<p>You also have to read between the lines. On one tour, somebody asked whether the campus had wifi. “Everywhere but the bird sanctuary,” the guide answered. Hmmm. How much of the campus is covered by the bird sanctuary? Nobody asked, and he didn’t say.</p>
<p>We fell for the line about how everyone in the honors program gets personal attention. Yes, they do … but not to the extent the motherly woman leading the session led us to believe. Her stories of reaching out to students in the program were probably true … just not the norm. Our son, who did need what she had promised, drifted along without being pulled back in. He is fine - attending another school this year - but I just wish she hadn’t been so convincing. I probably would have let him go to the more expensive school had I known that things are not always as they seem.</p>
<p>I always liked the “and look, you can swipe this card, and get into your dorm / cafeteria / campus buildings.” Wow, a key card! What an innovation! Good thing your school is so advanced it has key cards, like those key cards that hotels have had for eons.</p>
<p>As a librarian, I cringed every time they trotted out the amazing “and if there’s a book you need and we don’t have it, we have the ability to get it for you from a network of libraries within a couple of days!” There were always looks between parents and that little “ooh!” nodding. People, it’s called Interlibrary Loan. Every academic library can do that, even the lowest ranked one. Your public library has that service too. It’s a wonderful service, and you may not be aware you can do that, but not special.</p>
<p>Study Abroad. That one was certainly offered – for about $10K.</p>
<p>Seems like pretty much every school offers a blue-light safety/security system as though it were something wonderful and unique to them.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I found this very effective as well. I also had the good fortune of very candid tour and information people (unless they all want to appear that way?) who did not seem to be as scripted as I may have expected.</p>
<p>The main thing that I noticed about advertising is that it always gave me a different idea of the size and appearance of the campus. I don’t blame them for trying to get the best possible pictures, but I was always surprised by the actual appearance of a given school when I arrived there.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Right, but it’s still relevant when the high schoolers (and their parents) are constantly misinformed about the reality of the place, and so the school needs to spend a lot of its “advertising” time and energy correcting those errors and assuaging those largely unfounded worries.</p>
<p>Harvard’s acceptance rate and yield suggest that it doesn’t need to spend much time assuaging anybody’s worries.</p>