<p>^Specifically, we just had a bad visit. We believe our bad visit was caused by only one office on campus—admissions. In fact, it may have been caused by only one PERSON on campus, an unpleasant visit coordinator for admissions. We did not necessarily get the impression that this was a campus-wide problem, but we were left with such a BAD overall feeling about the visit that my son – with stats like your daughter’s and then some (I’m sure she has some “then some” stats as well! 
)—was disgusted with DU and decided not to apply. This was our first and only experience like this anywhere.</p>
<p>My son filled out the visit request online. Was clear about what he wanted – his intended major, which departments he’d like to visit. I called about a week ahead of the visit, prior to travel, to see if there would be any problem accommodating his requests. No problems, they said. One admissions person was clearly nice on the phone. The other one didn’t SOUND that nice – didn’t sound patient or helpful or kind – but I’m old enough and wise enough to know that THAT didn’t necessarily mean anything – could be just the way she came across, in general, or the way she came across on the phone. Benefit of the doubt. And besides, at that point, it didn’t really matter to us if this person in the office was nice – we just wanted to visit and check out this campus that looked like such a good fit on paper.</p>
<p>Got to campus (airline flight, rental car, hotel, etc) only to find out that son was not scheduled to meet with the people he requested. I expressed some concern. I repeated his specific, clear request and politely asked if arrangements could still be made for that day. The “unhelpful” person said she’d help, but acted, in a barely discernable, yet still likely-intentionally discernable way that she didn’t want to help. (Passive-aggressive. I think we all have been on the receiving end of that type of thing. It’s frustrating, irritating, and intentionally difficult to confront. I also think it’s VERY unusual in the admissions/reception business! I personally have not run across that sort of thing before, at ANY college I’ve ever visited with any of my kids.)</p>
<p>A passive-aggressive “confrontation” continued throughout the day, only because we kept politely requesting that our visit needs be met. If we’d given up and just followed the standard info session/campus tour, we likely would have avoided further problems.</p>
<p>The person who gave us so much trouble would call us and “happily" announce that she’d just scheduled an appointment with “X,” but when son or I pointed out that we already HAD something scheduled at that time, she quite passive-aggressively acted put out – but at the same time said she’d work on something else for us. She acted very much like we were being difficult to please. But we were not asking for anything that we haven’t gotten at tons of other campuses. Normal stuff, just more than the standard info session and tour. And so it continued. It was really, really uncomfortable for us!!! “We were not “DEMANDING,” but we were politely “insisting” and negotiating to try to get to see one of the 2 people we requested to see from the start. We found out right away that the person we most wanted to see was VERY available and happy to see us!! Which said to me, “So why the heck wasn’t this scheduled in the first place?!” And so, we got the definite impression that our whole problem was caused by the admissions/visit office not doing their job. </p>
<p>I apologized so much that day for putting that person out (I really did feel bad about the whole mess, even though I was fully aware we didn’t cause it), and then she’d simultaneously act as though we were a HUGE bother, but that she was “happy” to help. I was near tears by the time we left that campus the first day. I REALLY don’t like being a problem. But I also know that our requests were not extraordinary and that my son missed school for 2 days to do this, and I left work and spent plenty of travel money for this visit. I was so frustrated. In fact, we extended our stay and returned to campus the next day, which we had not originally planned to do.</p>
<p>The second day, I had my son do the only interacting with her that had to be done. She was considerably nicer to him than to me the first day. In fact, a few times, she even asked him questions DIRECTLY, ignoring me after I stated the very same thing.</p>
<p>Me: “Oh no! My son really hoped to see X while we were here. He put that in the remarks of his visit request.” Her, to him: “Did you want to see X? Is that a required part of your visit?”
Me: “Well, he was hoping to visit with a professor in that area, as he noted on his request. He has some specific questions that the administrator was unable to answer.” Her, to him: “Do YOU think it’s important to see a professor? I had you set up with ‘Y’ instead.” </p>
<p>Ugh. She put us both on the spot repeatedly.</p>
<p>So, I sent my son in the next morning to get a parking pass while I stayed in the car. The new pass was very different than the prior day’s parking pass. It had a caution on it to only park in 300s, 400s, and 700s (or something like that), but it came with no instructions as to how those numbers related to lots. The names of the lots on the pass were nothing like the names of the lots on the map! We stopped students and even a campus police officer to inquire. They couldn’t help us decipher the pass. I VERY reluctantly called the admissions office. Got put on hold. Waited. Got transferred. Got put on hold. Finally got to ask my question – turned out I needed the very lady I was trying to avoid, the first one who transferred me! I got transferred back to her and waited about 8 minutes (no kidding) before I finally hung up. We parked in the same space we used the day prior and didn’t get a ticket.</p>
<p>We looked for the engineering buildings on our own that day. I think I mentioned on a different post that NOBODY knew where they were – and we asked BUNCHES of people! Finally got a very polite, friendly science prof who knew how to point us in the right direction. He told us that the reason we were having so much trouble was because the maps we had (both from the admissions office) were out of date!</p>
<p>Well, that’s probably plenty of specifics, I think. I don’t know if I did a good enough job of describing it, but it was a REALLY bad visit, entangled with all sorts of bad feelings for my son and me. As the days passed after that visit, I found myself becoming a angry about it. After all, we did NOTHING wrong. And yet, I found myself apologizing over and over again to this lady, who was our “host,” and who didn’t do her job in the first place, and who only reluctantly did it once we were there! If I were her supervisor, I would fire her. She did her office and her campus a very bad service. And what are the chances that we were the only ones?</p>
<p>On a good note, the “office” itself – admissions and visit coordination, maybe? – somehow heard about our bad feelings about this visit (we did not complain, except while the problems were occurring there on campus, and only then as politely and apologetically as we could!), and a top person there called me about two or three weeks later on my cell phone! I was surprised. She was very, very nice. She apologized a lot and explained the cause of some of the problems – email issues, and also said that part of the reason she knew about our unhappy visit was because the lady in question came in her office and told her how bad she felt about it. I was (am) very surprised to hear that, based on her demeanor that day, and I am betting that she was doing a little pre-emptive defense with her boss, as opposed to actually feeling bad about it. But maybe I’m wrong. I felt much, much better about the whole thing after the head of that office called me. But my son still does not want to apply.</p>
<p>I have a feeling that they’re going to fix the way they do business, if they haven’t done so already. At least that’s the impression the boss gave me on that phone call.</p>
<p>I believe the max scholarship is half-tuition – but that’s totally off the top of my head! Scholarships were mentioned in the on-campus info session we attended, and we were both left with the impression that they were generous.</p>