D25 went to a local college fair a few weeks ago. Students scanned their barcode at the colleges’ tables to check in and I assume to get put on mailing lists. She only ended up talking to around 4-5 colleges because there weren’t many in attendance that she was interested in.
One of the admissions officers emailed her - vs just the generic mailing list emails. Is that unusual? Or is it just a SLAC thing? S22 didn’t have this happen, but it was COVID and I’m not sure he even read college emails. lol It seemed a little weird to me, but maybe this is a common thing. The college definitely was not one with a line of students waiting to talk to them. Thanks.
If it were a personalized email (was there a reference to something unique about your daughter or the conversation she had with the AO?), then it is a positive but I would not read too much into it. At this phase, the AO tours are marketing tours where they are trying to reach and encourage as many qualified applicants as possible. They have yet to sort and rank, so even a personal outreach probably at best just means your kid is generally in the mix. I would also not be surprised if this email in fact is a generic one that is sent to all/almost all students who talked to the AO.
No, this is very normal outreach for some colleges. They all have different marketing strategies. DS24 had the same experience when we went to his first college fair when he was a sophomore.
Definitely normal with smaller schools. But if it’s a school she is interested in no reason not to reach out. Making early relationships is never a bad idea.