DD has had Creighton near the top of her ‘possibilities’ list for quite a while (was planning a Chemistry major, now leaning toward Business with a Chem minor with the intent to go into IP law.) We arranged a visit, were really excited, but it just fell flat in so many ways.
DD is a prospect, not admitted student. Apparently, the day we got there for our visit, not only was it Admitted Students Day, but they had several groups of younger high school kids visiting as well. So, DD got a little lost in the shuffle - the admissions office wasn’t sure where to put her since she was doing an individual visit, we got a 20 minute visit with a grad student in the admissions office who just tuned her out as soon as DD said this was the second school she had visited, he shuffled all of our questions off to the financial aid office and made no attempt to answer. Our tour guide was very aloof, didn’t seem to have done many tours. Our one visit with a professor (Chemistry) fell flat - he never showed up for our meeting!
We wound up leaving midway through lunch so we could catch our flight home - our ‘lunch student’ was equally disorganized and had no idea if we were with his group or not, and he seemed more interested in talking about the soccer program than the school.
Creighton is still on DD’s list, though it’s dropped significantly on mine based on this visit. DD and I will visit the school again in July, hoping that midsummer brings a quieter day where we can spend more time really visiting the campus without crowds. She’s emailed her admissions counselor letting him know some of our concerns and hoping we can get a more focused visit with the right people this time, but we’ve heard nothing back, and it’s been a week.
This isn’t a gripe, but a legitimate question - is this level of disorganization normal at Creighton? Are they trying to weed out borderline prospects by frustration? Or did we just get caught on a bad day with a bad counselor? I grew up in the Omaha area, and I know Creighton has a fantastic reputation, but the visit just fell flat.
I am a rising senior and have done 5 different college visits so far this summer, Creighton being one of them. Out of all of the schools I have visited so far (Marquette, UW Madison, Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, and, of course, Creighton), I definitely had the best college tour experience at Creighton. I really only visited there because my mom went to Creighton and we happened to be in Omaha, but I ended up really enjoying it and was VERY impressed with everything they did to make sure we had a good experience there and left with a good feel for the school.
First of all, the day before our visit, I received a phone call from the admissions office. The lady on the phone talked to me about what time worked best for US. She was extremely kind and considerate. Then, when we arrived at the school the next morning, we were first offered a variety of refreshments (always nice) and then had a 45-minute individual meeting with an admissions counselor. It was so personalized! She asked me all about my academic and extracurricular interests and gave me TONS of information on everything that I needed to know about them (i.e. their pre-physical therapy program, running club, service opportunities, study abroad program, etc.). She answered all of my and my parents’ questions about anything and everything (i.e. scholarships, ACT scores, etc.) and told us all about how they go about reading through students’ applications.
Once the meeting was over, a current Creighton student then led my family (and ONLY my family) on a personal tour of campus. She was very kind, answered all of our questions, and told us all about her personal experiences at Creighton. It was also very helpful that her focus of study was the health sciences, since that is what I am interested in. Afterwards, my whole family even got to eat lunch in a dining hall for free!
Overall, I was SHOCKED by how much I truly enjoyed Creighton. I never would have applied there if I hadn’t made the visit, but now I definitely will. I would 100% recommend making a second visit. I really think you just went there on a bad day.
Thanks @purplehippo77 - we actually took a chance and attended CU in the Summer this past week. Still a large group, but we met with the associate dean of the Heider College of Business (AP Chemistry ‘destroyed’ her, so she’s looking at a finance major now.) WAY better visit this time. We really liked our tour guide, and we spent some time one on one with her afterward since she’s also a finance major. The ladies at the front desk were really helpful, too! Our admissions counselor seems to be MIA every time we want to talk with him, though. I think Creighton moved up - right now, she is weighing Drake and Creighton, and they’re both pretty even though the drive to Des Moines is quite a haul for her. She loves Omaha, though, so I suspect CU will win out.