<p>I want to show interest in the colleges that I want to attend, and I know emailing and getting in contact with your local college representative helps. How do I contact my local college rep?</p>
<p>I've checked the admissions tab under the schools that I want to go to, but all they have is a general email. Do I need to email that? Is that the same thing as a contacting a rep or will they help lead me to one?</p>
<p>What should you talk about when emailing a college of interest? Like how you want to be put on their mailing list? future plans?</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore in high school if that matters</p>
<p>An email from a sophomore will not give you any admissions advantage. Don’t send it if that is your only reason to communicate. </p>
<p>First, find out if the school that interests you even cares whether you are interested in them. Search for the common data set for the school online and then look at section C7 to see if “Applicant’s Interest” is considered. If not, then it doesn’t matter what you do to show interest. </p>
<p>If the school cares about level of interest and you live within about 250 miles of campus, then sometime during your junior year you will need to go for a visit, tour, sit in on a class if that’s an option, interview on campus if that’s an option, and maybe have a meal in one of the dining halls. </p>
<p>You can get easily get on school mailing lists, but I don’t recommend doing that until next year, if ever. You will probably find that mail from colleges starts to all look alike after a while and doesn’t make much difference to you in the end. Be judicious about how many schools you sign up for mailings from. Colleges will not favor you in the admissions process just because you are on their snail mail communications list.</p>
<p>Good for you that you’re thinking about this ahead of time!</p>
<p>I agree, though, that it’s a bit early to start contacting colleges. Here’s what you can do, though, to get ready:</p>
<p>(1) Go to each college’s admissions website and find the page that lists all admissions staff. It might have different names: “Meet Our Office" or “Our Admissions Officers” are two possibilities. If you can’t find the list, then send the admissions office an email asking for the name and contact info of the admissions officer for your geographic region. I’d suggest waiting until summer or early fall to do this, so you have a current list.</p>
<p>(2) Find the page on the admissions website that lists admissions officer visits in different regions. You can look for the page this spring, if you’d like - that’s when local visits will be starting up again. There will be a new list posted in August or September for next fall.</p>
<p>And if you find that there will be an admissions rep visiting your area, there’s no reason you can’t show up for the meeting, even if you’re only a sophomore. This is a great time to start collecting information about the schools. Just introduce yourself to the rep and tell him or her that you’re a sophomore and just starting to look at colleges. If you show up this spring, and again next year, chances are that he or she will remember you - and that’s always a good thing!</p>