<p>My oldest daughter is a rising junior and we recently did our first college tour. We were in the area on vacation and decided this would be a good time to casually check out a school or two. We had an appointment for an information session and tour at a small southern liberal arts college. The information session had the feel of a small group interview, which we had not anticipated at all. </p>
<p>One admissions rep did the talking, while another sat and made notes. I just sat there thinking, yikes, I'm glad my daughter is a junior and this is a school she's only vaguely considering. Cutesy admissions rep #1 asked each kid to introduce themselves and say where they're from and what school they attend. I suppose this was meant as an ice-breaker. It turned in to an opportunity for the admissions rep to name-drop whatever principal, guidance counselor, or former student she knew from that student's school. Well, it did for the kids from southern prep schools. Then, the admissions rep launched in to a discussion of study abroad opportunities by asking each kid if they've been abroad and where they've been. One girl reeled off a list of exotic places, while her mother chimed in that she was leaving off a lot, and my daughter decided it was better to just not share her rather mundane travel experiences. It didn't get any better from there, as the tour leader (an admission's employee, not a student) continued to name drop with the prep school students. </p>
<p>Is it unusual for these group information sessions to feel like group interviews? I expected a canned presentation and a larger group. Am I jumping to conclusions that this school is more interested in attracting their wealthy homebase than students who might add to their social and geographical diversity? My daughter was not turned off to the school, she separates the info session and tour from the school on the whole, something I'm having a harder time doing.</p>
<p>We had a similar experience at only one school in the midwest. A bit off-putting t say the least. Another (ivy) basically told the group of 300+ kids that it was kind of pointless for most of them to apply. (They were right, of course!) Most of the other tours just kind of blended together in our collective memory: great study abroad, safe campus, lots to do other than drinking, no teaching by TAs, accessible profs, and my favorite: if you and a friend want to start an club, you can! They all sounded the same.
Of course, after visiting ~10 schools, S is enrolled at one he never toured!</p>
<p>Between my two sons, we visited/toured about 16 schools, and never had an experience like the one you describe. The closest thing was an info session at a small northeastern technical school where the only other attender was a potential international transfer student, and the session turned into an informal discussion. (Unfortunately, the rep asked each of the two attenders what they thought of various aspects of the curriculum, which my son had not read about thoroughly, so he sounded ignorant and disinterested, when in reality he was just uninformed.)</p>
<p>I agree with nngmm, you've learned some valuable things about this school from the visit.</p>
<p>I've never been at an info session, Ivy or not, that singled out kids. How inappropriate.</p>
<p>I hope your daughter finds a college with students who suit her better and whose staff are not so focused on the financial upper crust of their applicant group.</p>
<p>The funny thing was my daughter at least listed potential majors that the school offers. The two prep school students were interested in fields not offered. The other student was a Jewish boy from New York who struck me as very bright, and definitely a fish out of water. I'm torn between thinking this represents the admissions philosophy of the school or that it was truly intended to be friendly and chatty but missed the mark. We're from NJ so maybe something was lost in translation?</p>
<p>I don't mean to offend southern prep-school students by any of this. They seemed like really nice kids.</p>
<p>Honestly, it's hard to imagine a college being that offputting intentionally. I have to believe that they meant to be welcoming and personal, and were just a little insensitive to how some of the people there might take some of the chumminess with the students who felt most at home. On the other hand -- yes, it's a (small) lesson about the school, and certainly something to look into further. At the very least, it sounds like they don't expect many applications from nonwealthy Northerners (and they may be right about that).</p>
<p>I remember a couple of smallish LAC information sessions or tours where the kids were asked to introduce themselves, but I never had any sense that anyone was taking notes. At one college, this process evoked the information that the tour guide's roommate was the older sister of one of my daughter's friends, and that she and the tour guide had tickets to see the same band on consecutive nights the next week. This may have put off some of the people on the tour, I suppose, but it was only the tour guide.</p>
<p>It's pretty common for info sessions to involve polling of students like this - name, where you are from, what do you want to major in. One school asked that each kid say their favorite ice cream. I think the name-dropping by the admissions rep was unfortunate - it was probably well-intended, but the admissions rep might have considered how kids outside the area she was familiar with might feel.</p>
<p>I have a close relative who worked in admissions for a highly ranked college the first year after she graduated. One possibility: If one admissions employee ran the info session while another took notes, maybe the first one is a new graduate running her first or second session, an that the note-taker is a more seasoned person who will offer counsel afterward on how to make her presentations better. Those sort of skills (knowing names of other students from that school, etc) are very good for one-on-one interviews but obviously not for a group info session. Maybe the young rep got some good feedback.</p>
<p>my Mt Holyoke interview from twenty years ago. I had never before heard "to summer" used as a verb, but the admissions representative bounded right out into the waiting room and ran up to Tiffy's mom and said, 'I heard that you all summer on the cape, too! So do we!!! Where does your family summer?"</p>
<p>Needless to say, we weren't much on "summering" in our family. We were big on "working and earning money" and apparently that bored the cute little admissions rep who yawned through her interview with me. I ended up not applying there.</p>
<p>I am dying to know what school this is.
If you don't want to name, can you hint? What state? Town?<br>
Or PM me?
I live in the SE (my kids are already in school) but I'd love to know....:)</p>
<p>My son (from an average public high school sending few kids to elite schools) went to an information session at Princeton when he was a h.s. senior in 2002 that sounds similar to what you experienced. I observed in the waiting area that the admissions staff chatted with students from prep schools that they knew, asking about certain guidance counselors, etc. In the session itself , my son told me that the admissions person spent a lot of time talking to a girl who attended a high school in Europe where the IB program had originated, or something like that. He felt quite inadequate after that session, but ended up being admitted to Princeton anyway. I don't think they were actually evaluating the students (it was not an interview) but were trying to make friendly conversation, perhaps without realizing that some of the students felt excluded by the conversations not addressed to them.</p>
<p>Only the Caltech info session even came close to what you described. Kids were polled about where they were from and what they were interested in. It was much too big a group for anyone to keep track of and I don't think anyone was taking notes. They did as the kids to fill out postcards so they could be on the Caltech mailing list. I agree that I suspect it was more a misguided attempt to make kids comfortable that backfired in your case. It does give you a good insight into the school however. I would bet a large contigent will come from the southern prep school crowd.</p>
<p>I think that even though it was an unpleasant experience, it was an important one. Now the OP and her daughter know what the student body at that school is likely made up of.</p>
<p>MomofFour,
With oldest S we toured about 10 schools, from urban Ivy's to small LAC's, and never ran into the scenario you described. Occasionally, the students would be asked where they were from, but no more than that. All schools were in the northeast.</p>
<p>this was several years ago, but at one of the small northeastern 'elite' schools we toured, the parents of the prospective students were so bad, it completely ruined our image of the school. not only did these parents ask where i was from and where i went to school ('just' a public, to their surprise), but they asked where my family 'summered' and where did my siblings went to school.
could not see myself in that environment.</p>
<p>That sounds like a nightmare.<br>
When we visited Princeton with WildChild, I got yelled at by someone on the admissions staff for trying to take a coffee drink into the "historic building" where the info session was being held. The place was packed (spring break) and the young admissions rep who was leading the discussion didn't know anything. I knew more from CC than she did! Our tour guide was a Valley Girl-type who had switched majors 4 times. Despite all that, it IS an impressive place.</p>
<p>My son was asked to introduce himself on tours at Mudd, Caltech, Olin, Reed, CMU, Chicago and Cornell. He didn't do the dog-and-pony show at Princeton or Michigan (DH did the tour, DS sat in on classes), and was not asked at MIT. Doesn't remember whether Stanford did. Some info session guides asked for high schools, but most didn't.</p>
<p>We've never heard a guide ask other types of questions -- seems out of line to me!</p>