So, college hunting season has officially opened for us!
Yesterday we’ve attended a presentation/QA session with representatives of Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, Stanford and UPenn. Basically DS thought it a waste of time. They were all saying basically the same things and you can find most of them on the college websites. Yes, you can look for clues like Georgetown prides itself on its international character, Stanford on entrepreneurship and Duke on research (a big plus for us but DS still wasn’t impressed), and Harvard has the attitude that it doesn’t need to sell itself…tell me something I don’t know.
Basically, DS told me that he doesn’t think it makes a lot of sense to talk to the admissions reps because they’ll just give the answers you want to hear, unless it’s a purely factual question and then you can probably look it up.
So is there anything we’re missing here? Are there any really good questions you should ask? Does just showing up count for the admissions? He’s just a sophomore so we may be doing a lot more of this next year, and his school gets a lot of visits.
I attended one of these fairs, and one of the questions I asked each representative was whether they attended the school that they were representing that day. Of the more than half dozen I asked, only one answered affirmatively.
This says more about me than the schools, I am sure, but it certainly changed my assumptions on the approach and purpose of these gatherings.
Of course admission officers will spread the company line about their particular college. But there are some school specific, more opinion based questions that can’t be answered by a website etc.
A few questions I remember my D saying she asked were:
To an admission officer who attended the school fairly recently – What would you say was your favorite thing about your college experience and looking back what would you have done differently?
2)She also asked about things of particular interest to her such as the availability of undergraduate student research opportunities and was there an opportunity to play in the orchestra without being a music major etc.
I know she spent time trying to come up with questions that would give her some helpful information.
A good line to pursue is asking about the work/life balance there. That is, do most students find the time to get involved in other activities, hold jobs, etc.
I liked to ask student representatives "What surprised you the most about “XYZ”? since my pups were too shy to ask in questions themselves. Sometimes, we’d ask about what they’d majored / minored in, and when it was a match to our interests, we could ask follow-up questions.
Whether a former student or a general admissions rep, I’d also ask how many students declared their majors before attending, and how many change majors, etc. I’d also ask about how the advisors work - are there separate freshman advisors, or department advisors, class advisors, etc. - these vary quite a bit at different schools and are often not discussed in regular information sessions.
Depending on the school, we’d ask about clubs/activities, percentage of commuter students or those kids who left campus for the weekend.
At college fairs, our kids got really no information that was helpful.
Some colleges send admissions folks....some are students and some are actual admissions officers. I know,this because my own kid worked in undergrad admissions and went to some HS college planning events. My KID was really only able to answer questions about student life. The adcoms gave application information. NO ONE could speak to financial aid...those folks didn't go on the dog and pony shows.
My kids both found that questions asked at info sessions and on tours weren't particularly helpful. They both interviewed on campus at their top choices (exception...DD interviewed with the enrollment manager via phone for one school), and found questions relevant to THEM were better answered in these individual interviews.
Both kids did good research online...and really far less was available for,them...2002 and 2005...than there is now.
My son asked about the program he was interested in studying to see if the school offered it and then he asked if it was audition or not (theater tech). He was able to eliminate a number of schools just by learning that they didn’t have a theater major, which he could have learned online but I forced him to ask to practice his interpersonal skills with adult strangers, since I knew he’d have to audition.
Our D applied for a selective LAC, her dream college. During our pre-admission college visit, she and I requested and were fortunate enough to get an office call with the Assistant Vice President/Dean of Admissions.
He explained the college’s admissions panel process on evaluating the applications and selecting students they choose to offer admission to. He said that he was a member of the admissions panel as was the college’s regional college rep for our area. He encouraged our D to meet with the regional college rep and said that the regional rep would “make the case” for applicants from her region before the admissions panel.
We were fortunate that the rep was in our area not long after we returned from our visit. Our D made an appointment and met with the rep, she thought it went well, and sure enough, she was offered admission to her dream college! We think that meeting in person with two of the influential members of the college’s admissions panel must have helped.
Each college is different. Some college reps may just provide informational presentations, but some might be involved in the admission decision for your student and you might not even know it!
If you meet with a college rep, based on our experience, I’d ask about the process the college to evaluate the applications they receive.
Our S met and had his only interview with Dean of Engineering at a U he was pretty interested in attending and did end up attending. It must have gone well as he got in and received generous merit awards.
He mostly considered the college fairs and info sessions a waste of time and energy. We did tour a few campuses, which I thought were helpful to get a flavor of differences in size and urban vs rural campuses.
If this was a fair-type event, with several colleges giving presentations in the say day, I don’t think there is much value in it. The value of visiting campus and attending an info session there is higher, but they do tend to blur into each other. Tours are definitely a help in assessing “vibe” as is hanging out on the green, the bookstore, dining hall and library etc.
There may be very specific questions that either admissions or a department can answer that are key, and this can generally be done at a distance. The question about non-music majors playing in orchestra is a good example. I don’t think a fair is the right setting for this, though.