<p>pink001— maybe it was gilmore girls! i was addicted to that show and have all the seasons on DVD. i wanted to be just like rory, haha.</p>
<p>“How are schools supposed to get on the radar for prospective students, then?”</p>
<p>elinck, that’s true. It does help the college compete and get its name out there over time. Personally, it doesn’t do much for me, but just like random dna mutations and evolution (just took bio sat today), changes aren’t on the individual level, they’re rare, slow, and long-term. (not a very good simile. i’m just trying to say that it takes a long time for a school to build a reputation. but that’s not a remarkable finding)</p>
<p>mflevity, marketing in the sense of junk mail doesn’t affect me in any way, and I disagree with the article for this reason, but marketing it’s big the long-term decisions that are made during applying and attending the school. College is quite literally an investment in one’s future because it will allow one to market him or herself to interviewers, potential in-laws, others, etc. It’s very much like investing. There is great cost, accounting, opportunity, and labor, but the potential reward is great. Risk is involved in assuming one’s ability to successfully graduate the school and find a job. Choosing to go and which to go to shares some resemblance to the choice of investing in a mutual fund or a hedge fund. One is more selective and desirable, but it’s less accessible and holds a higher upfront cost. The other(s) is(are) less selective, desirable, and scarce, and has a lower barrier to entry. I don’t know where else I’m going with this.</p>
<p>Propaganda from unknown schools informs people of the schools existence, giving it an edge over the unknown schools that don’t advertise. When a student receives advertisements from a school that he or she had some preexisting attraction to, the letter, pamphlet, doodad, or whatnot, is simply a confirmation or reminder of the schools existence, and it will at least linger in the students mind for some duration. </p>
<p>Even if someone is keen on advertising, it has an effect. The contents of the advertising will show the school in the best light as possible, and if the student’s perception of the school is positive, then it will cause the student to further romanticize the school. For the most part, the pretty pictures and one-liners on the pages of a pamphlet are vague and say something nice about the school without saying much. The advertising is thought-provoking and designed to increase the advertiser’s recognition, just like… advertising. </p>
<p>Advertising is an attempt to differentiate one’s good/service from another’s. It’s common belief, for the most part, that HYPSMC are unequal to your local non-flagship state school. In a perfect market, they would be equal and their goods and services would be equivalent, but immediately there is a differentiating factor between the basic institutions themselves, which is their status of public or private. No one would pay the larger accounting cost of attending private schools if the goods/services were just the same as those of publics, hence the goods and services the private firm offers are differentiated. Information and perception, regardless of factuality and legitimacy, allow for product differentiation; the general belief is that a private school “cares” more, is smaller, less impacted, and less regulation and restrictions by the government, leading to less bureaucracy and more freedom. Now, without getting into government subsidies, publics take into account that their good/service offers less than do the g/s’s of privates, and everyone knows this–they charge a lower price. Even though the short-run accounting cost of attending Public is less than that of a Private, there are factors that cause the the two different costs to be similar: economic costs (currency/accounting cost plus opportunity cost). (note: the last sentence implies that Private A and Public B are close by and their only different is the average differences between privates and publics).</p>
<p>You’ve heard it before, time = money. The value of someone’s time is the value of the most profitable possible use of the time. (this is why if your job pays X/hour, you may work Y hours, but if your salary is 2X/hour you’ll work Y+, because it costs more to not be working). The magnitude of the problem of impacted classes varies between schools because product differentiation can be caused many things; Big City college will have greater demand that Nowhere college because of location. Imagine your classes are big and you don’t get into all your classes. It takes you an extra year to graduate with your degree. The economic cost of that extra year is not as simply as (tuition+room/board), but (tuition+room/board)+(opportunity cost). If you worked a full-time job a year earlier you would’ve had a salary that year. </p>
<p>Sorry for this not all linking smoothly…</p>
<p>Something I found interesting was uc merced and a couple cal state uni schools advertising through mail and lifeless emails. Perhaps these are the less popular state schools in the system and the state wants to ease the demand on the popular schools by redirecting some applicants. </p>
<p>I’ve not received a thing from any of the schools I want to get into (with the exception of requesting info or the mail after applying). If I were to receive some confirmation that an unrealistic school is aware of my presence, I would consider applying to it. I’m sure there’s some law of econ or marketing for this phenomenon. On second thought, maybe it’s psychology. On third thought, definitely econ, it’s a social science. Marketing highly desirable goods and services is more…productive… effective than marketing mediocre ones. Actually, I’m not sure if I’m saying this correctly. Advertising a good/service should have a greater increase of utils for the mediocre good/service-supplying firm than the desirable g/s-supplying one, because the desirable firm already operates with greater price differentiation (what the mediocre supplier seeks). This is barely touching the surface though, because</p>
<p>lol…so anyone want to pickup from somewhere? Interesting topic, i must say.</p>
<p>Haha it was Chilton that made me realize how uncompetitive my HS was! </p>
<p>But yes, back on track.</p>
<p>I personally enjoy getting college mail. It’s interesting to know what colleges are out there…and to know that the Ivies are NOT my only options haha. And I get some mail from places like NYU, Tulane, Emory, Vanderbilt…that would make great matches!</p>
<p>I read on CC that Penn State (main campus) sends REJECTIONS in a big envelope with info about the secondary Penn State campuses the rejectee can apply to. That’s cruel!!!</p>
<p>It was fun AT FIRST to get college mailers. Then it just became overwhelming and S more or less tuned out. Sadly, if I really want him to read something I put it in his bathroom. I know I know… but it gets read!</p>
<p>I got annoyed at the Ivy letters. Yes, my son has good test scores. His grades are pretty good. But if the stats are any indication, the odds of an Ivy admission are so low that it would be silly to put the time and $$ into applications. But the big glossy books arrive anyway.</p>
<p>I think it’s to get more kids to apply, so they can keep their 90% rejection rate and continue to look super selective. Why else actively encourage kids to apply to Harvard and Princeton who are a super long-shot? It’s not like they need the name recognition…</p>
<p>Same as “mflevity”. I think those glossy pamphlets don’t have too much effect on student. For me, a freshman in University. Before I chose my schools, I had recived many mailings from schools(I’ve never heard some of them). As a result, I think schools which have thier ablility to learning, they must have reputation so that they don’t need to mail those pamphlets, right?</p>
<p>S–(I)–did not mark the “box” on the SAT saying they could give his info away. He received very little mail until he went to a couple of college fairs and filled out the card. Now he is recieving a lot of mail but some annoying phone calls from schools he has had NO contact with or has ever shown any interest in…
But–gosh–think I want the Gilmore series for Christmas–so wish it had not ended.</p>
<p>Well as a current senior suffering from the similar stress as many other anxious aspiring top 20/ivy schools or any other school I blame a lot of my stress on the college mail.</p>
<p>For the past couple weeks as I submit apps, I’ve been going into breakdown mode.</p>
<p>It’s the realization that it’s basically all lie. That I bought into for the past three years. That I could likely get accepted into the HPYSM exclude the H. And I hate/loathe them with filling me with this misconception.</p>
<p>It’s cruel for the most elite colleges to recruit excessively, and work students, families, & schools into a frenzy when the reality is that they are going to reject at least 90% of these students. </p>
<p>The same ones that they were just maliciously urging to apply.</p>
<p>I understand the idea that “oh, were searching for the best and brighest” but still I find it hardly acceptable or pc. Not to say that it’s impossible for me or any other to get into the HPYSM, but it such a crapshoot that the universities should be reflective of this when the recruit students for application.</p>
<p>To me it’s not about the advertising and them making their schools seem great, it’s the psychological effect it has played on my mind.</p>
<p>Getting tree’s worth of glossy mail, postcards, & applications <em>poor environment</em> has played subconsciously with my self-esteem. Making me believe my desires will most likely come true, when in all honesty it is more likely it won’t. And inevitably the final decisions has become tied to my self-worth, no matter how much I trie for it not to.</p>
<p>I’ve talked to many fellow other seniors and they’re experiencing the same or similar emotions in this process.</p>
<p>For that I’m becoming more and more cynical of this admission game everyday and loathing of the most elite and the games they play.</p>
<p>Yeah, “life is woe”, but seriously it’s wicked emotionally ravoc stress.</p>