eat lunch.
It’s got to be difficult for admissions offices to find student reps who are the right balance of relatable but also inspiring and at least a bit impressive.
We visited nearly 30 schools across the country but only applied to half a dozen. In no case was an AO or a tour guide a factor in eliminating the other colleges. Some of them certainly represented their schools better than others. A few even exhibited near super salesmanship or movie-actor-like quality. We purposely ignore such encounters. We tried to look to the product itself, not the salesmanship, to ascertain its quality.