Notes

Though the CogSci program at USC is in its inaugural year and little information was available during my open house visit, I was able to contact Associate Professor of Psychology and Linguistics Toby Mintz through email and was happy to discover that USC’s program is extremely interdisciplinary in nature, cross cutting traditional disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and anthropology. I have always been interested in languages (I speak three), consider computer science a strength and am drawn to the “Philosophy of Language” courses, as I recently wrote a research paper addressing the potential implications of applying J.L. Austin’s work with “performative utterances” to smart-phone technology. - https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/dos-and-donts-why-us-statement



Search the school’s website to find out who your regional rep is. This is as easy as Googling, for example, “Davidson College regional rep.”

Email your rep and ask a question you are genuinely interested in. If, for example, you’ve looked on the school’s website (important if!) and have been unable to find out if your rep will be in your area sometime soon, you might write briefly to say, “Hi! I’m wondering if you might be in the Bay Area (or wherever you live) sometime soon, as I’m really excited to apply to your school and I’d love to meet you.” Or you might ask something really specific like, “Hi! I’m writing to find out if it’s easy for freshmen enrolled in the School of Speech to easily take advanced courses in Journalism, as I know that they’re separate schools. But I’m really passionate about both, and I’m especially excited to apply to your school, since I know it has great programs for both of my interests: Communication Studies and Journalism.” Then sign off with a simple, “Thank you!” and give your name and perhaps the name of your high school. (Pro Tip: I’ve even seen some students create a simple signature for their emails where they pop in a headshot so reps can attach their name to a face.)

Keep the email conversation going (for a little bit). Not forever, just a couple emails. How? Ask a question at the end of each email. Careful: this can get annoying after awhile, so don’t go crazy with this. And make sure you don’t email until you have a good and real question. You might, for example, ask if they’re going to be in your area visiting other schools and see if they might have time in your schedule to visit your school (make sure to check with your counselor first!). But treat this like you’re having an actual, in-person conversation at a college fair. Speaking of which:

If the rep is coming to a college fair near you, go and meet them! Especially if you won’t or may not be able to visit the campus. And if you’ve already met the rep because they visited your school, still go and just say hello.