My daughter is getting quite frustrated with ad reps, (whose college websites say “email your rep, they would love to hear from you!”), only to ask legitimate questions and never get replies. These are not Ivies, or Stanford, or Duke. These are LACs that would love to have a student like her, given her stats. They definitely consider interest. She is trying her best to show her interest, but now wants to stop emailing them. (She has emailed a couple of reps 2-3 times, waiting a couple of weeks between emails.) She feels like she is just annoying them, or they aren’t interested in her, or they are too busy, etc… I posted a similar question about 6 months ago, and my daughter now realizes that her timing before wasn’t ideal. But now it is September, and surely the ad reps should be responding to potential applicants who have legitimate questions. What gives? Should she try just using the general email address for a college’s admissions office?
Pick up a phone and call them. More personal than an email
Just phone or try the general email. However, reps are pros at spotting kids trying to fake interest by asking questions easily answered on the website. You mention that she is trying to show interest – that can backfire if a rep feels pestered.
As I said, these are legitimate questions that are not easily found on the website. And she has purposely been not bombarding them with emails. One rep she emailed in Feb to say she how much she enjoyed touring the college and how interested she was, and a couple of questions. No response. She would like to know, should she be taking this personally? Should she just not bother trying to contact them anymore? Surely a left phone message isn’t going to elicit a response if an email doesn’t. One of the LACs is not super selective, the other is more selective. She is trying to arrange interviews with them when they are in the area, as she has done with another very selective school. And how is emailing with a real question seen as “fake”? One of the LACs is too far away for her to visit, how on earth is she going to express interest if they won’t ever reply to an interested applicant? It is very annoying.
and
This makes it really clear you ARE fishing for "interest points’ with the emails. These guys are pros – they can smell it a mile away. And if she really just wanted an answer at this point and can’t find it on the website, she would email the general admissions mailbox. February is literally the worst time to send a rep a question — they have hundreds of applications they are responsible for reading and making decisions on. It is “hell month” in an admissions office.
Occasionally an admissions rep position will be in flux, and the website doesn’t show it. Someone has left the position, and another rep is picking up those responsibilities while they hire someone new. So then someone has double duty for a while.
Way to express interest if you can’t visit:
- Have her sign up on the college website to receive emails
- Attend a college fair in your area if they send a representative, and have her talk to the rep. It will be brief, of course. But make sure she signs in at the table, fills out a card, whatever they have so there is a record of her presence.
- If they come to your area, go to their presentation. If they offer interviews and you are sure your kid is a good interviewer (one of mine was, one wasn’t), try to sign up for an interview.
- Some LACs send reps to high schools – she should definitely go if that happens. if she can’t stay due to an exam or something, she should stop in to say introduce herself.
- Spend a of time perusing their website so she can write a fairly specific 'Why College X" essay if they require one. Being able to reference specific facilities, courses, unique major offerings, professor research that intrigues her, ECs she hopes to participate in, etc. goes a long way. A strong, specific “Why College X” essay is really key to colleges that use interest as a criteria. What they are trying to figure out is whether she will come if accepted – they are trying to protect their yield numbers.
- After she applies, have her check her portal regularly. Some colleges now track whether students are looking online as a way to judge interest.
- After the application is in, if you achieve something (an award, a leadership position, winning something, etc.), send an update to admissions. My kids just sent them to the general admissions email (felt more sure it would get incorporated into the application).
Remember that your kid will NEVER see the admissions people again once they are accepted. So whether you love or hate those people, they aren’t who she will deal with in the long term. So don’t get too high or too low on a college based on interaction with an admissions rep.
@intparent , thank you! That is a wonderful and useful answer. I am going to show this to her right away. I am sure she is going to email the general admissions address. One of the LACs that doesn’t respond, she has already set up an interview with when they come to our area.