What’s the best way to find a regional admissions rep for colleges that are of interest but aren’t practical to visit at this time, and aren’t scheduled to visit your high school in the fall? Does the student have to contact each individual admissions department directly or is there some broader source? Would love to do some of this before school starts. Thanks.
Try looking within the Admissions part of the web site for staff members. I’ve seen this many times. They will give the name of the staff member along with their “territory.” Here’s an example: http://www.swarthmore.edu/admissions-aid/admissions-staff
Google “Name of University Regional Admissions Representative”.
Ctrl + F to search the page by state. For Mac users, Command + F.
Oh, that’s cool, thanks @momof3sons - and we encountered that type of regional assignment with the schools we visited in the spring. But those were all located within the same office on campus - same with the Swarthmore example, looks like. So it’s not common for schools to have regional reps located out “in the field” in different parts of the country?
Thanks @whenhen. That’s my go-to approach for many things, but see my question above.
If the HS uses Naviance, the rep associated with the HS is (at least in our case) on the college’s page. If you use the link, I think that the email goes through Naviance and probably is available to the GC (but I don’t know). In our case, her name was there and we emailed her, and it arrived just fine 
That sounds great @IxnayBob, but we’re pretty new to this and some of your response went over my head. What’s Naviance and where’s the link? There’s a meeting for seniors at D’s school on July 30 where we might find some of these things out, but all clarification in advance is most helpful. Thanks!
The student can email the admissions rep regarding specific questions. He or she can also email general admissions. Why does this student need to contact admissions?
IF the HS uses Naviance, you’ll find out at the meeting, although I would have thought that they’d already have given you a login, so perhaps they don’t use it. The features of Naviance are many and useful, but among other things it gives you an idea of how kids from the particular HS have done applying to various colleges with their GPAs, SATs, ACTs over the past (iirc) 5 years; confidentiality is maintained by not showing data to parents if a minimum number of students didn’t apply, but the GC will be able to access it.
It also provides a fair amount of information about the colleges, overlap between them, etc., and, last but not least, it provides a way for HSs to submit transcripts, recs, etc.
There are often regional almumni/ae who do interviews regionally, though sometimes it is a regional admissions rep. I have never heard of anyone contacting a regional admissions person, this early in the process. If you have questions, you can just call the admissions office at the college. What do you have in mind?
@compmom , @whenhen , I saw on another thread where a student sitting down with a regional rep was advantageous as an expression of interest if a visit wasn’t practical. In hindsight I think this parent may have been talking about a visit to the high school by a regional alumnus/na, as you have mentioned here. Clearly too, an e-mail message to a specific regional contact should count for interest as well.
There are many ways to express interest in a school. For example your son could request a brochure online, watch YouTube videos put out by the institution, visit, explore the website, write an essay that cites specific features about the college in question, etc.
Check and see also if the school makes a big fuss about demonstrated interest. Some might care more than they let on, but many of the selective schools assume that the students are interested. Google “name-of-school common data set” and search for “demonstrated interest” or “level of applicant’s interest.”
For example, this is Yale’s common data set for 2014-2015: http://oir.yale.edu/sites/default/files/CDS2014_2015_5.pdf. On the row “level of applicant’s interest,” they say that it is “Not Considered,” a distinction shared only with “Religious Affiliation.”
Additionally, schools know that not everyone can travel to every school that they’re interested in. If a student lives within a short drive of a school, not visiting means more than if a visit would require a flight.
You can usually find a list of regional reps on the college’s admission’s web page. Example for Cornell and UMich below
Otherwise, just google regional admissions representative and you should hit results.
http://admissions.cornell.edu/contact/contact-admissions-representative
http://admissions.umich.edu/contact-us
I agree that there’s no need to bother a regional rep while they are probably enjoying a well-deserved summer vacation. I don’t think we ever knew who any of them were except when they showed up at the high school for informational sessions. The kids would be told they were there, and they could miss class to attend the meetings. (Definitely a good way to show interest.)
Agreed, @mathmom and all … just wanted to understand it better.
Most of the regional admissions reps won’t be available during the summer. Their busy season is fall. You could e-mail the admissions office and ask for name and contact information, but the rep won’t hit the road until high schools are in session. It is also taken for granted that the best applicants will be insanely busy during the fall of senior year, and will be unable to schedule an interview or attend a presentation. In that case, an e-mail (from student, not parent) expressing regret is an easy way of expressing continued interest.
Our small, mediocre, small town high school had few visits from regional reps or any reps at all.
When we could not visit a school before application time, due to unexpected illness, my daughter called admissions and told them she was really sorry and would be visiting asap after her application was in, and reiterated her interest On the phone, the person answering asked where she lived and got her to the right person.
If your child has any interest in Colleges that Change Lives, there are fairs to go to with regional reps at tables.
For interviews, they will contact you.
I think it is reasonable to call admissions with questions and perhaps that could connect your child to a rep. Let them know if there are financial barriers to visiting. Otherwise, if the school is a top choice, maybe you could in fact demonstrate interest by visiting!
Some schools do road presentations, interviews and other such things during the summer. When DS was looking 5 years ago, some of the big name schools did a group presentation in a Chicago downtown hotel. There must have been hundreds of students and families in attendance. They were doing a tour in a number of big cities.
Another school sent regional reps out to the area to do interviews. We signed up for that on the school’s web site.
So it is possible, depending on where you live, to get access to these schools/reps during the summer.
Yes, in fact just last night our counselor told us that UChicago and JHU reps were coming to town for an evening in a couple of weeks.