<p>The charade in which schools solicit more applications than they needjust to improve their selectivity ratingsisnt just underhanded, its cruel.
--The Daily Beast</p>
<p>Why</a> Colleges Are Just Not That Into You - The Daily Beast</p>
<p>Common, every student knows this trick.</p>
<p>I don’t find that Reed letter deceptive. Who would fall for that?</p>
<p>I am surprised to hear that colleges wouldn’t read the mailings sent out. But that could be an excuse, or a lie.</p>
<p>There were 2 schools in particular that stand out in their persistence in contacting my S.
One is top LAC that sent the most beautiful and creative mailings. He almost decided to apply there just because the school seemed so enticing based on the artwork. However, it did not offer the program he is looking for, so he decided against it. Another school, a top CC school, emailed him faithfully, encouraging him to apply. He visited the school and decided to put in an application. Since that time, we have not heard anything from the school, and I have a feeling that it might have been a marketing ploy. It is hard to not be influenced by these things.</p>
<p>Only the most naive (which are some famiiies of high school kids) believe that such mailings mean that the school will accept them. Anyone who has an inkling about college admissions knows that these are publicity and marketing materials. I am sure some see this as the school wanting them and “recruiting” them and will admit them. But most know what these mailings are. </p>
<p>That said, while my first kid got a ton of catalogues in the mail, my second child barely received any (and we didn’t miss 'em) because due to a family emergency, she had to miss the PSATs in tenth grade. She took the SATs in the spring of tenth grade and decided to graduate HS a year early and so never took the PSATs in 11th and it dawned on me that that’s why we did not get a pile of college catalogues each day in the mail. :D</p>
<p>PS, oddly, even though D2 didn’t get mailings (likely due to never taking the PSAT), she got one: Harvard!</p>
<p>It’s not just the mailings, it’s the information sessions, high school visits by admissions personnel, the whole institutional interface with the student.
And then admissions people bemoan the fact that 17 year olds come to College Confidential to try to figure out their chances?</p>
<p>I work with underprivileged kids in NYC. Their family’s do often believe these mailings mean something. I know most here don’t pay any attention, and my kids checked the ‘no mail’ option, but I think there are more who believe these mailings than the educated would think.</p>
<p>I find the attitude “who would fall for that” to be, well, elitist. Do you really think that first generation college students understand how this works? </p>
<p>Or, heck, on my father’s side my son will be fourth generation but last year when the tidal wave started, we did check out some of the schools on-line. I came here to CC looking for info on PSAT scores but happened to stumble across a thread on this very topic. </p>
<p>This year there are four colleges that have sent at least three, and up to six letters, packets and emails. He’s not responded to any of the information, yet it keeps coming. Out of curiosity I looked up the acceptance rates at these four schools. These are not schools that accept the majority of their applicants, in two cases they don’t even accept a quarter.</p>
<p>It’s irritating to know that they are not chasing my kid because he’s a good student, as all the letters claim, but because they want to have far more applicants than they can accept. Of the four, only one was on S’s list and now it’s off because he thinks the whole thing is slimey. </p>
<p>If it didn’t work, the schools wouldn’t do it. Clearly, not all students or parents know how this works.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Exactly what I wanted to write.</p>
<p>I disagree in that it is not like the only purpose of the mailing is to get kids to believe if they apply, they will be accepted. One of the main purposes is to simply market their school and expose students to it so that they may become interested in applying. So, even for those who understand that a brochure in the mail doesn’t mean “I will be accepted because they “recruited” me!”, they may still become enticed by the mailing to want to explore the school further. I do not find it slimy at all.</p>
<p>Okay, I am going to give you a perspective of the “non traditional” cc parent.</p>
<p>I grew up in an upper middle class home, graduating HS in the 70’s. Yes, back then, of couse we all know applying to a college was not much more than filling out a form and sending it in. (check enclosed) I am no longer upper middle class, not even middle class economically.</p>
<p>Fast forward to 2007, my D is a senior in HS and I am now “low income.” I have no knowledge about college admissions! Why would I NOT be suckered in by the mailings? We were flattered, “wow,<br>
xxx elite college/university must be interested!” While that is nice that those of you that ALREADY had the knowledge that this was just a mass mailing/marketing campaign, for us it worked. We were WOWED by the beautiful brochures and the personal e-mails, that they were sending JUST HER!</p>
<p>I looked at the beautiful landscapes and architecture of these places and was sad that my daughter would never see them. She had worked so hard in school and would never experience anything like this. I used to hide them so she would not get her hopes up.</p>
<p>Then I found cc while D was at Gov Honors school for the summer. Terms such as “need based” “merit based” “Fafsa” etc. to me was like reading a foreign language.</p>
<p>Thanks to the cc parents, I learned, and learned quick. It was a blink of an eye between July 2007 when I assumed D would go to a CC, and November 31st, when she became a Questbridge match for Amherst. I cried, and I still cry, that my D is where she is at. In a four month period, my D COULD attend a school like the brochures I had hid from her.</p>
<p>When I hear terms used in this thread such as “only the most naive” “every student knows that trick” or “who would fall for that?”… Well, that would be me., I thought a top tier school was unattainable for my D. I would have assumed Community college, or as a reach, UGA with the Hope scholarship funds would be the best that she could have got. Thank you cc posters (sybbie and northstarmom.) And, to the 52 lbs. of glossy brochures that all the schools sent us! (yes, we weighed them) that first made me think of looking higher for DD.</p>
<p>I DO find it slimy depending on the wording. It is a very slippery slope, one that can lull students into a false emotional investment. I still believe that there is a difference between marketing to a student who has contacted you and expressed interest, and sending offers that really are too good to be true to a student. You’re soliciting children in most cases under 18, and you’re dealing with their emotions. “You are in a select group of students.” “Your strong academic record has qualified you to receive a deadline extension for submitting your XXX Application.” “Because I really want to see YOUR application…” “Special benefits just for you include: No application fee, No new essay, A 3-week admission decision, Automatic scholarship consideration” etc. etc.</p>
<p>I am a marketing person; my child isn’t. </p>
<p>Since we started receiving these, I have been researching the schools that have been sending them, and there are a lot of very surprised kids getting deferred, waitlisted and/or rejected after filling out these applications. I think its your basic bait and switch, and I object to it as a solicitation to kids.</p>
<p>Is it working? Yes. Is it naive to think educational institutions should be above this kind of marketing in these economic times? Probably. I believe its a gray ethical area.</p>
<p>Cruel? It’s not cruel; it’s marketing. It’s no more cruel than ads for sexy sports cars, high fashion, exotic vacation trips, or big mansions. All are out of the reach of the majority of the dreamers out there, and so are the fancy schools.</p>
<p>It is annoying. Instead of encouraging applications from students who have no chance of being accepted the top schools should prescreen applicants at no cost and politely tell them not to waste their time and money by submitting an application.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>now that would be cruel.</p>
<p>There are 2 words that need to be memorized by all current and future college applicants and their parent - ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT. Many colleges and universities, [especially one in MO who shall go unnamed] hire outside firms whose SOLE purpose is to entice students to apply to the college that hired them, in order to maintain or change the “perception” of how hard that college is to get into. Do not be swayed by multiple mailings and the pretty brochures these companies use to stuff your mailboxes. They want you to apply. Period.</p>
<p>Yet another example. Until I read menloparkmom’s note, I didn’t know there were outside firms that did that kind of work. That universities hire people to jack up their application rate. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>These things are marketed to adults and they are things or places to go for no other reason than fun. </p>
<p>My kid’s whole life we’ve held education up as being sacred, as it was held up for us. It’s not the marketplace. I think expecting children to suddenly become educated consumers about education is unrealistic. And, again, the schools know that and take advantadge of that. If it didn’t work, if teens really grasped what was going on, they wouldn’t be taken in by it.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>just like they aren’t taken in by Abercrombie and Fitch?</p>
<p>Disney?</p>
<p>If schools are corporations, then they should be known as such. I thought colleges and universities existed to educate children, not to make stock holders rich. Am I completely mistaken here? Is there a higher education stock exchange I’m unaware of?</p>
<p>colleges and universities are in the BUSINESS of educating.</p>