<p>So D, like many seniors right now, has a number of applications out and is anxiously awaiting some responses. For the second day in a row, she received a large envelope from one of her app schools which turns out to be nothing more than advertising. "Thank you for your interest in XXX U, blah, blah, blah..."</p>
<p>Don't admissions departments know that students are on pins and needles waiting for word right now? Why torment them with mail that looks like it could be acceptances but turns out to be nothing? Anyone else experiencing this?</p>
<p>That has got to sting. These are coming from marketing firms employed by the schools. So what is at fault is a lack of communication between the school and their marketing firm over when to send what. Obviously someone’s not thinking.</p>
<p>Another problem that I’ve heard about is students receiving emails and marking materials in the mail after they’ve been denied. You can’t tell me the school doesn’t have a way to send the marking firm a list of these student to flag in their system to pull from marketing efforts to apply or of continued interest, and for it to be done very quickly.</p>
<p>Check the postage on these envelopes that are coming at all of our kids. Is it first class or 3rd class postage? That sometimes is a clue as to whether that envelope is truly from the admissions office, or from the school’s marketing firm.</p>
<p>I continued to receive marketing materials from a couple of colleges after they rejected me back in the mid-'90s as a 16-17 year old HS senior. </p>
<p>While a minor annoyance, I think using the word “torture” to describe it is a bit melodramatic and using a popular voguish catchphrase…first world problems. </p>
<p>Granted, considering my parents were old enough to remember the chaos of the Japanese invasion of China from '37-'45 & the Chinese Civil War, Dad being on his own since the age of 12 after being left parentless and fleeing Chinese commies in '49, and a branch of mom’s family suffering through two demonstrations of Mao Zedong’s immense ingeniousness* known as the Great Leap Forward & the Cultural Revolution…minor annoyances like receiving marketing materials from schools which rejected me or waiting for college acceptances/rejections pale greatly in comparison. </p>
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<li>Sarcasm for those who are humor impaired or too literal minded.</li>
</ul>
<p>But this isn’t just marketing material (which I think we all can agree is a bit annoying, but nothing serious). This is an envelope that looks like an admissions package…but is actually marketing information. And I can get how that must feel crummy for a student who’s anxiously awaiting admissions information. </p>
<p>Is it first-world problems? Of course, but who doesn’t get stressed when college acceptances are on the line? Tensions run high at this time of year. I see it with my sister’s friends: the ones who were accepted ED or EA to their top-choice schools; the ones who got great aid at safety schools and now have to consider them very strongly; the ones who got rejected from their dream schools after years of hoping for it; and then, of course, the ones who want to scream because “everyone else” seems to be hearing back from schools and they aren’t. These kids have worked incredibly hard, and it’s stressful for them (and, of course, for their parents and, in some cases, siblings. I truly can’t believe my “baby sister” is done with college apps and nearly halfway through her senior year!). </p>
<p>Sylvan, sorry your D got those packages. It sounds sucky. Tell her to hang in there!</p>
<p>^Lol, thanks! Today’s big envelope has “Congratulations!” blazed across the front of it, so that brought a smile, finally. One of her top choices, so that lets a lot of pressure off…:)</p>
<p>We joked that they probably don’t send out an envelope congratulating people on receiving even more marketing material ;)</p>
<p>We know it’s not <em>really</em> torture, but it does help to come on CC and complain. I look back on the whole experience and kind of shake my head at my own reactions, but it felt pretty intense at the time.</p>
<p>Was it the same college that sent all the envelopes and finally admitted her? If so, that’s an interesting – creepy, sort of S-&-M-y – marketing strategy to boost yield.</p>
<p>Sylvan, the only envelope we got like that was from CMU. I so appreciated, as I never opened envelopes prior to the worm getting home from school, even if that wasn’t until 10:00 pm. (In all honesty, I’d hold envelopes to the light).</p>
<p>Something similar actually happened to me today!!! I got a big envelope from a school whose notifications are supposed come out around now, but it turned out it was just information on the importance of the FAFSA to the school. I was a little irritated, however, I read somewhere that a student got deferred today so maybe not getting a letter was a good thing! <em>crosses fingers</em></p>