Norman Kraft of Zen Writes Inc. keeps a higher education marketing blog called “诺曼硫酸盐的禅宗写道公司保持较高的教育营销博客的所谓“ Zen and the Art of Higher Education Marketing 禅与艺术的高等教育营销 ” which I read regularly (or at least as regularly as he posts–happily, the last couple of weeks have been pretty consistent) and generally find to be very on the mark. “我看了定期（或至少为定期，因为他的职位-令人高兴的是，在过去数周已相当一致的）和普遍认为是非常对的标志。 Two weeks ago he两个星期前，他 posed an interesting question构成一个有趣的问题 – what effect do appearances have in the context of the admissions office itself? He writes: -有何影响外表有语境中的招生办公室本身呢？他写道：

For many colleges and universities, admissions office space seems almost an afterthought.对于许多普通高校的招生办公室空间几乎是一个事后。 Too often, the office entrances are difficult to find and once found, the admissions area is hardly one of the highlights of the college tour.很多时候，办公室的入口处，是很难找到，一旦发现，招生领域是很难的一个亮点，该学院参观。 I’ve seen admissions officers attempt to prevent parents and students from seeing their offices by arranging meetings in open spaces on campus, or at a library or student center.我见过招生人员试图阻止家长和学生从看到他们的办事处，安排会议，在开放空间的校园，或在图书馆或学生中心。

Your admissions area is your first impression, and as the old saying goes, you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression.您的招生领域是您的第一印象，正如古语有云，你只能有一个机会，也使一个良好的第一印象。

Let me address this question from my perspective as a student and a recent college-admissions-office-visitor.让我谈谈这个问题从我的角度来看作为一名学生，以及最近高校招生办公室-访客。 First and foremost, the admissions office is not the first impression someone has of a school when visiting.首要的，招生办公室是不是第一印象，有人一所学校当了来访的。 Not precisely, at least.不确切地说，至少。 Parents don’t blindfold their kids, drive them in erratic randomized patterns, and then lead them up to the admissions office only to then ‘unveil’ the first impression of the entire school.父母不蒙上眼睛，他们的孩子，迫使他们在不规则的随机模式，然后带领他们到招生办公室只，然后'揭开'的第一印象是整个学校。 There is the journey to the admissions office first, and even that little step can have a significant impact.因此，整个行程要招生办公室第一，甚至很少步骤可以有重大的影响。 How so?怎么会这样呢？

Although I knew that there were realistic constraints for space, sometimes the positioning of an admissions office alone would seem to send a message to me.虽然我知道有现实的空间的限制，有时定位一招生办公室单独似乎传送讯息给我。 Take, for example, the University of Pennsylvania admissions office: it is very convenient and easy to find because of how central it is to campus (采取，例如，美国宾夕法尼亚大学招生办公室：这是非常方便和容易找到，因为如何，这是中央校园（ 1 College Hall, ground floor一大学礼堂，地下 ). ） 。 To get there we walked through especially nice portions of the campus and a vibrant part of Philadelphia; that was the first impression of the school.获得有我们走过尤其是尼斯部分校园，以及一个充满活力的一部分，费城，这是第一印象的学校。 My memories of the admissions office itself are not especially great because my preoccupation at the time was coping with the 105+ degree heat wave.我的记忆的招生办公室本身不是特别大，因为我的关注，在当时的应对与105 +程度的热浪。

T he real distinction between admissions offices first and foremost is SERVICE . 吨，他真正的区分招生办公室首要的是服务 。 Yes, it was a painful heat wave at Penn and that wasn’t their fault.是的，这是一个痛苦的热浪在宾州，这是不是他们的错。 The day before, though, the temperatures were almost as bad and I had visited both Yale and Wesleyan with my family.前一天，虽然，温度几乎一样坏，我都访问过耶鲁大学和卫斯理与我的家人。 The biggest difference, where tour and admissions office experience was concerned (schools aside)?最大的不同，其中旅游及招生办公室的经验，关注（学校预留） ？ Wesleyan offered free bottles of water.卫斯理免费提供瓶的水。 It was also, hands down, the nicest, most accommodating, and most convincing of anywhere I visited, but that’s another story.也有人，手下来，最美好的，最包容，最有说服力的任何地方，我访问了，但的另一个故事。 The water was part of that.水的一部分。 I know it’s not in the budgets for Penn and Yale to offer water to all the people who come and visit–they had rather bigger crowds–but those are some of the differences that we take away from tours.我知道这不是在预算宾州和耶鲁大学提供水的全体人民，谁来访问-他们，而不是更大的人群，但是这些都是一些分歧，我们采取远离旅行团。 The little details that count.小细节计数。

Wesleyan-Yale isn’ta very fair comparison, as I’ve said.卫斯理大学-耶鲁不是很公平的比较，正如我已经说过。 So let me use another situation with slightly more even odds: Harvard vs. MIT.因此，让我用另一种情况与略多，甚至赔率：哈佛大学与麻省理工学院。

I visited MIT on March 14th, 2006–it was the我参观了麻省理工学院对2006年3月14日-这是 first school I visited第一所学校，我访问了 . 。 I remember the date because it was我记得日期，因为它是 Pi Day丕天 ! ！ Anyway, I visited MIT with my friend Greta and we got slightly lost in the无论如何，我参观了麻省理工学院与我的朋友和葛丽泰我们得到轻微损失，在 infinite corridor无限走廊 and on campus looking around for the admissions office because MIT buildings are all designated by numbers are we weren’t paying that much attention since it was our spring break.并在校园内，环顾为招生办公室，因为麻省理工学院的建筑物都是指定的号码是我们没有付出那么多的关注，因为这是我们的春假。 Something like that.类似的东西。 We found the office in the end and it was a messy place inhospitable to visitors–we were sent elsewhere for our tour and info talk.我们发现，该办公室在年底，这是一个混乱的地方，适合游客-我们被送往其他地方为我们的巡回赛和信息的交谈。 It felt like the reception / office ratio was off.感觉就像接待/办公室的比率是小康。 All the same, we had a good time at MIT (read the所有与此同时，我们有了一个良好的时间在麻省理工学院（读 visit report访问报告 ). ） 。

Compare with Harvard: we wandered over to Radcliffe yard and found the admissions office after some searching, but given Harvard’s visitor volume what happened next was unfortunate.比较与哈佛大学：我们游荡到拉德克利夫码，并发现招生办公室后，一些搜索，但由于哈佛的访问者数量所发生的事情，其次是不幸的。 We were sent from a messy office environment to what looked like a semi-dilapidated basement auditorium where we were told about how selective Harvard was before being sent out on the worst college tour in my complete touring experience.我们被送往从一个混乱的办公环境，以什么看上去像一个半破旧的地下室礼堂的地方告诉我们，有关如何选择性哈佛之前被列于最严重的旅游学院在我的完整巡回演出的经验。

There were many similarities in presentation and aesthetic experience, but when I ask Greta or think myself about the MIT visit we don’t think about how the office was messy.有许多相似之处，在介绍和审美体验，但是当我问葛丽泰或认为自己对麻省理工学院访问，我们不认为有关如何办事处是一塌糊涂。 We just think about how exciting the UROP program sounded and how friendly everyone was.我们试想想，如何激发urop计划响起，以及如何友好大家。 The aesthetic details only come into play over at Harvard when we start trying to look for something to redeem the experience.审美的细节，只有发挥比在哈佛大学当我们开始尝试寻求一些可赎回的经验。

Are aesthetics important?是美学的重要呢？ Sure.当然。 But they’re not the most important part of the experience or ‘first impression,’ at least not in my mind, and it’s important to remember that.但它们不再是最重要的部分经验或'的第一印象，至少不会在我心目中，和它的重要的是要记住这一点。 I didn’t see any places that were installing gold leaf in the admissions offices while cutting back on staff, but I just thought I’d share my thoughts on this all the same.我没有看到任何地方，被安装在金箔的招生办事处，而削减对员工，但我只是想我要分享我的思考，这都是一样的。

For the record, Johns Hopkins gave out free water bottles a few days later when it was equally hot.为记录在案，约翰霍普金斯了免费瓶装水，几天后当它是同样的热点。