Some of it just seems hypocritical. When I visited Macalester, for example, they very much emphasized how green they were, yet they’ve sent me multiple trees worth of brochures (far more so than other schools). And Reed, which makes itself out to have very individual and self-selecting students, sends me dozens of form emails with blunt subject lines like “I encourage you to apply to Reed” when they know nothing about me other than my high school, hometown and prospective major. Swarthmore, whose admissions officers actually really impressed me with their lack of advertising and emphasis on the importance of fit, sent me the exact same form letter word-for-word twice within in a 4 month period.
On the other hand, I really appreciated the call I received from a St. Olaf student, and the letter I received from Macalester inviting me, a prospective music major, to a concert in my area that one of their faculty was organizing. Those seemed much more personalized.
My son received a mailing from Yale inviting him to a program in Boston that was called “Yale in your area” or something like that. We laughed because, even though we do live in Massachusetts, we actually live closer to Yale itself by a good 45 minutes than we do to Boston!
Fall junior year, Macalester sent me an email saying that if I turned on part 1 of my app by Nobember 1, there’d be no application fee. Later that year, when I was searching more, I might have been more interested if I know they didn’t try to get applications from random juniors.
“they know nothing about me other than my high school, hometown and prospective major”
Don’t schools also know test scores when they know this much? I’d guess they’re targeting “match” applicants as best they can. We had never heard of our D’s final choice (a perfect match for her) until she received unsolicited information.
“But do you remember them with fondness or with rising blood pressure? I HATED when my son got calls from admission staff at colleges that he had no interest in and had never contacted first himself.”
Perhaps the first phone call or two seem flattering to a novice, just like the mailings. But 30 seconds into the conversation it becomes clear it is a work study job with a student on the other end of the phone that is just trying to check your name off… usually the conversation after introduction consists of “do you have any questions about x school? No? Okay, goodbye.” If you are going to cold call someone, at least have a purpose, and direct the conversation!
@vonlost I think they might know PSAT but not SAT or ACT in that case. But I’ve never totally understood how much score info schools can access without a score report.
@vonlost and @usualhopeful–Colleges typically do NOT know a student’s exact tests scores before the student submits the application or at least fills out another form specifically for that college (e.g., an athletic recruitment form). BUT admission officials can customize the lists that they order from the “Student Search” service. So the college can not only request names of aspiring artists or computer scientists (information culled from the test-registration questionnaires) but can also request “All students with Verbal Scores above750” or “Females with Math scores above 700,” etc. So the college folks may have a sense of a student’s general test performance but not the actual scores.
@vonlost–As much as I hated the assault of information that my son got from colleges (especially from places like Yale and Columbia that don’t need more applicants), I still do like to hear stories like your daughter’s about unsolicited publications that actually “worked.”
My son found the small book that Yale sent to be very informative. It provided a detailed view of the university’s academic programs, the concept of the residential colleges, and a range of examples of current students. Overall it helped to make Yale less mysterious to him.
He subsequently applied, visited twice, and will be a freshman this fall. It’s a great match for him.
One school had mailings that contained much more information than most do, but more interestingly they connected my kid up with current students for direct communication. It also didn’t hurt that it was a reachy school that my kid was honored to get attention from. Still it would not be on the list if not for these marketing efforts.
As someone going through this right now, something that I always look for is specific and personalized information. For instance, if a college knows that I want to be a pre-med/biophysics major, instead of just telling me that they offer that program - or even worse, not saying anything about any of the programs offered - talking about what makes this particular program unique really catches my eye. Discussing things like partnerships with nearby hospitals/research organizations and, more importantly, what type of work has been done by undergrads in recent years through those partnerships would be great.
In the same way, addressing it like someone took the time to personally sit down and write it, using a person’s name instead of the college’s, helps as well. Double points if they give specific contact information so I can address any questions I have right to them.
D doesn’t hate college mail as much as most students, but her biggest peeve is when they send her information that is totally irrelevant to her interests. Since freshman year, she has marked International Relations as her major of choice on standardized tests yet she is inundated with mail about engineering programs that she has no interest in.
So, the mail that gets her attention is anything that talks about international relations or political science or even just humanities rather than math and science. Even just slightly targeting the mail for the student is really appreciated.
Back in HS junior and senior year, the only snail mail I kept (and didn’t trash) were the ones from Macalester. The invitation of other colleges start with saying Hi and inserting broad statements about their school. Macalester’s invitation was:
“Dear *******, (paragraph 1) blah blah blah blah college blah blah blah small classes (30+ blahs later…) (paragraph 2) We filtered out the nonsense fluff in the previous paragraph for you. Hi, we’re Macalester…”
That letter sparked an interest in me to consider going out of state college. More mail came in as postcards, as student newsletter articles, and more comedic letters.
Although I ended up getting rejected from the school, the school became an influence on how I wanted my college experience to be like.
A parent who has completed two rounds of college search, I was most impressed by demonstrations of competence and the personal touch.
After a disastrous visit to our in-state flagship, with an awkward, inarticulate admissions rep (employee, not a student), we visited other midwest flagships. University of Iowa had our kid’s name up on a scrolling welcome board, along with other prospective students, and throughout the application process, including Honors application etc., personnel were responsive, reasonable, and clear. Wisconsin visiting group was much larger, so no personal welcomes, but again, the demonstration of organization and competence made a strong impression. Plus, a UW admissions rep whom my kid had spoken with for less than 5 minutes after an info session on his initial visit recognized my kid 6 months later among the crowd at an admitted student day, and came up to him to talk with him. A well-run admissions office for a large institution suggested to us that rest of the institution was likely well-run as well.
For second kid who looked only at LACs, the letters and emails which demonstrated admissions rep noticed our kid among the crowd made a difference. Emails from reps after the colleges attended visit days at my kid’s high school made an impression. Kalamazoo College admissions officer emailed kid on the weekend, saying he had just finished reading his app and enjoyed his essay – that kind of personal touch made a big impression and kept K in the running up until the very last second. Acceptance letters with handwritten note from rep commenting specifically on the essay made an impression. Emails or letters from campus groups/faculty in areas of student’s articulated interest made a good impression.
In our experience, we seem to get an increase in both snail mail and e-mail whenever a College Board exam is taken (ie. PSAT or subject tests). We took the ACT twice and didn’t see any increase in mail (either snail or electronic). Has anyone else noticed the same thing?
We get SO MUCH communication that it would be nice if the subject line referenced that they met us at the college fair or on campus or something other than just “We want you” or “Take this Survey” or “Is this your correct address?” It would also be nice if you could more easily tell who is sending you the e-mail by having a clear e-mail address and subject.
We recently received a four page letter from Yale. There is no way Yale wants my kid(s). Is it publicity or are they hoping to collect some extra application fees from gullible families?
One that didn’t work: My D has been inundated with mail, with a LOT from Hollins. We had never heard of the school, so the first mailing or 2 made her curious. But when we got the big poster showing the Top 10 Reasons to Go to Hollins, she dropped them from her list like a hot potato. Reason number 2 was something along the lines about it being a great place to meet guys. Ugh. That isn’t why she is going to college. But we did get a lot of mileage out of knocking their poster on social media.
If a student has listed a prospective major or interest , send mail that is specific to that major or interest. My D is not interested in hearing about the school mascot or the glee club or the tradition of wearing yellow on Tuesdays. Every school sends crap like that and it all sounds the same.
She is interested in the Chemistry and Math departments. If she gets a mailing that says “What is Studying Chemistry at Old Ivycovered University REALLY Like?” she’s going to open it and read it.
Email goes straight to spam now. The volume is too great and there is no reasonable way to filter it.
Isn’t there somewhere a national registry of HS guidance counselors? If so, it would seem trivial for a university admissions office to electronically seek out students with the qualifications that are desired.
For example, you commonly hear a trope put forth by AOs for public consumption, which goes something like this: “last year we needed oboe players, but this year we need tuba players. It’s all about institutional priorities. An oboe player had the advantage last year, while a tuba player has an advantage this years.”
Ok, if this were really so, the university admissions office could just send out a blanket email to the GCs across the country to try to get great tuba players to apply this year.
I’m a cynic about all of this. I really don’t think that AOs have a list of sought-after qualifications provided by coaches, symphony conductors, and so on. I sincerely doubt that institutional priorities dig down that deep. Granted, if you meet a symphony conductor, coach, etc. and h/she writes a letter in support of your application that may help. But it’s hard to believe that the AOs themselves ferret out the best candidates with this kind of granularity.
I DO believe that AOs generally care about gender, racial, geographical, and socioeconomic balance, but the specificity implied by oboe vs tuba is a hoax, IMO.