My college buddy Jim once arrived home furious and announced to me and the rest of the roomies that the local McDonald’s had just refused his coupon on a technicality, to which he boldly declared to the cashier, “You just lost yourself a customer, buddy!”

Fellow roommate Keith sarcastically wondered how McDonald’s could possibly go on with “only 99 billion served.”

The fledgling mom-and-pop burger stand might have appreciated that opportunity to please just one customer a lot more than McDonald’s would have. I’m not commenting on the quality of either business. But scarcity works both ways. We all often want what we can’t have. And it can be difficult to appreciate what we have too much of.

Many students and parents have heard advice about forging personal connections with college admissions officers. That’s why you see parents figuratively—and often literally—pushing kids towards the tables at college admissions fairs. It’s also why many admissions officers find that some students email their offices like they’re communicating with pen pals rather than asking legitimate questions.

If you have a question, you should ask it. If you have the opportunity at a college fair to say hello in person to a rep from a school that interests you, do it. But before you do anything in the name of making a personal connection and helping your admissions chances, please remember two things.

1. Real questions and genuine interest are always preferable to anything that feels like networking with the purpose of forging a connection.
2. The mom-and-pops are more likely to remember you than McDonald’s will.

Prestigious colleges are besieged with applications, and with attempts to forge personal connections. They have a long line of customers who eagerly want to buy what they’re selling, far more than they could ever hope to serve. Yes, they’re still real people who genuinely want to get to know the people they’re evaluating as much as possible. And those connections are occasionally forged. But that almost always happens because a student and the circumstance just happened to be memorable, not because the applicant made a point of reaching out repeatedly.

But most of the colleges aren’t prestigious. Attend a local college fair and you’ll see that for every famous college with a crowd around the table asking what SAT scores are needed for admission, there will be five reps sitting alone at their tables who would love to talk to a student who sincerely wants to know more.

Those are the mom-and-pops. They likely don’t have far more applicants than they could ever hope to admit. And their reps just might remember a good conversation with a mature student who could thrive on their campus.