<p>Northwestern’s staff was awful. My oldest went to their Wildcat Days overnight visit in spring of 2008 when Northwestern was one of her top two choices nearing that May 1st decision deadline. It was completely disorganized and chaotic. They still had not matched her with a host student by the time she signed in on the day of the event, so she (and quite a few other prospective students) had to skip several of the scheduled events to trek back to the admissions office throughout the day to see if they had actually gotten their act together and assigned a host. That took several attempts. Even then, her host had no idea what the evening’s scheduled events were or where they were supposed to be, so she missed them all. :(</p>
<p>That bad experience was a deal-breaker. She couldn’t see paying $52,000/year to a school that couldn’t even reliably organize an event for a few dozen students.</p>
<p>University Of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC might be a great school if you’re a freshman starting out, but if you’re a transfer student or any sort of non-traditional student, you’re going to be getting the short end of the stick in everything.</p>
<p>The admissions and re-admission staffs at every the Liberal Arts and Science college is particularly bad to deal with, but every school on the campus is horrible in this regard in their own way. Every meeting feels more like an interrogation. They’ll quote policies that they themselves cannot even find on their website, refuse to acknowledge the advice they’re giving you, give you horribly misleading (or just plain wrong) advice, give the wrong dates for deadlines, etc. </p>
<p>At another school on the UIUC campus, I was accepted into a program several years ago. I was then rejected 24 hours later, because at the time they accepted me they had neglected to check the number of semesters I’d already spent at a community college and I was told that my acceptance had been a mistake because I had surpassed their limit.</p>
<p>A bit of a strange policy: If you’ve spent too much time at a community college, UIUC LAS specifically states in their policies they essentially say you’re not really wanted as a student. Other schools have it, but it’s not so plainly put onto their materials. It’s horrible if you’re a student on the edge of these policies. Over the years, they’ve told me that I can not even pursue AAS or certificate coursework at a community college, even for my ‘own personal benefit’, or else they’ll permanently revoke my ability to return to them to finish a 4-year degree on the basis of too much time spent in college.</p>
<p>Admissions are often former undergraduates who couldnt find jobs elsewhere. While its a thankless job, its important to put your best foot forward. I do caution people that admissions staff are NOT the University. I want to refrain from slamming any particular college(s), but what always irked me was sheer arrogance and condescension. Followed shortly thereafter by sheer dissembling…as in being sugary sweet and enticing and inviting, and then being ruthless in the actual admissions process (or admitting legacy or people of wealth instead of people who are qualified…which happens almost everywhere…I know.) </p>
<p>The bottom line is that its not a fair and objective process. Its quirky and sometimes defies logic. If you get in, good for you. If you don’t, move along. It is what it is. Its not personal.</p>
<p>I was at a college fair and most were middle tier schools I had never heard of so I was just sort of wandering randomly from booth to booth. So I went over to Norwich University, knowing nothing about it. I should have been warned by the lack of students there…the good schools were all busy.</p>
<p>So I started talking to an alumni, and things got awk. This guy had graduated in '54. He looked ready to keel over any minute. And it was loud in there, way loud, but it wasn’t a problem at most of the other booths. But this guy…his voice was so quiet and I couldn’t hear a word he said, so I just smiled and nodded and he talked to me for SO long. It felt like at least 20 minutes. Eventually he stopped and offered me a contact card to fill out. Not wanting to be rude, I put my little info stickers on the card and booked it out of there. </p>
<p>Soon I started getting mail from them and I realized that the school is heavy duty military/ROTC and whatnot. I guess I LOOK like I could be athletic, but I’m definitely not. But I’ve gotten tons of calls and letters and emails, they’re bugging me more than any other school. Weird.</p>
<p>How about schools that you tour and then NEVER hear back from them??? Was it something we said or did on the tour? I guess they didn’t like us We toured 9 schools and two never sent anything afterwards.</p>
<p>I’ve found Columbia reps in general extremely unfriendly and unwilling to talk (although I don’t think it reflects much on the university itself.) Perhaps they think that their school is too good for those info sessions or something?</p>
<p>^I find this interesting. After the formal visit at Columbia, my wife and I sat on a bench in front of Lerner Hall, enjoying the sun and waiting for our son, who was having lunch with Columbia students. The admissions officer who spoke at the info session walked by, recognized us from the session, and stopped to chat for about 15 minutes. I was impressed.</p>
<p>Some of the posters here have denigrated “old” people and admissions staff in general:“Admissions are often former undergraduates who couldnt find jobs elsewhere.”</p>
<p>I’d like to read a parallel thread to this entitled “Worst college applicants and their parents that you have met” written by college admission staff.</p>
<p>^^^^ They just finished Furlough Days at CSU on July 1st and started another round of layoff soon after. Yes, morals are not high among employees, caus the damm Union system and “bump” system they institued. OTOH, it is perhaps better than the State employees. What can you do being in such a State with financial disarray?</p>
<p>my worst experience was UMass-Amherst. For the information student, they dragged some graduate student up there to read off a sheet of paper. The girl would mumble while reading, not look up and kept playing with her hair. When it was time for questions, she couldn’t answer any of the admissions questions and just told us to call or email the admissions office.</p>
We toured 9 schools and two never sent anything afterwards.</p>