<p>I received an article on Swarthmore's engineering program with a handwritten note (by an admission counselor) on it.
Is it normal?</p>
<p>At a similar point in the ED admissions cycle, my daughter received an e-mail from her regional admissions counselor pointing out an article in the Phoenix that might interest her. I viewed it as a hopeful sign at the time as it would be cruel to send such a note to someone who had already found the “not accepted” stack. They’ve already been through the ED apps and have a growing “accepted” stack.</p>
<p>I will, however, never know for sure what that note meant. At the very least, I think you can assume that it’s not a bad sign. At least you know that your application has made an impression in terms of presenting specfic interests. That is a good thing!</p>
<p>There are some schools that have an elaborate response system. For example, Emory’s application ask for three areas of academic interest and you get mailings from those departments within days. Very slick. A note from an admissions officer, at this time of year, is very different.</p>
<p>I think these letters are sent to everyone on Swarthmore’s mailing list. I received the engineering article today and I haven’t submitted my application yet.</p>
<p>I just received it today. I haven’t submitted yet (but I will soon - EDII!). Mine was signed by my regional rep. The address on the envelope was hand-written as well. Form letter or not, I thought it was nice.</p>
<p>I’m a new poster but long time lurker here. As a Swarthmore alum with a D applying to schools, it was interesting to see her reaction to the non engineering version of the mailing.</p>
<p>The mailing was made to look personalized with an adcom’s signature, but, in fact, it was merely a mass mailing copy with her name written in above the hand written part of the note. This was insulting to both her and to me, it was like one of those cheap sales mailings.</p>
<p>Swarthmore should know better…the excellent message in the copied article was lost in the shoddy delivery.</p>
<p>What is the non-engineering version?</p>
<p>It was a one page, front and back typed sheet containing an article from The Phoenix about a couple of Swarthmore alums that have started a great nonprofit in Ecuador.</p>
<p>The same modus operandi of a fake handwritten note is at the top (actually Xeroxed) with my daughter’s name written in above. It states that she might like the article below, and is “signed” by an adcom.</p>
<p>Very disingenuous in my view.</p>
<p>This has been a staple of non-college advertising for years now. While I’m sure people would like to think colleges are sending them personalized notes, so its a let down when one realizes its mass-produced, I don’t see what the real problem is. When you’ve got thousands upon thousands of applicants, and only a tiny handful of staff, it hardly make sense that the adcoms should spend most of their time hand-writing these things for people who (chances are) won’t be admitted, let alone attend, the school. Would it be better to have no contact at all? Or should Swarthmore spend more money hiring ad-coms and less on financial aid/academics?</p>
<p>Your point is valid, but why the “effort” to make it look like a personalized note. They probably spent more having someone write each addresee’s name than they would have by simply mailing an interesting article.</p>
<p>The impression that it left on me was one of trying to “fool” my daughter.</p>
<p>They do take the effort to differentiate the mailings by students’ interests–and I think the writing of the name tips you off to that. I understand your point, Dadof2Ds, but don’t all colleges do this to some extent? You have to look at it all with a bit of a jaundiced eye and not read too much into any communication before the actual acceptance/rejection letter. This is kind of the inverse of the student who thinks he/she is “in” after receiving a letter encouraging them to apply to HYP!</p>
<p>I remember us all feeling a little disgruntled after D’s actual acceptance, because there was virtually no communication from Swarthmore (her actual first choice), whereas all the other schools she had been accepted to were actively calling, writing, sending her things etc. Where was the love? She still decided to matriculate, and graduate—the love came later:)</p>
<p>I think I take this a bit too personally since I actually went to Swarthmore!</p>
<p>I’m definitely not seeing where the insulting part comes in. I can understand a slight letdown - things are a little busier there than in the days when you could count on “thanks, hon!” from the registrar’s secretary - but insult? </p>
<p>By the way, if you didn’t like the differentiated mailing (with your D’s name spelled correctly, no?) start bracing yourself for the form letter to alumni parents-of-applicants, which should be arriving about now if your D applied ED. They only decided to do that in the last couple of years - when my now-senior applied, there was zippitty do-dah. (And that didn’t bother me a bit. The form letter certainly didn’t insult me, but it did give me a few moments of worry that it might be a kind of the-cat’s-on-the-roof statement about an impending letdown for my now-first-year. Fortunately, it wasn’t.)</p>
<p>My D has received plenty of mail from quite a few places that has been personalized with her name, some of it quite clever. This note went beyond that; the handwritten greeting was deliberately deceptive.</p>
<p>It just rubbed me and D the wrong way.</p>
<p>When my kids applied to our alma maters, there was a varying degree of responses. The most interesting was that Chicago waived D’s app fee, even though DH just got his MBA there–I thought that was cool. </p>
<p>When our son applied to DH’s undergrad alma mater (a last-minute decision-it wasn’t a great fit, but felt it was a likely admit). DH got a call from someone in admin (from his own class) telling him what a strong applicant class it was and many alumni children as applicants. We thought it was also code for–“let 'em down easy”. We told son he didn’t get in, but not to worry, he had a Caltech acceptance in hand already. Lo and behold, a few days later came a letter of acceptance! </p>
<p>As I’m writing this–I just realized that D just submitted her grad school app to Chicago–I don’t think she’s heard a thing about waiving the fee this time around!</p>
<p>I do have to say that when applying to Swarthmore–the real personal attention came from the face-to-face interactions. D felt they were more genuine than many other schools.</p>
<p>We cross-posted–I definitely feel your disappointment, though. It’s an emotional time, and I’m so glad it’s over!</p>
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<p>This was definitely the case for both my D and my S1.</p>
<p>Dadof2Ds, best of luck to your D. Siusplau ^^ is very right that it’s an emotional time.</p>