When you think about it, for most of us the admissions staff are the faces and personalities that we associate with the school. I know that one school I applied to sent out emails with typos, emails with broken URLs, followed by apologies and just the entire thing seemed chaotic. Even the font and layout of the emails was eye-wrenching. Another school I had to email 4 people before I found someone who could answer if the school offered merit-based fee waivers! Four!

Are there any schools that you think are just the model of how an admissions office should work?

I'm going to give a shout out to Michigan State. Regardless of their low rank, the admissions staff is awesome. They have always responded to my emails within the hour and are very courteous and eager to help and answer questions. The T1 schools I have applied to have not been able to hold a candle to MSU.

What about ya'll? Horror stories are welcome too...

TLS Peer Scores (sorted by USNews Rank):

Yale – 0-1
Harvard – 4-0
Stanford – 4-1
Columbia – 1-1
NYU – 0-8
Berkeley – 1-1
Chicago – 0-1
UPenn – 1-0
Michigan – 14-0
Duke – 7-3
Northwestern – 2-0
UVA – 19-0
Cornell – 3-0
GULC – 3-4
Texas – 4-0
UCLA – 0-1
Vandy – 10-0
WUSTL – 2-4
BU – 0-4
Emory – 2-0
Indiana-Bloomington – 1-0
Notre Dame – 3-0
Iowa – 1-2
GW – 3-1
Alabama – 2-2
Fordham – 3-0
UNC – 0-2
Washington & Lee – 1-0
Ohio State - 0-1
Wisconsin - 2-0
Wake Forest – 6-0
GMU – 0-1
Colorado - 2-0
SMU – 1-0
FSU - 1-0
Cincinnati – 2-0
Arizona State – 1-0
San Diego - 1-0
Temple – 1-1
Oklahoma – 1-0
Pittsburgh – 2-0
Rutgers-Camden – 1-1
Loyola - 1-0
Marquette – 1-0
South Carolina – 0-1
Northeastern – 1-0
MSU – 1-0
Mississippi – 1-0
Liberty - 0-1

i'll give a shout out to marquette. good people, so good i almost want to go there.

Michigan

Big shout out to Vanderbilt. The secretary I spoke to when I called their office was one of the most pleasant people I've ever spoken to on the phone and the assistant director I had my VULS interview was extremely congenial!

Isn't it pretty persuasive? It's weird... all I know is if I open "Rocketman's School of Law and Girls Making Out" the admissions staff will be top notch.

Offices I liked (I was applying during the '06-'07 school year):

Michigan (uber nice)
Fordham (super fast turnaround..they had some problem with their admitted student binder though...they kept sending it piecemeal)
Harvard (they were really nice...even though they rejected me...do not pass go, do not collect $200)

Offices I hated:

Boston University (slow...REALLY SLOW.....did I mention they were slow?)
Duke (rude...borderline mean)
NYU (hard to talk to...even after admitted)

I would like to give a negative shoutout to NYU and WUSTL.

Washington and Lee. Nice people, quick and enthusiastic email responses, at least pretending like they really care...its a nice change of pace. I agree with those choosing Michigan, too.

I'll keep track in the OP if this gets over a page. Net shout out points, so be sure to include your negatives!

Michigan - they even wrote a personal note on the general letter asking me to apply. I'm sure it was just a secretary, but nice touch. Also the people in the office were incredibly nice when I called.

Wendy at Notre Dame is crazy awesome

+
Michigan--kind, immediate responses, updates status daily
Northwestern--very quick on email, willingness to take day of tour requests, and just how kind they are to visitors
UVA--incredible at getting information, responding to emails

-
GMU--refuses to answer general questions that were not immediately visible on website, rude
BU--takes forever to give you any sort of answer immediately

[GMU story---I called to inquire about getting a tour last year, and I was told (rather rudely) that all tours needed to be set up over the website. I was surprised, but figured I would look into it. I asked if it was located on the front page or if she had a specific url I could use. She said "its on the website" and then hung up. I want to go to GMU but I was surprised at how someone could be so rude when they are trying to attract students.]

OU - I left a question on my app blank. A staff member called me for my answer and, within a few days, I was accepted.

EDIT: For you non-NCAA FB fans, I'm talking about Oklahoma.

They have a law school?!!!!!!!!


/jk

+ Penn: very nice email response.
- Berkley: very rude one word (No.) email response.

+1. When I sent in my scholarship essays I included a separate note to the admissions staff thanking them for how amazing they were. The experience furthered my perception that they are a small, collegial school that focuses on their community.

Iowa seemed kind of rude through email. Read into that however you want.


Arizona was great. Got the message straight from the dean and told me to email him with any questions in the future. Nice guy

NYU and Columbia have been pretty underwhelming. NYU won't respond to emails and calls, and Columbia has been standoffish.

I also hate Baylor, because they won't take me off their damn mailing list.

Michigan, Duke and Texas have all been excellent, though.

.

shout out to Michigan for the personalized letter with handwritten post-script note by Dean Z. Virginia and Duke for the ultra fast application complete time and online app check notice.

two thumbs down to NYU for STILL NOT RESPONDING TO MY SEPTEMBER 3rd APPLICATION.

and one thumb down to Chicago because Ann Perry refused to shake my hand at a law school forum because of a city wide "flu alert"

+
Harvard

-
Stanford
NYU

UVA was interested and interesting in its reply to my fee waiver request.

negative shout to temple. i asked them a question via email and they just copy and pasted a paragraph from their website that did not answer my question. seemed pretty snarky.

shout out to Emory, really nice set of email exchanges. Felt personal and warm in tone.

Wake Forest was really nice in e-mail exchanges and on the phone.