<p>our letters came by snail mail. They were addressed to them personally on the envelope and on the letters.</p>
<p>FWIW, I can guess that perhaps Oberlin was interested in my kids all along, but when it came time to choosing among who to actually admit (and not admit), my kids were WL. I don’t want to get into the specifics, but in our case, I think it had alot to do with who applied from our school that year.</p>
<p>SDonCC, your last post (#21) seems to me to hit the nail on the head. I know many of the Oberlin admissions staff, and I can assure you that there’s nothing conniving or manipulative about any of them. I feel sure that they were genuinely interested in your kids’ applications and wanted to encourage their interest. It’s only when applications are viewed <em>in the context of the total applicant pool</em> that comparative judgments need to be made, and the painful process of turning down (or, in your case, waitlisting) qualified applicants begins. Admissions staffers often get very attached to particular applicants and find it hard when the overall vote goes against them. Remember that the staffer who wrote an encouraging email to your child may well have voted to admit him or her, but the committee vote went the other way. The hypocrisy which your earlier post seemed to complain of simply doesn’t seem to me to exist, at least at Oberlin.</p>
<p>Dave72, I appreciate your comments, and perhaps “hypocrisy” is too strong a term, but maybe the Admissions office might consider when to send these personalized messages, whether directly from the admissions rep or from another representative of the college – after acceptance might be more appropriate…</p>
<p>so, when I see a thread entitled “Strung along all year,” then I have to respond and say that’s how it felt at our end.</p>
<p>I think that the personal email that the adcom rep sends to the applicants thanking them for applying and telling them that he / she is available for answering questions about the process is a great one. That gives a personal connection and lets the applicant know that they are being taken seriously.</p>
<p>More marketing directly to individual students beyond that in between the application and the decision is a different story. And, again, I’m not talking about the mass mailings of school literature. I’m talking about the more individual outreach that seems to send a signal of interest on the part of the school. Okay, as recipients we should take it with a grain of salt, but really the schools should consider the heightened state applicants are in and a lack of understanding among most families as to how these admissions decisions are made. I was a very educated consumer. I understand how these committees work. And if I hadn’t seen a post here on CC saying that they had been given alot of TLC before receiving the WL, I might have been inclined to have our hopes raised too high…</p>
<p>thanks to the stars posted next to the threads I’ve commented on, I found this, which may be of interest: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/oberlin-college/857264-out-blue-email-adrep.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/oberlin-college/857264-out-blue-email-adrep.html</a></p>
<p>I’m guessing here but maybe Oberlin only does this with boarding school/private school kids as part of their relationship with the school (because they hope the kids will tell their schools Oberlin is “courting” them)? Maybe one or two “special” publics too, where there is a relationship? And maybe it is random in the sense that it is not an organized campaign by the admissions office, but left up to professors, who send when the mood strikes or they have time, so prospies with near identical stats receive different levels of mail and sometimes not even from their departmental major? That is what I suspect from all of your responses. It’s not organized. It’s a list of prospies with strong stats who attend choice secondary schools. And all the “letter/email” writers get the same list, and most choose to write only to those who are candidates for their department but others deviate from that plan. Perhaps college profs, including department heads, are like police officers–they each have a “quota” of letters they agree to send out (like cops have to write so many tickets to help produce department revenue) and it doesn’t matter to whom. Or maybe your student would be coming from a location that has produced few Oberlin applicants or enrollees. Perhaps other colleges do exactly the same thing.</p>
<p>My child did not attend a private school or a boarding school or a public with a pipeline to Oberlin. She attended a nothing special suburban public in a contiguous state. She applied RD. Oberlin sent her NOTHING. No emails, no brochures, no postcards, no letters, nothing. I guess she was a “ho-hum” dime-a-dozen candidate. Not a word from Oberlin for several months until the admission envelope showed up. Only AFTER being admitted did she receive a “love note.” Why didn’t she get them when others did, including some who were not admitted or waitlisted? Maybe Oberlin deep down didn’t care much if she went elsewhere–before they admitted her. I don’t know.</p>
<p>Of course Elizabeth Houston will post a response and blow my guesswork all to bits, but it is as good a theory as any that I’ve heard up to this point. :)</p>
<p>uh, no, my kids go to a suburban public school that is not a pipeline to Oberlin. All waitlists this year (and all with identical stats, which is why I think they didn’t pick one, since so few from our school applied). So, not sure why they jumped the gun on soliciting my kids…</p>
<p>“…maybe Oberlin only does this with boarding school/private school kids as part of their relationship with the school …”</p>
<p>I doubt it. True, D1 was in a private school when she got the letter, but as far as I could tell Oberlin had no relationship with the school whatsoever. Oberlin didn’t visit there, and only two kids had attended Oberlin in the four previous years. The school was anything but a “feeder”.</p>
<p>and, my beef is not with the personalized recruiting, but with the timing of it, so hearing from Elizabeth Houston would be great.</p>
<p>I’m just not convinced that there’s anything wrong going on. As I said above, “For most applicants, there are adults around throughout the application process who understand that marketing can be dressed up in personally-signed letters. Later on, if they haven’t yet learned this lesson – which has an incredibly soft-landing – things can get pretty rough if they learn it the hard way. So I’m not convinced that colleges really need to do nearly as much about this as the guidance counselors and parents.”</p>
<p>All it takes is a parent or guidance counselor to say, “Don’t get ahead of yourself and assume that they’re signaling good news to you by sending you letters,” and everything is fine. I think it actually makes sense for students to keep abreast and informed and it’s useful for colleges to remain in contact. But if kids are real fragile about personal communications that are sent after their applications are sent, the parents need to be the ones who are vigilant and guard against unfounded, wildly hopeful assumptions, not the colleges.</p>
<p>Other posters have already done a great job explaining the philosophy behind the admissions process and the contacts we have with students (except for Plainsman, who, as usual, has speculated a bit too wildly 
), but since you asked, here’s our communications plan for applicants:</p>
<p>As soon as we enter their applications into our database, every applicant receives a letter signed by the admissions counselor responsible for their region thanking them for applying and offering to be a resource if they have any questions. Every applicant should also receive a letter from the chair of any department(s) in which they have expressed an interest in majoring. We send this out after we receive an application because we don’t have the information on what majors a student is interested in until we receive their application, but we still feel like it is useful for students to hear a bit more about the areas of study they may be interested in. If the applicant listed their prospective major as “undecided,” or if we don’t have a letter written for that major, they receive a letter from the dean of the college. In previous years, these have been actual print letters, but we switched this year to sending them all as emails. We also send out emails letting applicants know when we have received their standardized test scores, and email notifications regarding the status of their application as complete or incomplete. </p>
<p>In previous years, we have encouraged counselors to send out personalized messages to particularly strong applicants after they have read their files, but before the admit letters go out. As our applicant pool has become more and more competitive, we’re finding that we are not always able to admit all of those students, so we have discontinued that practice.</p>
<p>We’re always sensitive to the fact that some applicants and/or parents will misconstrue any communication after an application has been submitted as representative of the likelihood of admission. We’re mindful of that any time we send out messages to applicants, and try to minimize any potential for misinterpretation as much as possible. We feel that our current communications plan is both reasonable and appropriate, and that it strikes an good balance between being informative and helpful to most, while still expecting that a small number of people will be upset no matter what we do.</p>
<p>Gone for a few days and just checked back.
Our communication started over a year before application since so many friends attended, and teachers were alumni. Also, had three previous music teachers who were double con majors. Child worked closely with a faculty member and corresponded over the next year. After application was sent, several meetings in person with local rep and letters expressing how the school was a great fit, may not make the con but would be a shoe in with the regular school. With all this student fell in love with school, especially when visiting ran into five friends who went there. During interview questioned if credentials were ballpark and assured they were. Moreover everyone mentioned how talents, interest, experience and personality were perfect fits. Interviewer even came out and talked to us the parents for 20 minutes about how great the kid was and they had to pick oberlin. Interviewer and his child were both alum. Again local rep talked to the parents for 20 minutes about how they hoped child would pick school. What else are you supposed to think?
I think child was mostly hurt since they know less qualified people who got accepted and realizes they have no desire to go there. My Child is passionate about their school, sports, activities, chosen major, plus a perfect supporter of social justice and openness. When people meet child they say-you remind me of my friends who went to Oberlin. It seems to have come done to what scores, grades and special groups will look good on the accepted students tables. </p>
<p>Please spare me any comments on my post. I feel sorry for my child who had such a passion for the school and would have been a big asset. I don’t feel sorry about going back to Ohio, spending the extra $20k, or worrying if they will get a job</p>
<p>@ scubaguy: When I was applying to college, there were several people from my town who were applying to a very competitive university. There was one guy in town who was the alumni interviewer for this school. He was widely understood to be the “gatekeeper.” My interview was about a half hour. Our other friend’s interview was about the same. And then there was this other third guy, who everyone looked at as the perfect fit for this particular university. Even today I think of it as a great fit and wonder how he did NOT go there. His interview went for hours. The interviewer said that this guy was the best interview he ever had. Nobody doubted that. People talked about his interview for his dream school that winter. I specifically recall parents talking about it at the holiday parties that Christmas. This guy happened to be the president of every student organization that he ever looked at since kindergarten. Sometimes people resent people who are so popular…and then there are the people who are so popular that even the haters can’t come up with something to hate on. And this guy was that guy. So when I tell you that people talked about his interview and how he was going to go to his dream college, it was because they believed it and hoped for it.</p>
<p>Well, I think you know where this is going. He didn’t get in. I did, but I didn’t really want to go there if only because my brother was already going there. The other guy passed on that college, too. And the third guy who was the shoo-in went to a state university. Well, here I am, posting on College Confidential and that other guy who didn’t get in never missed a beat. He didn’t even detour or take time to recover. He was totally unfazed by it all and he’s now the governor of our state, which everybody always knew would happen.</p>
<p>Your kid is exactly the same person he was a few weeks ago. All those observations you shared about him are no less applicable now than they were a month or two or three ago. An admissions decision, yea or nay, doesn’t change who people are. So you’re correct to have no regrets and seek no pity. It may be surprising to you that your kid’s path won’t be through Oberlin, but that doesn’t mean he’s not on the right path. It’s just not the one you expected he’d be taking.</p>