<p>Over the past 10 days, my daughter has gotten emails, phone calls, and letters from American University asking her to apply. This includes giving her a fee waiver, giving her more time to apply past the deadline, having her dial in for a special admissions event, etc. It's been NUTS.</p>
<p>And here's the crazy part...my D is a junior and hasn't applied anywhere...I'm thinking that she must have messed up at sometime in the past when she requested info from American and implied that she was class of 2014 instead of 2015. So they are pursuing her this strongly based on no credentials ...and we all know why....because these colleges have to get up their applicant numbers so their accept rate will drop dramatically...which will then make all of us value the college more...which will then lead to more applicants...and so goes the craziness....</p>
<p>One of my daughters has received these letters too. The other daughter? Receives very little. I’m pretty sure the 2nd on screwed up the ACT/SAT forms as she doesn’t get much.</p>
<p>The marketing is ridiculous. Washington U in St. Louis sent my daughter something, I swear, every few days for about 2 months. She never expressed an interest in Wash U., has no interest in medicine (they somehow thought she did), never responded. Yet the mail kept coming.</p>
<p>In addition to all the mail and emails (at least 15-20 emails a day, by my estimation) I’ve received at least a phone call a day (we usually let them go to voicemail). I checked the box on the PSAT but was in no way prepared for this deluge… definitely different from my parents’ pre-Internet application days.</p>
<p>Doubt she “screwed up” at all. She probably didn’t check the box saying she wanted mailings on her PSAT. That is a GOOD thing. Now she can just sign up for mailings from colleges she is really interested in.</p>
<p>Even though I feel badly for the American Universities of the world…good colleges, forced to play a game…I have to admit that my daughter has found the incessant mailings and emails from these colleges kind of fun…even as she’s complaining, she’s the first to run to the mailbox every day. And we’ve both learned a lot about new colleges this way.</p>
<p>Son is receiving the e-mails too. Some sound downright desperate, ie. " XXXX, have you read my last e-mail?" Some schools are obscure, but many are schools that are not hurting for applicants, but as mentioned above, want to increase the applicant numbers for the stats.</p>
<p>My two boys joked about their stalker schools. My youngest had so much mail from Vanderbilt, it wasn’t a good day if we didn’t receive something from them. I realize now - hindsight being 20/20 - that he didn’t have much of a chance of being admitted there and wish also in hindsight that he wouldn’t have applied. It irks me that we helped boost their apply rate. But water under the bridge.</p>
<p>My youngest is a soph in high school but her sister is a freshman in college. That college has been sending my youngest lots of emails and letters trying to get the younger sibling interested in the same school as big sister. It’s kinda funny watching the different tactics schools use to go after kids … it’s definitely big business now.</p>
<p>I wonder how many of these campaigns might be farmed out to, or at least designed by, marketing firms instead of the colleges themselves? I ask because I know a number of PR professionals who work on behalf of various entities, including non-profits. They cook up annoying, excessive campaigns that are a true turn-off (at least in my opinion).</p>
<p>Of course the colleges are responsible for the content. But I wonder if anyone in the admissions department thinks “slow down there” when the PR-minded folks are gung-ho about more and more contacts, mentions, clicks, etc. To a hammer, the world looks like a nail.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s mostly the marketing companies. My kids compete to see who can get the most free t-shirts for schools they have no intention of applying to or attending.</p>
<p>Oh, you don’t know this kid. Half her mail (I think anything from the SAT) comes with just the first 3 letters of her last name because ‘she thought that was all they wanted.’ Other stuff comes with half her first name, or just an initial. She doesn’t get the hard copies of score results but her sister does, yet she claims she filled in the bubble.</p>
<p>Lucky for her, she has a sister who gets 6 of everything, and also lucky that she found a school, applied, was accept, and is going there. One and done.</p>
<p>Now wait a minute, Momzie!..you’re getting free t-shirts? My kid needs to get on that train! </p>
<p>twoinanddone - LOL Your daughter needs to meet my son. Just be sure to notify the local constable before they try driving anywhere together. </p>
<p>On more American University news, I received an email from Mother Jones this morning (a long time ago, I admired an article they wrote and i’ve been getting their mailings ever since and it was sent on behalf of American and touted their international relations program…so they are going all out!</p>
<p>We created a second email address for expatSon to better manage the college email. Very helpful.</p>
<p>What I find somewhat pathetic is that one LAC (a very good LAC, for which expatSon is a tenuous candidate at best) sends an email every few days (at least one a week) advising that admissions wants to see expatSon’s application (he visited in August). However, his admissions officer confirmed that if he doesn’t apply ED, his application won’t even be looked at 'til February. The marketing folk really need to get in sync with the admissions office.</p>
<p>I agree it is overkill. The thing that irritates me is that this is obviously a tactic to create more competitive admission stats. They are sometimes just padding the numbers with students applying who have no chance of acceptance. The “free” app is an easy way to up your applicants, many of whom have no real desire to attend, but fill out the app because they get an email touting that it is “free” and no essays required.</p>
<p>“I wonder how many of these campaigns might be farmed out to, or at least designed by, marketing firms instead of the colleges themselves?” This is obviously true. My daughter got hundreds of emails last year, (many more since then but I stopped paying any attention whatsoever to them) and many of them were so similar I have to think they were produced by the exact same people. The general quality of the emailings was so low, I’m surprised the colleges would be paying for it. We also received print mailings, perhaps a 2 foot high stack by now, and those at least looked professional and specific to the schools who sent them.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids checked (or didn’t check - don’t know which) the box on the standardized test that gives the postman a hernia. I would say D1 got no more than an inch of unsolicited college mail, and D2 (who is a weaker student) got maybe 3 pieces of college mail. If you want to avoid it you can for the most part, but it is amazing the amount of correspondence the colleges send - D has friends who chose the other otpion on the standardized test and they could have papered their houses with the college mail they got.</p>
<p>For years, there were a few firms that managed campaigns for colleges. They are still around and are doing quite well even though some of the messages/mailings look identical. The VIP apps that are partially filled out were born out of one of these firms. </p>
<p>Working with those firms is quite expensive, so many schools create publications on campus and use mailing houses for fulfillment. In recent years, CRMs have become more affordable and popular. Even colleges with more modest budgets can set up email campaigns in-house.</p>
<p>Many admission offices also register an officer’s child or pet with their peer institutions. Some of that might drive the tone and frequency of messages. I know a child of an admission dean who was on mailing lists when he was still in utero. :)</p>
<p>Yes, we noticed that the return envelopes for many of these mailings go back to addresses in Akron Ohio or Washington DC, to companies that must be based there. </p>
<p>I have to say that I’m very unimpressed by these companies’ marketing strategies–every school they represent looks bland and generic. When the letters started coming in after D’s soph PSAT we read them to try and find out something about the school–and found virtually no information, no feel for individual character. It looks like the marketing company has 1 basic letter and just changes the school name & letterhead on each one. Someone needs to let these schools know that they’re not getting value for the big bucks that Dean J tells us that they pay.</p>
<p>In the 3 years between my 2 kids, I’ve noticed that the schools have gotten much more aggressive in their marketing. Many of the schools on my younger child’s list are the same as those that were on the older sibling’s list so its easy to compare. I can understand the aggressive approach for less competitive schools where they are wanting to drum up applications to improve their stats but I think it’s absurd for schools where the admit rate is already 18% or less. Like they really need more apps. </p>
<p>I can’t fathom the amount of money spent on mailings, etc. These same schools would be better off using that money to offer some bottled water or free lunch to applicants doing campus visits, something many of the most selective schools do not do.</p>
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