Do Info Sessions Deserve To Be Obsolete?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am amazed at the erratic quality of college info sessions, given these are the first impressions students get of these places and they are all deeply competitive wanting as many of the right students to apply. </p>

<p>Many admissions officers seem to follow the same script as everybody else, down to the exact language, that sometimes I think these sessions could be obsolete.</p>

<p>I recently did a tour of Boston area colleges and it ran the gamut from an inept admissions officer who droned on and on numbing the audience to sleep (Brandeis) to another who assumed everybody already visited the web site so she did a much more personalized presentation that was practically stand up comedy (Tufts) to a typical big auditorium job with an admissions officer giving the routine requirements and lines we've heard everywhere else, except she had an art history student act as the "show monkey" who magically was able to take advantage of everything the school offered (Boston University).</p>

<p>An admissions officer at Amherst once dropped in a few times that her kid went to the very-hard-to-get-into school, and that really annoyed me.</p>

<p>I wonder if admissions staff ever put themselves in the shoes of visiting parents and students who have heard these cliche speeches over and over? It would only work to their advantage to do something different and not condescending.</p>

2

<p>While you (and those of us on cc) may have been to oodles of these, the vast majority of parents do not attend all that many. For most, the info is new. It’s been years since they went to college (if they went) and much has changed since then.</p>

<p>My youngest went with his school to a visit yesterday. He was mostly bored as he’s been on college visits (several) with both older brothers. However, his peers were very interested as it was mostly new to them.</p>

<p>Once you know the spiel, you can always skip the info sessions if being in them is a pet peeve. We just expect most to be the same and have some personal fun critiquing them. We’ve never let one influence our decision about the school, itself - well, at least - not the style it was delivered with. Some schools, themselves, haven’t been good fits.</p>

3

<p>Is that true in this day and age – many parents don’t go to many info sessions? </p>

<p>Today I attended an info session at Brown where the first 40 minutes were conducted by two students – and they did a very good job, because they personalized their experiences - and the last 20 minutes were given to an admissions officer. One of the best arrangements I’ve seen to avoid the usual session repetition. So it CAN be done well and provide the same information.</p>

<p>Sometimes I think it is best that when info sessions begin, they should poll the audience if they’ve been going to other schools. I mean, why go droning on and on when your audience has already been through it?</p>

<p>After seeing all the horrific repetitive and bland college marketing mailings my son gets since he took the PSAT, it doesn’t surprise me that many colleges don’t know how to market themselves uniquely at info sessions either.</p>

4

<p>I’ve only been on two college visits (well three but the third I took a class and that’s it). The first was amazing, I loved the school and our tour guide was funny and gave us a lot of unique information about the school. She also knew the answers to every question that was brought her way. The second was not as successful. The president gave a speech and that was nice and then we were broken up by major (whereas the other tour made me sign up by major). We went and saw dorms and got all the standard information from a student. Then we had lunch, I couldn’t find the friends I came with so my tour guide asked if I wanted to sit with her and her friends. I did. They mostly complained about how the college set them up to lead tours by major but they were never given their own major field and couldn’t really say anything helpful. My friends didn’t come back for a long time but she and her friends stayed with me until they did (which was both nice but annoying as I felt like I was being babysat and they kept rolling their eyes).</p>

5

<p>Creekland is right. My parents only went to an information session after I (and my brother before me) was accepted. The information was generally pretty important, but I can see how it could get dull fast.</p>

6

<p>We skip most of them… usually they are all info that you can get off the website, off the Common Data Set, or out of Fiske . Can’t remember the last time I was surprised or learned something new in an info session. Although some of them have a certain entertainment value – occasionally you get a fascinating admissions person who can really hold and entertain the crowd. But it is very rare. Gotta say, the Swarthmore guy’s socks are worth the session alone, though.</p>

<p>One thing I hate is Q&A in the info sessions – again, because people almost always could have looked up the info, but have to take everyone’s time instead.</p>

7

<p>It’s worthwhile doing a couple of them, maybe as many as three, but after that they tend to be pretty much stale, repetitive, cookie-cutter presentations, featuring information that’s common to a lot of similar colleges (and therefore you’ve probably heard before) and/or information that’s readily accessible online or in standard college guides (which means if you’ve done your homework, there’s nothing new here).</p>

<p>But if you’re a neophyte, the first two or three are useful.</p>

8

<p>We went to an information session this week where the two students presenting came across as not smart and not articulate. One said that the reason she chose the school was that a guy in the dining hall on her visit told her that she should. The other said that she chose the school because she was rejected by her top choices. The room was packed with more than fifty juniors and their parents. It was so awful that when the admissions officer finally strolled into the room to see if there were any questions, not one person had a question and everyone raced for the door.
I agree that most information sessions are repetitive, but it’s the differences that make attending worth my time. We crossed that college off the list, thinking that if these two students are the carefully selected representatives, this is not a great place to learn.</p>

9

<p>Agree that some tours and some info sessions can be dreadful, but IMO, they were still worth attending. That said, I love visiting colleges so I am probably biased. I don’t find that just wandering the campus, eating in the dining hall and talking to students is enough to get a feel. The whole package helps.</p>

10

<p>I love visiting colleges too. But for all the millions of dollars spent to woo students, I believe the strategic thinking behind the marketing is very much broken.</p>

<p>I do not believe many colleges really know their audiences and how to talk to them – either in info sessions or the materials they solicit HS students with. </p>

<p>I am surprised at how lazy or misdirected admissions offices handle their marketing. And when I say marketing, I do mean the info sessions – because they are the first real faces of the colleges that parents and students meet – and their mailers.</p>

<p>Parents and kids who are visiting colleges – and there are probably more of them than ever before – deserve to get far better targeting at info sessions, or they should just be cut in half or eliminated. I think “info session fatigue” sets in and if I’m an admissions officer, that’s the last thing I want to cultivate.</p>

11

<p>I went to GW a few weeks ago. I had very limited time, and they said I could go to part of the info session, or take a self-guided tour of the campus.</p>

<p>It was 20 degrees outside, so I did the info session, and it wasn’t that bad. It was led by 2 students who talked about their experiences, internships, etc. Not much stuck with me, but I wouldn’t say it was useless.</p>

<p>The hall was nearly full. If info sessions were that useless, people would stop going, and eventually, the colleges would stop offerring them. Evidentally most people don’t find them obsolete or useless.</p>

<p>A lot of what you do on a campus visit is kind of useless. Sitting in on classes (every school has great classes and awesome classes, watching one random class tells you nothing), eating in the dining hall (Really? You’re going to choose a college because of the food? It’s not like there aren’t other places to eat), looking at a dorm (all schools have good and bad dorms, and I don’t think dorm life varies all that much from school to school). One could argue that with more and more schools offering online “virtual tours”, it is useless to do a college tour at all.</p>

12

<p>PlasticMoon,</p>

<p>Why are you so worked up about this? Who cares if the vast majority of tours sound the same? Schools promote those things that they believe they’re good at and what they think visitors want to hear. What’s wrong with that? Sessions are full so someone must think they’re useful. Besides, for every jaded ‘veteran’ parent in the audience (and isn’t that their fault for sitting in?) there’s likely a first time family trying to make decisions. </p>

<p>Cost? How is cost going to be dramatically affected? Targeting presentations only increases expenses as someone will have to go through each appointment and decide how to individualize sessions. Never mind that a large percentage of info session visitors are ‘drop-ins’ or that the average undergrad changes their major five times before graduation. An ‘average’ presentation is about what you can expect.</p>

<p>Don’t assume that because you see no value others feel the same way. There’s an easy solution - if you don’t like info sessions, don’t go.</p>

13

<p>I feel there is a lot of waste when it comes to info sessions. That is what it boils down to. Lexus may advertise on American Idol, but a lot of that money is wasted because most viewers can’t afford a Lexus.</p>

<p>It seems that there must be a more efficient way to get the information people need and avoid wasted repetition or cliche.</p>

<p>I look at the marketing mailers my son gets from schools and it’s the same thinking – they all look the same! It’s colossal waste.</p>

<p>Some schools seem to have a better grip on delivering their information differently than others. Some are stuck in the stone age.</p>

14

<p>Well, if it means so much to you, you can always pick your school based upon the info session or unique mailings. :wink: Personally, I think most schools do a decent job of informing the masses, except, sometimes with who they choose for tour guides. As I stated before, we opt to critique (pros and cons) these things within our family and have fun doing so. We opt to pick schools based upon what they offer for academics specifically for my kids.</p>

<p>I do know plenty of students/parents who choose their schools based on who does the best sales job via red carpets, T-shirts, great dorms, gyms, phone calls, or similar.</p>

<p>To each our own.</p>

15

<p>Tour guides are a whole other mess!</p>

<p>We do not pick our schools based on info sessions and marketing mailers. Although with the latter, it sometimes makes we wonder about who is steering the admissions ships at these schools. Although, I must admit, we just got one of the best over-the-transom brochures from Boston University yesterday which actually said in the cover letter to compare their material with the usual stuff we get in the mail, so kudos to them.</p>

<p>We all keep going to info sessions because we hope we’ll get some new enlightenment or perspective, as opposed to the same old cliche drones. Sometimes those cliches are packaged differently. </p>

<p>I think the best info sessions are the ones that are more personal than a recitation of facts, although those are definitely in the minority. On this Boston trip, we saw the range from a young admissions officer doing a personal and very amusing monologue which still covered the essentials (Tufts), two students explaining things from their perspective for 40 minutes (Brown), the usual admissions officer with the “student monkey” (BU), and the admissions officers who was every bad info session cliche in one package, admitted the Powerpoint he had was outdated, and periodically stumbled on facts (Brandeis). </p>

<p>I hate to use the expression “student monkey” but it kind of seems that way when you have an admissions officer recite different things about student life or academics, then cues the one student to recite how all this fit perfectly into their life and decisions in a very scripted way. You almost expect after the student gives their pat answer, the admissions officer will toss them a fish or a biscuit!</p>

<p>The awful Brandeis info session didn’t matter that much as the tour guide was very good and obviously, schools have to be taken on their own merits. But when the info session is a dud (and same for tour), you shake it off and look past something badly executed to represent the school in person.</p>

<p>We visited Lehigh in January and both the info session and the tour guide barely touched on the academics (and academic capabilities, staff) of the school – it was mostly about what it’s like to be a student at Lehigh. I have to imagine that’s the way they strategically planned it. I enjoyed it all, but I felt something was missing too – hey, aren’t we here also for classes?</p>

<p>I believe that if a college has to put its best face forward first on the info sessions – and that really is the case with most students visiting – many have to really rethink the presentation, who is doing it and how they are doing it. No matter how you slice it, it is all part of the marketing machines of colleges, and I am surprised at how wasteful some of it (and sometimes more) can be.</p>

16

<p>You still haven’t made it clear why this matters to you so much? Info sessions are designed to transfer a large amount of data to a large group with diverse requirements and interests. Given that many attendees are there just to get a ‘feel’ for the school, your customized solution would most certainly be more expensive, time consuming and probably of little interest to many. </p>

<p>Cliches? So what? Do you actually believe driving an SUV will have you marauding through the north woods like a pioneer? That beer will make you the life of the party and sexually attractive to the opposite sex? </p>

<p>The funniest part is that you document at least 5 sessions that you sat through; who’s fault is that? If they’re worthless why do you keep going?</p>

<p>Change the presentations? Why? Every school you mention has more applicants than it can handle; frankly the marketing machines seem to be doing a very good job. Just because you didn’t feel adequately coddled doesn’t mean others get no value from these events.</p>

17

<p>I have answered all those questions in my posts. Those are my views and I am happy with them.</p>

18

<p>I think you can pick up subtle clues about campus culture from these sessions. Earlier, this week my son and I attended info sessions at Harvard and MIT on the same day.</p>

<p>They both showed videos, and my son noticed that the MIT video focused on all the great things that current students are doing, while the Harvard video focused on all the great people who had gone to Harvard–including the shot of the current student using the same sink as FDR. The video said nothing about what the FDR sink user was doing today, other than the provenance of his sink. (It certainly looked like the same sink underlining that fact that we pay $60k a year to put our children in slum-like dorms.) </p>

<p>This message of we’re Harvard, we’re great, we don’t care was in accord with a comment by a Yale tour guide when asked, Why Yale instead of Harvard: “Harvard students are very proud of the fact they go to Harvard. Yale students love Yale.”</p>

<p>I’m saying to look beyond the standard aspects of info sessions and tours and look for the unscripted moments and subtexts.</p>

19

<p>Parent of college freshman – we found the differences in presentation and professionalism conveyed a lot of relevant information about the schools we visited. From the memorable trip to what he thought was his first choice school where the adm rep (an employed adult, not a student) just read bullet points from the presentation and made up a word by combining two other words. Contrast with another similar school where students visiting that day were greeted with a personalized welcome note, and the employed admissions rep was energetic and enthusiastic. Final comparison was the school where he is now, where the professionalism and enthusiasm came together, and 15 minutes into the session he leaned over and declared this is where he was going if he gets in. These were all large, public flagships that are recruiting out-of-state tuition money and presumably interested in putting the best foot forward. </p>

<p>As for LACs, there was more variety among their presentations, though always with a professional adult leading the event. My son took particular interest in who else was visiting – were they kids he would want to be in college with? I enjoyed people-watching the parents.</p>

<p>I have always thought the sessions were important because of what you learn at the edges, not because of the formal content.</p>

20

<p>Standard info session: Our average class size is only 22 students!<br>
Cynical parent: How big are the introductory classes like Psych 101 and Calculus I?
Standard info session: Oh, well, those are bigger, maybe 200 or so students, but here at Standard U we have something called “recitation” <insert explanation="" of="" recitation="" sections=""> and our professors are required to have office hours every week so you still have the opportunity to get one-on-one attention!</insert></p>

<p>My DS and I just love how every school acts like recitation sections (or discussion, or whatever their school calls them) and office hours are some novel or unique thing they invented…</p>