S has made his college decision, and that is great. He just sent out emails to Admissions Counselors for the schools he is not attending. There is one Admissions Counselor in particular who made extra effort for S and did a great job as a liaison between the college and S. S’s reason for attending another college in no way means any thing negative about this Counselor’s institution. I just felt bad when that particular email went out. Intellectually, I don’t understand my reaction.
DD’s second choice school went above and beyond in terms of her acceptance. She wrote them a nice snail mail letter, and got a response…that they would hold her acceptance for a full year…and if her other choice didn’t work out, she was welcome there the following year. A class act, if you ask me!
My D didn’t choose to attend the college with the best ad con we encountered. And the school she chose seemed to have the worst ad con. So we were genuinely connected with the good ad con and did feel somewhat like “letting her down” when D emailed she would attend elsewhere. The good ad con was, of course, gracious and kind with my D upon hearing D’s choice.
The bad ad con was never heard from again, and supports my thoughts that you don’t have to love the Admissions Office to love the college your child chooses.
Know what you mean, @eli1067. There were two schools with admissions reps who really clicked with D, and when she had to send them both emails letting them know she had accepted another school’s offer, we did feel sad. Both reps sent very gracious replies, which may have made us feel worse!
Yes, I remember feeling this way. One of my kid’s AO’s LOVED my son. Pulled for him for a very generous scholarship. Was soooo attentive on his accepted student visit. She asked us as his parents about 5 times over the day and a half how he was liking it. DH & I really liked the school but he didn’t think it was the best fit. He wrote her a nice email when he turned it down, but you could tell from her response to him that she was just crushed.
Maybe briefly, but I got over it. D had to call the coaches of schools she decided not to attend also, which was not a pleasant task.
And I’m sure those Admit reps would have felt bad if your child was rejected too. Nothing to be done about it, it is part of the game.
I know it’s all a process, so guess I don’t really feel badly. One of her reps was good, perfect amount of contact throughout the year. She is young. Very small school. I’m going to write a short note to the Admissions Director and president and say she did a great job. In contrast, another small school has an experienced office admin (only front desk contact) who is less than friendly and as far as I could tell, she wasn’t picking on us. This was over 3 visits, so not just a bad day. Not going to say a word, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she lowers their yield.
I do need to add…the admissions folks where DD matriculated were terrific too. And she actually ended up working in that office for 3 1/2 years.
We had this happen and it was sad to let the rep know. But the welcome and attention from D’s #1 was even better. We were lucky.
I was so glad that the rep for the college my daughter most wanted to attend was great. Their whole admissions office was great. I felt like they did a great job keeping my daughter enthusiastic about the school all the way through. They made a huge difference in how my daughter felt about going there. She is genuinely pumped about attending this school. It will not be hard to contact the other schools. They were perfectly nice and helpful, but they didn’t really do anything that set them apart. I think they probably sensed that my daughter wasn’t feeling it as much and they put their energies elsewhere.
I’m curious. Do many people call or write the admissions rep to let them know whether or not they are attending? I thought students just checked off the yes or no box.
My kids always wrote a nice email to their AOs ccing the general admissions office email address. They went to a smaller private high school and applied to mainly small LACs. Reasons: 1. To help further a good relationship between the college and the high school to benefit future applicants from that high school. 2. It’s a small world and you never know when your paths might cross again.
My kids wrote to each school. But my kids didn’t apply to very many schools!
I’m thinking since we received acceptance and scholarship notification in a letter, she should probably write them a letter also. Any thoughts?
Most of the colleges had a card to mail back. Most of them were not so attentive, so that was that. She sent the very nice rep a written note, before sending the card. We encouraged that because he had been so enthusiastic and supportive and it felt like good manners to make the personal contact. It was the right closure for us.
The president of my son’s safety school, where he has been awarded a nice scholarship, called him at home. He’s still considering the offer, but you can be sure we will all feel bad about him turning it down if he gets into either of his top two schools, Safety is his third choice.
Not so much feeling bad about the admins it was more the profs DD2 met. She met some awesome profs at two schools she turned down. She did send thank you’s to these profs after the tours and to the admins after declining the offers.
We and DS felt particularly badly when he declined admission (years ago), at a small school that had an engaging admission rep and a very specific style/philosophy of education. During the interview, DS described what that approach meant to him and the rep asked permission to use his statement in admission materials as it was “a good way of describing what we do here.”
Within in a month, we received a brochure, including a vignette of his interview and the quote. DS liked the school, but wound up preferring another option. He felt badly about it, and wrote a note to thank the admissions team.
Oh absolutely yes! It was very hard for my D to write the email to a school that really wanted her. She had personal communications with the Dean of Admissions (he called her to tell her that her essay was the best he had read that season) and one professor in particular who touched base with her frequently. This was for a LAC and they went out of their way to try to get her to matriculate. She liked everybody so much, but in the end, she chose a different school (and is happy with her decision), but boy oh boy, they put a lot of man hours into her. I guess it just comes with the territory, though. I’m sure this happens frequently.