Lack of Contact from College

<p>What would you think? My D has been accepted to one of the top tier colleges under a non-binding early admission program. The admission decision was made in the fall. She's enamored with the school but other than a postcard letting us know how much tuition will be for 2009-2010, we haven't heard a peep from them. No school newspapers/magazines, no general "how's it going." Now, maybe this is normal, but as a parent, I'm contrasting this to the numerous telephones calls from faculty and students, e-mails, invitations to on-line chats and follow-up letters my D is receiving from the other schools she's applied to, two of which she's been admitted to. These other schools, which also are top-tier, are reaching out to her and "courting" her.</p>

<p>I'm really disappointed in the lack of contact from the early admission school. Notwithstanding my D's feelings about the place, it leaves me cold. My concern is if a college can't show that they're interested in you as an individual and really want you to choose them before May 1st, then you're bound to be just a number if you take them up on their offer and arrive on their campus. </p>

<p>Have any of you had this kind of experience? How would you interpret it?</p>

<p>I find it somewhat surprising. All of the schools I have been involved with (either through my children or my own employment) have continually “shown their love” all through the process, especially between the day they admitted the student and the day the student signed on the dotted line.</p>

<p>Hmmm.</p>

<p>My D has 2 schools like that and they’ve been dropping like a stone on her favorites list! We don’t even get any love when we email a question - just a terse reply that often don’t answer the specific question she asked! I have seen a few posts by students attending one of them that complain of lack of communication as well. Not sure why she isn’t just sending the “no thanks” letter! I know students don’t have that much day to day contact with admissions or financial aid offices, but wonder if it’s indicative of the university in general!
I guess it depends on how they are when you visit, call, or email. Do you get a better feeling then?</p>

<p>I’ve got to be honest with you. I didn’t like the place when we visited. I found the students cold, the administration not especially helpful and just didn’t like it. When I made calls on certain matters, again with the coldness and borderline rudeness. If they weren’t so highly rated in engineering, I’d never give them a second thought. Even with that, who wants to deal with that kind of attitude for 4 years, much less fork out thousands of dollars for the privilege!</p>

<p>What is the college supposed to be communicating to your daughter? She’s gotten her acceptance letter. The next round of information will come when the bulk of acceptance letters are mailed on April 1st. That’s when you’ll start seeing passwords for accepted students’ websites and so forth.</p>

<p>Then, the next round will come when the class is set and all the pre-frosh mailings (housing forms, etc.) begin over the summer.</p>

<p>Is there information your daughter is missing right now?</p>

<p>My daughter was accepted to college by binding ED.</p>

<p>After she sent in her deposit, she didn’t hear anything until after the rest of the students received their acceptance notices and made their decisions. Then, endless mailings and e-mails began to arrive, and she was even able to set up her computer account with the college and use it over the summer.</p>

<p>I think it’s easier for colleges to do their communicating after the whole class has been accepted and all the students have made their decisions.</p>

<p>What’s the school? Knowing that would help us make more informed and useful comments.</p>

<p>Looking at your previous posts, I see your D is a high achieving black female prospective engineering student. She’s a major catch for any school, and I’d expect that schools would be showing her the love – big time. </p>

<p>I do think it’s a red flag that the place that accepted her isn’t doing that, and I suggest encouraging your D to spend time exploring her other options.</p>

<p>Northstarmom - You’ve got it. The silence from the school in question is worrisome. I expected what you’ve said - she’s a top prospect and that they would treat her accordingly. Anyway, from my perspective, that school is now at the bottom of the list. ( I really don’t want to say which school to protect my D’s privacy.)</p>

<p>Put me squarely in interesteddad’s and Marian’s camp.</p>

<p>Marian is correct in that it is way more time- and cost-efficient to send stuff in bulk.</p>

<p>interesteddad makes the good point that if there’s no info missing, are you just looking for “luv letters”? There’s nothing else to communicate at this time. The school is busy putting their new freshman class together, and they obviously have faith in your daughter, by virtue of the fact that they accepted her, that she has the maturity to ask questions if she has any, and get information if she needs it.</p>

<p>It’s funny — there’s another couple of threads going around that complain of excessive mail…“your son is just right for our school”…“your daughter is the kind of student we’re looking for”…etc.</p>

<p>Excessive, shallow junk mail? Or confident, mature silence, ready to communicate when the time is right?</p>

<p>If you didn’t like the place when you visited, and you found the administration cold, well, that’s a different matter. But looking for a “thanks for letting us get to know you” letter this week, and then a “if there’s anything we can do for you today let us know” letter next week, and then a “how ya doin’?!!” letter a couple of weeks after that borders on patronizing.</p>

<p>So everyone knows: This appears to be a student with a huge hook. There are not very many African American students who want to be engineers (Only about 1-2% of engineers are black) and who would be applying and being accepted EA to any college with an engineering program.</p>

<p>That the college isn’t doing everything possible to reel her in – including having undergraduates show her the love – makes me wonder what she’d encounter at the school, where she’s likely to be one of only a handful of black engineering students. </p>

<p>Normally, I wouldn’t expect students accepted EA to get lots of love pats from the school after their acceptance, but this is an exception as my belief is that she’s a star prospect for that school – and that college has got to know that other colleges would be recruiting her heavily.</p>

<p>Maybe the school in question has enough respect for the young woman to let her make up her mind and not fawn over her like a rare orchid because of the ethnicity box she checked.</p>

<p>“Maybe the school in question has enough respect for the young woman to let her make up her mind and not fawn over her like a rare orchid because of the ethnicity box she checked.”</p>

<p>Then the school in question is pretty stupid because colleges of all kinds know that it’s important to truly show the love to the students that they most want to recruit – regardless of those students’ ethnicity. </p>

<p>Incidentally, female engineering students of all races are highly sought after.</p>

<p>Northstarmom - I appreciate your response and reply and can see that you understand exactly what I’m concerned about. Thanks for that. </p>

<p>Contrary to the perceptions of some of the posters, I neither expected nor asked for weekly updates or for her to be treated “like a rare orchid” (although, as her Mom, she is that and more to me). However, not hearing anything from the school for five months after acceptance is a red flag.</p>

<p>One thing to remember: everyone is now focused on what the Admissions Office is doing -they’re the ones you expect to “show the love”. No one else knows her yet. But after orientation, there’s one office on campus that your student probably won’t ever set foot in again: the Admissions Office.</p>

<p>I think it’s a mistake to let the Admissions Office rule the decision of where a student should go (once the student’s gotten in, of course). Now, the other issues, such as the student attitude and the administration attitude are a different story.</p>

<p>But I don’t think it’s the same as “how will they treat her once she’s there” - the Admissions Office has nothing to do with her once she’s there.</p>

<p>I agree with Chedva; although I certainly hate to depart from Northstarmom’s always informed point of view.</p>

<p>If the school’s lack of demonstrated interest in your D has moved it down the ladder in your D’s opinion, so be it.</p>

<p>But if she continues to like the school, finds it the most appealing for its programs/location/whatever… I would not let this be a determining factor. Rather, I would suggest she do an overnight there - if it continues among prime contenders from her own point of view - and see how she likes it. </p>

<p>How the Admissions office does or doesn’t court her right now (even if it reflects direction from other University offices about how much wooing to do of prospects) doesn’t say much at all about the resources she will have there, the profs and how they will relate to her, employers and grad schools and how they will see her as she prepares to graduate from the U and move on.</p>

<p>This school’s approach could even reflect more about who they are/arent’s using as Enrollment Management consultants than anything else. I wouldn’t want that to be a determining factor in my kid’s choice of school.</p>

<p>Son was admitted to 8 schools and has narrowed his list down to 4. Last night we finally filled out the “thanks but no thanks” forms for the four he’s ruled out. It was interesting to think about the communications he’s received from each school. I think he was on some of their “we don’t care if you go here or not” lists.</p>

<p>I totally agreee, marnimom <em>especially</em> because you didn’t feel very good about the school when you visited. Big red flag. </p>

<p>Northstarmom is right – they should be bending over backward to woo her, esp. since it was not a binding acceptance.</p>

<p>I would go with my gut on this one – if you got bad vibes originally, and now they are being very uncommunicative, I think your D should move on and find a school to love who <em>wants her</em> and proves it.</p>

<p>I can’t really attest to the why’s or why not’s of communication. All I know is that of the two schools my daughter applied to…one of them sent the acceptance letter and that was it…the other…we received several HAND WRITTEN cards and notes from. She ended going to the more “friendly” one…but it wasn’t because of that…she feels she’ll get the better education there…and so far, she’s done tremendous.</p>

<p>Does your D feel the same way (about the lack of “love”) from the school? It’s not something to overlook. D2 has been accepted to 2 large public U’s. The OOS one has already sent her Dept. scholarships, has had phone calls, invited her to online chats, lots of mail. The in-state one (which is by far NOT her first choice) seems to have the point of view that she should feel honored that THEY accepted HER. (Funny, the same school acted the same way 2 years ago with my first D, who was one of those who had some schools falling all over themselves to try to woo her). D1’s experience is that the OOS school has continued to “show her the love” throughout her time there for the past 4 semesters. </p>

<p>Many of the most important opinions about college come from one’s gut reaction. If your D doesn’t feel the same way as you, let it drop. But, if she is also concerned, it would be a red flag for me, too.</p>