Norman Kraft of Zen Writes Inc. keeps a higher education marketing blog called “諾曼硫酸鹽的禪宗寫道公司保持較高的教育營銷博客的所謂“ Zen and the Art of Higher Education Marketing 禪與藝術的高等教育營銷 ” 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（或至少為定期，因為他的職位-令人高興的是，在過去數週已相當一致的）和普遍認為是非常對的標誌。 Two weeks ago he兩個星期前，他 posed an interesting question構成一個有趣的問題 – what effect do appearances have in the context of the admissions office itself? He writes: -有何影響外表有語境中的招生辦公室本身呢？他寫道：

For many colleges and universities, admissions office space seems almost an afterthought.對於許多普通高校的招生辦公室空間幾乎是一個事後。 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.很多時候，辦公室的入口處，是很難找到，一旦發現，招生領域是很難的一個亮點，該學院參觀。 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.我見過招生人員試圖阻止家長和學生從看到他們的辦事處，安排會議，在開放空間的校園，或在圖書館或學生中心。

Your admissions area is your first impression, and as the old saying goes, you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression.您的招生領域是您的第一印象，正如古語有雲，你只能有一個機會，也使一個良好的第一印象。

Let me address this question from my perspective as a student and a recent college-admissions-office-visitor.讓我談談這個問題從我的角度來看作為一名學生，以及最近高校招生辦公室-訪客。 First and foremost, the admissions office is not the first impression someone has of a school when visiting.首要的，招生辦公室是不是第一印象，有人一所學校當了來訪的。 Not precisely, at least.不確切地說，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，他們的孩子，迫使他們在不規則的隨機模式，然後帶領他們到招生辦公室只，然後'揭開'的第一印象是整個學校。 There is the journey to the admissions office first, and even that little step can have a significant impact.因此，整個行程要招生辦公室第一，甚至很少步驟可以有重大的影響。 How so?怎麼會這樣呢？

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.雖然我知道有現實的空間的限制，有時定位一招生辦公室單獨似乎傳送訊息給我。 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 (採取，例如，美國賓夕法尼亞大學招生辦公室：這是非常方便和容易找到，因為如何，這是中央校園（ 1 College Hall, ground floor一大學禮堂，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.獲得有我們走過尤其是尼斯部分校園，以及一個充滿活力的一部分，費城，這是第一印象的學校。 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.我的記憶的招生辦公室本身不是特別大，因為我的關注，在當時的應對與105 +程度的熱浪。

T he real distinction between admissions offices first and foremost is SERVICE . 噸，他真正的區分招生辦公室首要的是服務 。 Yes, it was a painful heat wave at Penn and that wasn’t their fault.是的，這是一個痛苦的熱浪在賓州，這是不是他們的錯。 The day before, though, the temperatures were almost as bad and I had visited both Yale and Wesleyan with my family.前一天，雖然，溫度幾乎一樣壞，我都訪問過耶魯大學和衛斯理與我的家人。 The biggest difference, where tour and admissions office experience was concerned (schools aside)?最大的不同，其中旅遊及招生辦公室的經驗，關注（學校預留） ？ Wesleyan offered free bottles of water.衛斯理免費提供瓶的水。 It was also, hands down, the nicest, most accommodating, and most convincing of anywhere I visited, but that’s another story.也有人，手下來，最美好的，最包容，最有說服力的任何地方，我訪問了，但的另一個故事。 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.我知道這不是在預算賓州和耶魯大學提供水的全體人民，誰來訪問-他們，而不是更大的人群，但是這些都是一些分歧，我們採取遠離旅行團。 The little details that count.小細節計數。

Wesleyan-Yale isn’ta very fair comparison, as I’ve said.衛斯理大學-耶魯不是很公平的比較，正如我已經說過。 So let me use another situation with slightly more even odds: Harvard vs. MIT.因此，讓我用另一種情況與略多，甚至賠率：哈佛大學與麻省理工學院。

I visited MIT on March 14th, 2006–it was the我參觀了麻省理工學院對2006年3月14日-這是 first school I visited第一所學校，我訪問了 . 。 I remember the date because it was我記得日期，因為它是 Pi Day丕天 ! ！ Anyway, I visited MIT with my friend Greta and we got slightly lost in the無論如何，我參觀了麻省理工學院與我的朋友和葛麗泰我們得到輕微損失，在 infinite corridor無限走廊 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.並在校園內，環顧為招生辦公室，因為麻省理工學院的建築物都是指定的號碼是我們沒有付出那麼多的關注，因為這是我們的春假。 Something like that.類似的東西。 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.我們發現，該辦公室在年底，這是一個混亂的地方，適合遊客-我們被送往其他地方為我們的巡迴賽和信息的交談。 It felt like the reception / office ratio was off.感覺就像接待/辦公室的比率是小康。 All the same, we had a good time at MIT (read the所有與此同時，我們有了一個良好的時間在麻省理工學院（讀 visit report訪問報告 ). ） 。

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.比較與哈佛大學：我們遊蕩到拉德克利夫碼，並發現招生辦公室後，一些搜索，但由於哈佛的訪問者數量所發生的事情，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.我們被送往從一個混亂的辦公環境，以什麼看上去像一個半破舊的地下室禮堂的地方告訴我們，有關如何選擇性哈佛之前被列於最嚴重的旅遊學院在我的完整巡迴演出的經驗。

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.有許多相似之處，在介紹和審美體驗，但是當我問葛麗泰或認為自己對麻省理工學院訪問，我們不認為有關如何辦事處是一塌糊塗。 We just think about how exciting the UROP program sounded and how friendly everyone was.我們試想想，如何激發urop計劃響起，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.審美的細節，只有發揮比在哈佛大學當我們開始嘗試尋求一些可贖回的經驗。

Are aesthetics important?是美學的重要呢？ Sure.當然。 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.但它們不再是最重要的部分經驗或'的第一印象，至少不會在我心目中，和它的重要的是要記住這一點。 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.我沒有看到任何地方，被安裝在金箔的招生辦事處，而削減對員工，但我只是想我要分享我的思考，這都是一樣的。

For the record, Johns Hopkins gave out free water bottles a few days later when it was equally hot.為記錄在案，約翰霍普金斯了免費瓶裝水，幾天後當它是同樣的熱點。