My daughter and I visited Susquehanna and they were wonderful. I just called St. Mary’s College of MD to ask a question and they were surprisingly unhelpful. I am new at this and was curious about others’ experiences.
I’m not going to comment specifically on either of these schools, but I will say that as a general rule I wouldn’t judge any school by one interaction. Perhaps the person who answered your call at St. Mary’s had received bad news moments earlier? We’re all human and we can’t all provide perfect customer service 24/7 (speaking as someone who worked in a customer service field years ago). And this is a very, very busy time of year in admissions offices. Additionally, once a student enrolls, s/he has little to no interaction with the admissions office (unless s/he works or volunteers for the office). That said, I would DEFINITELY sit up and take notice if everyone on campus was unhelpful and/or unfriendly. When visiting a campus, I always make a point of stopping at the bookstore, getting something to eat (even just a snack) at the dining hall, etc. It’s a great opportunity to interact with students and staff who are not specifically tasked with marketing the school to prospective students. And I always ask questions about the school to random students and staff, rather than relying only on the admissions staff for information.
It has been a few years since we visited, but we found the SMCMD admissions people to be wildly helpful when we visited campus (maybe because she was a high stats kid, and I think they asked something when we set up the visit that told them that). Seriously… they were incredibly solicitous. My kid didn’t apply there for various reasons, but I actually think it is kind of a gem of a school. Id go visit, especially if you are in-state. Just curious, what were you asking?
Comment on what? You don’t say if something significant happened and we don’t know if you are an overly sensitive person. But admissions time is the one and only time you will ever deal with that office. Your college experience will have nothing to do with them.
You could have got one person having a bad day. But in reality once your child decides to attend any given school, he/she will never have contact with admissions again (unless it is a work/study type of job).
I don’t know for SMCMD, but the susquehanna admission people as well as administration in general that I’ve been in contact with have been the most helpful and friendly of basically all I got to work with. I was REALLY impressed with how thorough, professional, and friendly they all were. (I mean, most admission people are friendly, most are helpful, etc, but the combination of friendly, helpful, and professional, at all times, and whoever you worked with, is pretty unique to Susquehanna.)
I know a person who talked to Susquehanna at a college fair and while he did not apply…he brought up the school in a a conversation and said the person representing the school was very nice and really made him feel like they were interested in him. (not sure that means anything but maybe Susquehanna is a place to really think about)
There’s a famous quote from James Carville that between Pittsburgh and Philly is Alabama. In other words friendly and sincere and unlike the usual Northeastern harshness. I’ve spent mucho time in the middle and agree…great folks in Johnstown, Altoona, Scranton, Hershey, Ephrata. Susquehanna is in that middle area.
I don’t think Carville meant “friendly and sincere”…
I think you may have caught SMCM on a bad day (I think that was before the snow storm but all these snow days are running together. They may have gotten a lot of snow that day). We’ve visited SMCM twice and have called several times. The students have consistently been friendly, helpful as well as smart and well spoken. We visited on one snowy day, were so late that the student guide had left the office. They called him back and he was very gracious about the whole snafu ( we were the only visitors that day). When we (my daughter and I) walked past a classroom with about five students the professor invited her in. That was a bit too much friendliness, she demurred.
After another visit (their open house), we were gathering our stuff before leaving when two students came up to warn us about an incoming campus wide game of tag.
btw, my daughter is not a high stat applicant, so there really isn’t a reason to woo her as such I would give the school a second chance.