For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admissions representatives at colleges all over the country (the subject line of the e-mail is “Three quick questions”), and then I hope to hear back from them. When I do, I post them on Apply with Sanity. It’s that simple.

The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

This response is from Theresa Abbott, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.