<p>For the past few months, D has been sending periodic emails to the AO assigned to our geographic area in an attempt to establish a relationship with AO.</p>
<p>The school is one of her top choices and we already visited (but did not meet AO).</p>
<p>Responses from the AO are canned, often come several days or a week later, and do not respond to questions D raises in her emails.</p>
<p>How do you engage an unresponsive AO? Is there something else D should be doing?</p>
<p>It has been prime time for admissions people with this round - maybe she’ll get quicker responses once this cycle is over. I would guess (hope) that they are just really focused on locking down the next incoming class at the moment.</p>
<p>Is this one of those schools where there are thousands of potential applicants for each officer? Perhaps the admissions officer feels that he/she doesn’t need to “establish a relationship” with every potential applicant. And are these questions that can be answered with Google or by reading the college website or which might be more appropriately directed to another person (eg. sports coach, dept chair, financial aid office)? </p>
<p>And yes, they are probably busy trying to assist current admitted seniors who are in the process of making their choices.</p>
<p>Not sure why you need to engage an admission officer. I think your D needs to be careful in not appear to be too needy. My kids never had to work with admission officers. They were applying to well known schools where most info was on their websites. They GCs contacted AOs few times, and even they didn’t get very fast response. I am kind of curious as to what kind of questions your kid is asking.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about it at this point. In our experience not having a relationship with the AO did not affect admissions decisions. Like saintfan said, fall may be a better time. Perhaps she can send her specific questions to the general admissions office e-mail and someone else will answer them?</p>
<p>Unless your daughter is a highly desirable applicant the AO is under no pressure to woo her. With the thousands of applicants, the AO focuses on the well-hooked URMs, academic superstars (top in the nation), development cases, and uniquely accomplished (published authors, chess champs, renowned musicians, etc.)</p>
<p>She should concentrate on upping her own profile, rather than over-communicating with the AO. As noted by an above poster, most questions can be answered by reading the website carefully. </p>
<p>OP how old is your D? This is the acceptance time for fall’s freshman and admissions and finaid folks are very, very busy. If your D is a junior - wait another month or two and then perhaps you can get questions answered. Just make sure you and your D aren’t asking questions that are already answered on the website. I’m not sure what you mean by “relationship” either so perhaps you are misinterpreting what “showing interest” means. If your D is a sophomore, I would wait to engage on a greater level than asking to be on the mailing list until it is your D’s application cycle. </p>
<p>This is interesting. What’s a “bad admissions officer”? What is a good one?</p>
<p>From what I can tell, colleges track a potential applicant’s every move. It’s a bit creepy. When I called to confirm a college tour, the person who answered said they did NOT have D (a junior) listed for a tour. He did, however, have our email address, our mailing address, her high school, grade, and area of interest. For me, that’s more than enough. </p>
<p>OP, are you sure the school even considers interest?</p>
<p>I didn’t know there was an admissions officer until it was all over.</p>
<p>What do you do when you get a bad admissions officer? How do you know he/she is bad? Even if they are, indeed, bad…I don’t think there is anything you can do about it. Submit the best application that you can, contact the admissions officer if you have a real question that can’t be answered on the website, send updates if there are any, and hope for the best. </p>
<p>The issue is not that the admissions officer is bad, but rather busy. Your D should not be sending periodic emails to establish a relationship. If there is truly a question that is unanswerable after a thorough search about the college, then possibly email the AO. Otherwise please allow the AO to do his/her job. This is not a good way to establish a relationship but is a way to be bothering the AO.</p>
<p>How periodic? If I were her, I’d quit msging. What is so important that she needs to send several e-mails?</p>
<p>I will just come out and say it sounds like she is being a pest. I notice the emphasis here isn’t on some information she feels she needs but on trying to get some kind of edge in admissions and it seems this may backfire.</p>
<p>Think of it from the AO’s point of view. This person has hundreds, maybe thousands of candidates he / she is going to have to vet. He / she can’t possibly “build a relation” with all of them. If there is a very specific question that really requires the AO’s attention and can’t be answered elsewhere, fine, but I wouldn’t pester them at all. I don’t think my kids had contact with any AO’s. Their job was to submit the application and let the AO’s do their thing - which is read and compare them all.</p>
<p>Think what their inboxes would look like if they received even one query a week from all of their prospective students. And now think about why the responses are curt, short, and “canned.” </p>
<p>I would also argue that you don’t want your child to stick out in a BAD way. If she indeed has been emailing very few weeks to the same person, she’s on their radar but being human the AO may have already given her an unflattering nickname.</p>
<p>@chickeninacar: tell your DD to stop pestering. Somewhere, there are admissions officers’ chat groups or forums where they bemoan the slobbering kids who don’t know boundaries – who try to “befriend” them, who ask meaningless questions whose answers are laid out in the webpage,etc. You’re asking about what to do about a “bad” admissions officer. The AO is wondering what to do about another “pest” high school student. </p>
<p>Either your DD is already marked as this or is on the inside lane to getting this label.</p>
<p>Worry less if you get a bad admission officer. Worry more the admission officer that may view you as a bad candidate. Not everyone enjoy reading spam.</p>
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<p>Yes, she should, and so should the parent! Just in case, the parent might want (or has) decided to get involved in establishing “a contact.”</p>