Colleges are offering to waive your application fees if you apply – does that mean you’re likely to get accepted? The Dean weighs in: https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/do-unsolicited-emails-from-colleges-mean-the-schools-really-want-you/
If it did, my daughter would be a Washington U in St. Louis. They sent her a million post cards and emails and letters and invitations and brochures.
University of Chicago’s marketing dept loves my Daughter however I am pretty sure The Admisdions Dept would not show the same love!
Same here for Swarthmore. They have the worst marketing materials, too, so getting them for three years straight is a drag. Not in a million years would my daughter ever get in.
NO. We fell for this and wasted a lot of money on applications that were probably never even reviewed.
Absolutely agree w/ U Chicago!! Also Rice/Vandy/Pomona. Once S19 started senior year & had his List, I started unsubscribing him from schools. It dramatically reduced the emails & snail mailings.
Agree that Chicago is the worst offender when it comes to snail mail/email.
Vandy and Rice also sent the son tons of stuff along with fee waivers. And I agree that WashU does send out too much stuff at times, but they aren’t as annoying as Chicago.
No! The main purpose here, especially from top-ranking schools, is to draw in a higher pool of applicants for two reasons that I’ve been informed of.
- To increase the size of the applicant pool with the same level of acceptance results in higher selectivity. Higher selectivity increases their rankings and public opinion as an "elite" school. They will send mailings to anyone regardless of admissions chances just to improve their selectivity. Invitation to reject.
- Those application fees don't hurt their wallet.
Before I even read replies, I immediately thought of Wash U and Chicago…they sent my children tons of mailings trying to get them to apply. Definitely didn’t mean they would have an edge.
Ego boosters only, and my D16 said, mailings and emails are simply solicitations. Those acceptances rates are low for a reason, with the colleges trying to increase their total number of applications. Save only the one who reached out and accepted you. That is cool.
not at all
they do it for money
its all about money from the applications
:))
and decreasing their acceptance rates
Sometimes, unsolicited contacts may have an effect…
It’s mostly just solicitation…
I agree, but Chicago is free to apply