I’m curious if any parents here know of their kids cold emailing admissions teams of universities they may apply to in the future? Generl emails, seeking information perhaps not readily available, and as a way to demonstrate interest.
What sort of information is not readily available? The school websites are very complete these days.
What would your student be asking admissions at any school that they could not find out by reading the website?
A few comments:
–In general I wouldn’t have a student email an admission officer unless there is a real reason to do so. They are busy.
–Agree with above, that a ton of information can be found on the websites.
–A number of schools don’t care about demonstrated interest – check the common data set for each school under consideration to see if demonstrated interests even has any impact on the school’s admission process.
–I certainly would not have a junior email until this admission cycle is complete.
–FWIW my D applied to LACs that do value demonstrated interest and she only emailed admission officers to say thank you after an interview or something like that and she did well in terms of admissions. There are many ways to demonstrate interest such as getting on the mailing list, visiting schools, etc.
I think the first contact for many kids with admissions or with the AO might be at a college fair or at the high schools. They could email the admissions office to get on the mailing list, but there are a 1000 ways to get on the mailing list (and seem to be no way to ever get off).
Please please can someone link the NPR broadcast that had the GA Tech or UGA admissions officer…who talked about snafus with demonstrated interest? It’s quite hilarious to listen to…and highlights some good reasons NOT to waste time calling adcoms for no reason.
When my kid was looking at schools they cold emailed different professors and that was very effective. It can work even at the very best schools even if they say demonstrated interest doesn’t matter
Thanks for that feedback, that is helpful.
Many posts here on CC are from students asking questions that are on the homepage of the college’s website. If you cannot do the simplest research on your own about a college you are not ready for college.
Thanks for sharing. I recall this episode when originally broadcast, although I’m not sure what it had to do with my question apart from the fact it was related to applying to college. Much of this web site is related to the very same subject.
Some of the manynresoinses are telling oarwnts and students WHERE to find the info they want.
But certainly your kid can call all of the admissions departments prior to the admissions process. It won’t show a speck of interest.
Many of the phone calls are actually answered by students who work in admissions. They do not track student interest…at all.
I too have seen many many posts from students about very simple info that’s easily available on a college website. When they ask those kinds of questions, my first thought is that they want one of us to research it for them. Other types of questions are asking for opinions, first hand experience, testing assumptions, and generally looking for help in understanding something…those are far different questions and likely make up a majority of the 9000 and 58,000 posts you so kindly referred to. And that type of info is typically not found on individual university websites.
Me - I have far less posts (since that seems to be the metric being used in this tread) so I guess I have nothing to add. Sorry.
If the purpose of calling is so the student gets credit for showing interest, how does this happen before the student even has a folder or an application? Where would the the office be tracking the John Doe showed interest as a junior in college?
I’m curious–how do you know it was effective?
@twoinanddone The college has to start a file at some point. My D visited colleges junior year and signed rosters. I assume they started a file or some notation of her visit. If a card filled out at a college fair triggers a file, why not an email or phone call from the student? Certainly my D was on the mailing list of many colleges by junior year.
I’m not suggesting this is a good method of showing interest, also not saying it’s not. I think if the student has a genuine reason to cold call/email the college, they should do so, regardless of whether the college tracks interest.
I never mentioned calling an admissions office. I mentioned the prospect of a student sending an email to admissions officers. They do piblish their email addresses. In any case, the consensus seems to be here that it is pointless and bordering on counter productive. Message received.
My daughter’s school started a file when we visited for recruiting (coach gave the info to admissions). HUGE mistake. D then applied, using her full name (which honestly isn’t that different than her first and last, no nickname), and the school opened another file. Two names, two student ID’s…and only a 50/50 chance of her scores, h.s transcripts, etc ending up in the right file. She set up a portal, but when we visited couldn’t get it open so they opened another, so now had two portals (although one was empty)! Things were wrong, merit aid wrong, outside FA missing (but on ‘master list’), room assignment, etc., but every time we called they just fixed that problem so I didn’t suspect anything was wrong. This went on until they put a hold on her registration for second semester because she had no high school transcript in her ‘file.’ Called the high school, they sent TWO more (one mailed, one electronic), but college claimed never arrived. No registration allowed - on a Friday night at 8 pm. Monday morning the registrar still wouldn’t allow until the hold was cleared. I called and finally said “Is there any way she has two files? There have just been so many errors.” Yep.
My child’s name is not common, but not unusual, no funny spelling, no random punctuation, but there are not two kids at her school with the same name.
My kids did not check the box on the SAT that results in vast numbers of college brochures arriving at the door. So the only way they could get information was to get on the mailing list. I don’t know if they emailed admissions for that on occasion since usually there is a way to get on the mailing list just by visiting the website.
I doubt signing a roster or attending a college fair would result in admissions starting a file. I would think submitting an application would start a file. But I could be wrong: they do sometimes keep track of who visits.
Once the admissions season is really over, I don’t think an admissions officer would mind an email if there is a good reason. But trying to get their attention or demonstrating interest is not a good reason.
On the other hand, if the student has a genuine question that can’t be answered by the college’s web site, sending an email to the admissions office makes sense.
I imagine that quite a few kids at my son’s high school did this when the school unexpectedly and suddenly dropped German from their curriculum because of a budget cut. There were kids who had taken German 1 and 2 and could not continue to German 3 – which is a problem if you intend to apply to schools that require or recommend three or four years of a single foreign language. I suspect that most of those kids sent e-mails to multiple schools explaining their problem and asking whether they would still be eligible for admission. And that seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
@collegedad13 cold mailing professors is strongly discouraged at some schools–Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, for example.