Yesterday was a beautiful day and I didn't really have a lot going on in the office (plus my boss had been bugging me to do a campus tour) so I got my butt down to campus and played prospective student at Dartmouth for a day.
The first stop was an info session in the admissions office, given by their senior assistant director of admissions. The first thing that struck me was the complete lack of photography in the admissions offices - I've seen some great, dramatic and powerful photos taken by the school's photographer but the walls were completely bare. I thought that was odd - an admissions visit is just as much about selling the school to the students as it is the students selling themselves to the school. If not photography then put something up to make the room a bit warmer and more inviting.
The information session I was in was great. It was probably the most unique way I've ever seen a school do it. The presenter talked a little bit about why all admissions visits at all colleges seemed the same and then just opened the floor up to questions about anything - Dartmouth specifically or just generally applying to college. She acknowledged that Dartmouth wasn't a perfect place. The whole thing just came across as really authentic - it was about helping the students and their families instead of selling the school with a boring presentation that is the same as every other school out there.
She gave KILLER advice on the essay - having read about 9 billion essays during my time as an admissions officer I was totally with her: Get a copy of the application and your high school transcript. Then get a piece of paper and make two columns on it. In the first column, write down all the things your admissions person is going to know about you based on your application and high school transcript (for example, you played soccer for four years, captain of the team, youth coach in the summer, etc...). You'll find that an admissions person will know very little about you from that information.
In the second column, write a list of reasonable assumptions the admissions person can make about you based on the information in the first column. So in the soccer example, you can assume the kid has persevered, has leadership experience, has learned all sorts of valuable lessons from playing sports, etc...
Now, based on the information they already have on you in those two columns, figure out an essay topic that makes you a real, three dimensional person. The kid in the soccer example is probably going to write his essay about soccer and all the valuable lessons he's learned...but the admissions officer already knows that. It doesn't give them any more information than they already had to really make the case for why a school should except you. A real person is much harder to deny.
Another thing I liked is that Dartmouth actually requires a peer evaluation on their application. Most schools require a guidance counselor recommendation (and they're usually just a form letter and boring) and a teaching recommendation but a peer evaluation allows them a different perspective on a student - one from someone who knows them well and is not in a position of authority. I thought that was a great idea and probably much more interesting to read than the usual letters.
So then I moved on to the tour. I'll be honest - the tour didn't really do much for me. I've only been to campus a few times and had already seen everything they showed us so walking around and seeing the outsides of the buildings yet again really wasn't that helpful. Plus the tour guides annoyed me with their presentation style - you could tell they were friends and they spent most of the time talking to each other ("You really do that?! Oh my God!") instead of to the audience. I also thought they came across as a bit fake - like they had really been trained about what to say and what not to say. I felt like I left it with no additional information than when I started it, aside from places to get free food on campus. Maybe the prospective students ate it up though? I'm not sure.
All in all, it was good, but a bit anti-climatic after the killer info session but still better than I've seen other schools do it. Plus I got to be outside on a nice day instead of stuck in the office, so really I can't complain :-)
4 comments:
I'm going to pass this along. It sounds like you guy have an interesting presentation. I often wonder how families can do 2 or 3 schools in a day and not develop narcolepsy.
2 tour guides gave your tour? Was it a large group? Do you interview prospectives and can they meet with professors or coaches?
Great Observations. Often I encounter tour guides who make it all about them. When is should be about their guests. Watching for cues, listening intently, engaging in genuine conversation. We often think that tour guides should be the most involved or theatrical, but in reality some of the best tour guides I've encountered in my some 250+ campus tours are those average students who love their school and are great conversationalist.
Glad you enjoyed your day outside and that the information session hit the mark.
Jeff Kallay
Experience Evangelist
TargetX
this has been the summer for prospective student visits to my office. I'm always asked the "why should I attend" question. I always ask them about all of the schools that they have visited/researched and say that it's all about fit. Don't come to my university if it does not feel right. That usually surprises parents. I think that they are often expecting me to be like a car salesman ;-)
ps: why can't i comment with a non blogger or openID account? ~ eric stoller
Great observations, Karlyn. I really like that essay advice. I also think that authentic feeling you felt is key. People know when their being shoveled total b.s. If you can present your school in an honest and authentic manner, I think it's much more effective.
Tour guides in general annoy me.
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