Does U of Chicago send everyone lots of unsolicited mail or just me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
81

<p>I certainly find it annoying. Sometimes I think it’s another school I had already applied to but it turns out to be huge UofC packets. I am not even considering them. Every time I get something from them, it goes into the shredder and then recycled.</p>

82

<p>My brother and I both got a ton. I think they just send everyone tons of mail to get them to apply and raise their rankings.</p>

83

<p>We got the distinct impression UChicago was baiting our son to apply so they could reject him as well. This was a school that I had previously had a very high opinion of. </p>

<p>Story has made the news:</p>

<p>[Too</a> Much Mail From U. of Chicago Admissions? | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/10/07/too-much-mail-u-chicago-admissions]Too”>Too Much Mail From U. of Chicago Admissions?)</p>

84

<p>In our materials, we aim to try and communicate a bit more of the UChicago experience to students (or parents) who may find themselves a good fit for our programs for a variety of reasons, but may not be able to visit campus or learn more about the College from friends or classmates. Students often find their way to our mailing list by indicating their interest in receiving materials from colleges either on our website or when they take a standardized test. While we’d be sad to see you go, anyone who is not interested in continuing to receive materials from UChicago is encouraged to unsubscribe from our mail by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any emails received, or by emailing us at <a href=“mailto:collegeadmissions@uchicago.edu”>collegeadmissions@uchicago.edu</a>. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, and we wish you the best of luck in the college admissions process and hope you find a wonderful future college home.</p>

85

<p>^ Based on UChicago’s advice, and as expected, removing oneself from the UChicago mailing list should take about 30 seconds. If you don’t want UChicago mail, just get off the list.</p>

86

<p>What is disheartening, UChicago, is that your post does not address the biggest point of them all: here are many students who are not remotely UChicago material or at least it would be a reach, and they are still plowed with marketing materials.</p>

<p>Who is doing the targeting there? Marketing is all about accuracy, not the shotgun approach. Otherwise, it’s hugely wasteful. And in this case, enough to be offensive.</p>

<p>Clearly this is a naked ploy to boost application numbers and alter the acceptance rate. And probably make a boatload of money in application fees.</p>

<p>This is not a very honest response to what is going on in this message board. This has very little to do with visiting the campus and everything to do with casting a very, very wide net – a much, much wider net than it should be – to boost application numbers. Very disappointing for such a fine university.</p>

87

<p>PlasticMoonRain,</p>

<p>What more do you want UChicago to say? For about as clear a take on the picture as possible, please read this:</p>

<p>[Application</a> Inflation - Admissions & Student Aid - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Application Inflation”>Application Inflation)</p>

<p>Along with detailing UChicago’s marketing efforts (and hiring of a marketing firm for this purpose), UChicago Dean of Admissions James Nondorf said the following about admissions:</p>

<p>“At an admissions conference in Rhode Island this May, Mr. Nondorf described the pressure on deans. “Don’t kid yourselves, the presidents and trustees want you to have more applications,” he said. “If you don’t think that’s the case, I don’t know what schools you’re working at, but it’s true.””</p>

<p>Schools - all schools - don’t have a moral compass when it comes to this, and it’s silly to think that blast-marketing is “beneath” any university. Admissions and rankings are a full contact, winner take all sport now. If there’s a blip in this, heads roll (see the recent controversy surrounding Wharton’s “decline” in a recent WSJ article).</p>

88

<p>Plasticmoonrain, our dean addresses some of your concerns in the inside higher ed article linked to by luciethelakie above. I would encourage you to check out the article and, should you still have concerns, you are welcome to connect with us via email.</p>

89

<p>Personally, I think Mr. Nondorf’s quotes in the “Application Inflation” article are more telling, because they get to the goal of why the college is marketing so hard in the first place - because of a directive from presidents and trustees to do so. More apps make everyone at the school feel good.</p>

90

<p>I believe the UChicago’s response has some truth. For some people the marketing materials did have impact to their awareness and knowledge about the college, like my own D (we live far away from the city of Chicago and had never been there before this year). But for others they seem annoying.</p>

<p>As said in her response the college takes the opt-out process seriously. So if anyone wants to be removed from their mailing she/he should just do it (hopefully with little effort). BTW the college can save some money and effort too. It is a win-win situation, IMO.</p>

<p>At the beginning UChicago did not have a student’s contact information. It must have acquired it somewhere – most likely from College Board and ACT service, etc. Then it started marketing to particular students.</p>

<p>For why some people are targeted for receiving marketing materials I have found some UChicago’s class 2015 and 2016 freshman profiles (no class 2017 profile yet).</p>

<p>The link to class 2015 is at
<a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/classprofile_2015.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/classprofile_2015.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Standardized Testing
ACT Middle 50% 31–34
SAT Middle 50% 1420–1530
ACT Score Range (Admitted Students) 23–36
SAT Score Range (Admitted Students) 1100–1600</p>

<p>Number Accepted 3,539</p>

<p>The middle 50% means from bottom 25th percent to top 25th percent (25% - 75%). JHS had analyzed the disparity between admitted and enrolled students in a previous post.
Let’s just assume the testing scores were distributed evenly among admitted and enrolled students for simplicity.</p>

<p>The bottom quartile (to how low is too low question) of the admitted students’ ACT range was between 23 and 31 and SAT was from 1100 to 1420 (there might be some overlaps at the bottom 25th percent and top 25th percent).</p>

<p>That year they had admitted 3,539 students so that it would be transferred to 3,539 * 25% = 885 (with supposed low stats). I would think there were more admitted students close to ACT 31/SAT 1420 than ACT 23/SAT 1100 though.</p>

<p>The link to class 2016 is at
<a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/classprofile.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/classprofile.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Standardized Testing
ACT Middle 50% 31–34
SAT Middle 50% 1440–1540
ACT Score Range (Admitted Students) 24–36
SAT Score Range (Admitted Students) 1230–1600</p>

<p>Number Accepted 3,340</p>

<p>The bottom quartile (to how low is too low question) of the admitted students’ ACT range was from 24 to 31 and SAT was from 1230 to 1440.</p>

<p>That year they had admitted 3,340 students so that it would be transferred to 3,340 * 25% = 835 (with supposed low stats).</p>

<p>Every school wants to diversify its student body for some reasons. Remember UChicago does not have Division 1 sports so that it does not recruit athletes. It could use those spots to diversify its student body based on whatever criteria.</p>

<p>I also do not think application fee makes a lot of money for the school (if even at all). Last year there were about 30,000 applicants and some of them had fee waivers (low income, Chicago residents, etc). If there were 25,000 paid applicants there would be equal to 25,000 * $75 = $1,875,000. It seems to be a big number but actually is not. They needed to hire readers (staff), to record applications, to process them, to communicate to applications, and so on. The process would last for 9 months.</p>

91

<p>Cue7 – I posted an article earlier on this thread that Bloomberg News ran a couple of years ago about overzealous marketing from colleges.</p>

92

<p>We are getting tons of mail too - and my son is not interested and probably doesn’t have the scores to be competitive there. But I would estimate 1-2 pieces of mail a week for the last month or so. Perhaps tuition would be less if these colleges would spend less on the price of these brochures and all this mailing. I will contact them. Good idea.</p>

93

<p>Plasticmoonrain:</p>

<p>The Bloomberg article is instructive. The Chronicle of Higher Ed article ([Application</a> Inflation - Admissions & Student Aid - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Application Inflation”>Application Inflation)) is most relevant here, however, because it includes direct quotes from James Nondorf (UChicago’s admission dean). Nondorf openly notes that one of the goals of an admissions office is to drum up lots of applications.</p>

<p>Nondorf’s done a great job, but it appears that the sheer volume of mailings may have gone past the tipping point and has started to annoy prospective applicants. That’s not good. </p>

<p>The Bloomberg article notes that Yale and MIT have trimmed down their outreach. Perhaps UChicago should do the same, but I doubt it will. The admissions train is going full steam ahead, with little sign of slowing down.</p>

94

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<p>My mistake. YOU shouldn’t apply.</p>

95

<p>How about this: stop opening UChicago’s mail and mark them “Return to Sender”. Of they get a lot of returned mail, they would start being more selective in their mailing. If not, then they are doing the right thing because it means they ate still reaching people who are interested but doesn’t know about the school.</p>

96

<p>It is really sad that University of Chicago is giving false hope to students! UC makes them feel like they want them, which is far from reality. I’ve talked to some parents and they are going to apply to UC because of their aggressive mail, and I know that their kids are way below the bottom requirements for UC. What a waste of money in application fees, a waste of the opportunity to apply somewhere more realistic, and especially, how disappointing for the kid and their families!</p>

97

<p>Thank you for your private messages, the system doesn’t let me answer.</p>

98

<p>I obivouslly don’t have the stats for UChicago but I receive a couple letters and brochures from them every week. My friend who is clearly qualified for UChicago has been receiving tons and tons of mail from them. UChicago may send more aggressively to possible students.</p>

99

<p>My son is flattered by the mail from U Chicago and I find their marketing materials quite creative in the way they try to engage the receiver. That said, UC is too far from home, too cold, and too urban for my son - so he won’t be applying. </p>

<p>He gets plenty of unsolicited college mail, that started arriving as soon as he took the PSAT as a HS freshman.</p>

100

<p>I know that I’ve received an ungodly amount of mail from them. I just add it to my giant stack of other envelopes, brochures, etc. that I get from all the other school. But Chicago does send quite a bit of material</p>