<p>This thread is making me think we have only visited schools where the Admissions Office has parking under control. We are going to make a second visit to our instate flagship and have already received a parking pass just as we did for the first visit. On all our other visits, we received great instructions from the Admissions Office and had no problem whatsoever.</p>
<p>Of course, the perspective engineering student and his engineering dad don’t read the instructions. They leave that up to me, along with hotels, flights, etc. Engineers are smart that way.</p>
<p>“…especially if we’re talking about full pay to an expensive private college. How hard would it be to provide the student with a pass to put in the windshield?”</p>
<p>For clarification, GMU is a public university, although I’m sure the oos tuition rivals that of some privates. From what I understand the OP received an email giving the lot where to park. The students could not find the lot (understandable as there are many parking lots at Mason). A printout of the campus map may have helped.</p>
<p>Regardless it is frustrating, and as consumers we have choices. The OP and their student may have many universities to choose from. If the student really loved GMU and felt great about the program, the parking ticket would be a large annoyance, however not a reason to mark it off the list.</p>
<p>mdcissp, good luck in finding just the right school. I hope your student finds one that has just the right feel with a great program that fits.</p>
<p>I recommend that you appeal the ticket as some schools have deals with the state’s DMV. This means if you don’t pay, you can’t register your car.</p>
<p>GMU admissions did not supply us with a decal or say in the e-mail to leave any particular note on the windshield that we are here for the info. session. My son first went to the same parking lot where dad parked last year when we went to see the school on a Sunday (not info. session–just another visit to the school). A rep. was in the lot and said not to park here and told him where to park. My son just did not know exactly which lot, among the many lots, was the right lot. I told him to go to the info. booth at the entrance. He went there, got a map, and still did not know exactly where to go. I told him to park at the lot where there was a sign that said “orientation” thinking it implied that it was ok for visitors to park here.</p>
<p>The ticket said my offense was not displaying a decal. However, admissions did NOT supply any decal or similar note in the e-mail. Furthermore, the ticket uses hostile language saying if I don’t pay, I am responsible for collection fees, attorney fees, etc. Wow! State educational institutions are very careful about any communication to parents and students. We are simply trying to park our car in a mostly empty lot far from campus and already I am on the verge of an attorney running after me to pay what will be an increased fee from $75. to $85.? I am extremely offended.</p>
<p>Moreover, admissions is familiar with this problem because I was told I am not the first person this happened to. Someone in admissions apparently told my son to move our car, and therefore miss the info. session. The rep actually reprimanded me in front of my son that I should have told my son to move the car and stay for the later afternoon session.</p>
<p>I told her that at this stage, I left my son responsible to make the reservations on line and drive us to the school. This is his responsibility. I did not listen in to the conversations between staff and my son, and no one approached me to warn me about the pending ticket.</p>
<p>GMU did not make a positive impression. This is actually our second tour to GMU (took the metro for the first tour) and my son is no longer interested.</p>
<p>I want to clarify the rep who reprimanded me in front of my son that I should have told him to move our car said this after I found out about the ticket. No one in admissions came up to me the parent before, during, or after the info session to move our car.</p>
<p>I only visited two colleges in this particular go-round of admissions. Both places were amazing in directing traffic to appropriate car-parks. Special kudos to BU that has great signage and online parking passes that you can print out for admissions purposes!</p>
<p>I am fully sympathetic with mdcissp and I would cross that school right off my list …</p>
<p>Ha, ha, ha! Oh boy, does this bring back the memory. We were heading to a tour at UCF and I parked in a 2 hour spot and fed the meter, checked with admissions that 2 hours would be enough and was assured it would be. Well, 2 hours and 15 minutes later guess who had a $75 ticket? Whew, I was ****ed! Went back into admissions and they told me to go right over to parking services - and they waived it - yay! DH said that I should have just driven away - why would they bother to track me down? I was afraid that D would apply and they would be all like, “Well, we would let you in, but there’s this ticket…” She just graduated.</p>
<p>The admissions rep said if I walked over to parking services, that parking would say the same thing, to appeal this on-line. I am so upset, that I now refuse to go back to GMU for cultural events afraid that parking tickets will start there as well.</p>
<p>My parents got three parking tickets at move in day last year. They were only $5 each if they were paid the same day. After the annoyance died down we thought it was pretty funny. Maybe we set a record?</p>
<p>I think the whole thing is disgraceful. A fine example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. I am sure that you will successfully appeal the ticket. Whatever the outcome, I would write a letter to the president of the university telling him/her about your experience. Sometimes going all the way to the top can make an impression. It doesn’t have to angry, but just an “oh, by the way, this is how prospective students and their parents are treated by admissions and your parking police”. It would be interesting to see if you received a reply.</p>
<p>You are never given a decal as a visitor. The decal is purchased by students each semester to park in certain lots. Some lots are just for faculty, who have their own decals issued. Some lots are visitor lots which require no decals.</p>
<p>I think Mason’s information on its web site about visitor parking is pretty clear. And they have a handy, dandy parking map on their web site. And unlike other schools, they have plenty of visitor parking. The parking might not be super close to your ultimate destination but at least they have some visitor parking. I have been to Mason many times since my kids were in elementary school (Mason sponsers lots of elementary school programs) and never had a problem parking and never been ticketed.</p>
<p>I do think $75 is outrageous and I would appeal it!</p>
<p>I always put a big handwritten sign on my dashboard that said “ADMISSIONS VISITOR” when we visited schools. It embarrassed my kids no end, but we never got a ticket (I did park legally when I could find the signs).</p>
<p>Maybe I should try that at work, where I just got a ticket despite having the correct parking pass displayed in the correct location while parked in the correct lot. :)</p>
That’s my take on this, too. Even if OP and/or OP’s son might have handled it differently or better, a well-trained admissions office would handle this very differently.</p>
<p>I would also note that this thread has already received almost 1500 views. Was that much bad publicity worth $75 to GMU?</p>
<p>I think this incident is a good example of the “pebble in one’s shoe” phenomenon - where a seemingly small incident can be so incredibly irritating. Hunt - you are so right - look at the bad publicity GMU has now rcvd. Isn’t it true that when people have a good customer service experience - they might mention it to a few people - but when they have a bad customer service experience - they will tell many more - I think there have been studies showing this. And that’s really what this is - a bad customer service experience.</p>
<p>“Parking is available in the Visitors Parking Deck off of Mason Pond Drive. The Office of Admissions will validate your parking. Please note that parking citations are often issued to vehicles parked in locations other than the visitor’s parking deck if they do not have authorized parking decals.”</p>
<p>Parking decals at colleges are not issued to visitors of the school. Parking decals are usually for commuter students, full-time students, and employees.</p>
<p>While it was very unfortunate that you were issued a parking ticket, it is clear on the website that parking in the wrong area will probably mean being issued a parking citation. Also be aware that the person who issued the parking ticket had no idea that you were at the school for the purpose of visiting the admission’s dept. To them, your car was just another car parked in the wrong parking area.</p>
<p>Go online as the people in the admission’s dept. suggested and file an appeal. I do sympathize with the fact that you appear to have had a very stressful day. On top of that, add in the high temperature outside and a parking ticket on your windshield.</p>
<p>To play devils advocate here, several other parents have chimed in relating their stories about parking tickets naming those schools. This is not unique to GMU. Don’t get mr wrong, it stinks, but I don’t think it is the kind of bad press that will sway someone from visiting or applying if they think the university is a good fit.
It MAY help others planning a visit avoid the same fate, here and elsewhere, reminding us to try to be as familiar with where we will need to park before the visit.</p>
<p>If I were an admissions director interested in attracting students, I would arrange to have any such parking tickets “fixed” immediately–I would have the admissions staff take them from the visitors and deal with it. Unless I wanted to drive away scofflaws, I guess.</p>