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Five Questions to Ask Any College Rep

by Connor Rund in July

Voltaire
“Judge a man by his questions, rather than by his answers.” Voltaire

Ever attended a presentation from a college admission representative and heard,“Does anyone have any questions?

What comes next?

*crickets* 

Of course you have questions—probably millions of them.  But with some things in life, you don’t know what you don’t know. 

So in the interest of putting a few arrows in your quiver, here are five questions you should ask any admission representative when you inevitably find yourself in this position. 

  1. What makes your school unique? 
    Every school claims to be unique, but you’ll be surprised how similar these answers can be.
  2. Why did you choose to attend your school?
    This is a great way to understand the appealing factors of the school—anecdotes you can only get from a person (assuming they attended the institution they’re representing). 
  3. If you could change anything about your school, what would it be? 
    You won’t need to ask them to highlight the good aspects…they’ll tell ya those unprompted.
  4. Where else do your applicants typically apply? 
    This will help you learn who their competitors are and what type of applicants they attract, and perhaps give you some additional schools to research.
  5. What questions would you ask if you were a high school senior?
    Flip the script on that admissions rep! Now they’re in the hot seat to come up with an insightful question!  Just like that, they’ll have to provide the question and the answer…and you can drop the mic like the aforementioned Voltaire.