Some admissions reps are very responsive to my daughter over email and others respond as if they didn’t read the update she sent. The college she was deferred from didn’t acknowledge her email with requested update and materials. Does this mean anything? Is she unlikely to be admitted if a Rep doesn’t respond? Is she likely to be admitted if a rep is very responsive?
Thank you
Today’s college-bound students are constantly being warned to “Demonstrate Interest” at their target colleges, or these colleges won’t be interested in THEM. It’s sound advice, and a strong student whose interest comes across as lukewarm may indeed be denied by a school that routinely accepts less able applicants. But this clarion call has also created a monster. Admission officials are besieged by emails from well-meaning, interest-demonstrating teenagers. And they simply don’t have time to answer them all … or the answers they DO send may not reflect past information that the applicant has shared, such as in your daughter’s case.
While sometimes a VERY responsive rep can indicate that the applicant is being courted by the college and thus implies good news ahead, this could also merely mean that the college has exhorted admission staff to appear effusive in order to encourage more applications. And a rep who seems to have retreated may be on the road 24/7 or plodding through hundreds of files into the wee hours but not indifferent to an applicant’s potential.
So try to shove your concerns onto the back burner. Don’t view admission office correspondence—or a lack thereof–as being a harbinger or good (or bad) news to come. And do suggest to your daughter that, while demonstrating some interest is a smart plan, at this late date she probably shouldn’t be writing to her admission reps at all unless she has truly pressing questions or concerns or until she learns she’s landed on some waitlists and wants to express continued interest.
Good luck with the decisions ahead!