A previous thread noted that many URLs in college emails are from the technolutions.net domain. Technolutions runs Slate, a college admissions backend platform that all these colleges (every single one on my list, but YMMV) must use.
The image below is a publicly available screenshot of the Slate service, published by Technolutions:
Obviously there’s a lot to look at here, but I’m focused on the partially-cut-off text at the very bottom. There are entries on the dot-chart for Interaction, Event, Login, Email Sent, Email Opened, and Email Clicked. Is it common knowledge that colleges are tracking all these things? How much do schools care if prospective students are clicking links in their emails? Is this just an aspect of demonstrated interest?
When my D was applying she was told by the GC to make sure she was opening emails from schools, attending events (especially if being conducted locally), etc… because schools are tracking those metrics and yes, do consider it demonstrated interest.
Follow-up for anyone who might know, then – do schools that claim not to track demonstrated interest not care about these metrics? ‘Cause some of them appear to still be using Technolutions’ tracked links.
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Even if individual students’ level of interest is not tracked through this sort of thing, colleges may still want to know about these metrics to determine the effectiveness of their marketing emails.
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Yes some schools that don’t use demonstrated interest in the admissions decision still measure the results/success/engagement of their marketing efforts.
Also, a college that does not use level of applicant’s interest to make the admissions decision may still use it to estimate a yield probability for the applicant if admitted.
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Which would be done after the decision to admit, and used as a basis for determining how many more people to admit, right? Because if it was done before making the decision, that sounds like it would still be a factor.
Yes, if applicants are initially grouped into tiers (based on initial admissions readings) with the top tier admitted first, then the next if there is still space, etc., the expected yield from each previous tier will determine how much remaining space there is for additional tiers of applicants to be admitted.
But it means that your level of interest affects other applicants’ chance of admission, rather than your chance of admission.
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We just made a slate account - 3 of the universities that we am waiting to hear from are not listed - what does this mean??
