<p>The latest article by Justin Pope on the college admissions frenzy puts the spotlight on the great subject of college brochures: "Mailboxes, inboxes burst with college brochures, prompting worries of overkill":</p>
<p>"The average, private, four-year college spends more than $2,000 on marketing and recruiting for each student it successfully enrolls, according to a survey by Noel-Levitz, a college recruiting advisory firm.</p>
<p>That doesn't include a much bigger category of spending that some critics say should also be included: The billions of dollars colleges have devoted to merit-based tuition discounts that lure bright students and improve schools' rankings...</p>
<p>Getting information to students is not all bad by any means, said Don Hossler, a professor of education at Indiana University. But, he said, the question that's increasingly getting kicked around in various circles is, 'Is there a point at which it becomes excessive, in terms of these dollars coming from some place?'</p>
<p>The marketing explosion also reflects an important truth sometimes lost amid talk of the increasingly frenetic competition for admission to highly selective elite colleges: Students are in demand. The average acceptance rate for colleges nationally is 70 percent, and there is room for nearly everyone. For every college turning away most applicants, many more are simply trying to fill seats.</p>
<p>Things are about to get even better for students. Projections indicate the number of high school graduates will peak in about 2009, and decline for about seven years thereafter. That will mean more competition among colleges and almost certainly more marketing.</p>
<p>The problem some educators see is that the ramped-up recruiting of the last decade has fueled anxiety and commercialized what should be a more sacred process. Critics also say colleges are interested in drumming up applications just so they can turn down more students. That makes them look more selective, but it may do little to help students find a good match.</p>
<p>It has to do with the more students a college says 'no' to, the better they're perceived to be, said Lloyd Thacker, who has started a group called The Education Conservancy to try to reform the admissions process. All this stuff students get does more to confuse them than clarify.</p>
<p>Thacker is working to persuade a number of colleges to tone things down.</p>
<p>We embraced this whole marketing metaphor without the responsibility for what it is that we're selling and to whom we're selling it, he said. And it's not fair to expose students to all that bluster, he added.</p>
<p>Many colleges, meanwhile, insist sophisticated marketing is necessary, effective and actually good for students.</p>
<p>Barely half of students who enter a college earn a degree there within six years, notes Bill Royall, founder of the direct mail company that bears his name. Clearly, many could be making better choices. Learning about colleges otherwise off their radar screens improves the chances of finding the right place.</p>
<p>And many can't count on personal advice from high school guidance counselors, who may oversee 500 or more students.</p>
<p>There are way too many people who aren't going to college, who are intimidated by this incredibly complex process, Royall said. Most of these students are asking for more rather than less.</p>
<p>One school that exemplifies the change in how colleges communicate with prospective students is Immaculata University in Pennsylvania. A few years back, it was a Roman Catholic women's school bringing in fewer than 100 students per year. In the fall of 2005, it enrolled its first class that included men. And in recent years it has transformed how it recruits.</p>
<p>The process starts with the purchase of about 100,000 leads, or names of prospective students. Printed materials still play a big role, with about 10 mailings per year, including cards at Thanksgiving in Christmas.</p>
<p>But the college, near Philadelphia, is actually spending less on mail than it used to. With research showing students get most of their college information online, much of the effort has shifted to blast e-mails, coordinated by a company called TargetX. Admissions counselors give out their IM addresses, and current students publish blogs targeting future ones. Telecounselors call prospective students and parents at home to tell them they may be eligible for scholarships.</p>
<p>The school doesn't give up easily.</p>
<p>We don't let it go with just one, said Becky Bowlby, director of admissions for the college of undergraduate studies. If one pitch fails, the college will try a different approach. Bowlby says students and parents can easily end the contacts and don't hesitate to do so if they aren't interested. But it seems to be working. The entering classes are up over 300.</p>
<p>Pamela Kiecker, Royall & Company's head of research, says students are focused on three key questions: What does it take to get in? Can I study what I want? And, what will it cost? Getting that information to students requires hitting them with a range of electronic and print media. And it means reaching them early.</p>
<p>The company tells clients that contact with high school sophomores is particularly effective, especially for reaching two much-in-demand groups minorities and students with high standardized test scores. And Royall says it's good for students, too. Most sophomores don't even know what courses they need to get into selective colleges. The sooner they get that information, the better.</p>
<p>One Royall client, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has told the company not to solicit sophomores on the school's behalf, however. Admissions dean Marilee Jones, a prominent proponent of toning down the admissions frenzy, thinks that's too early.</p>
<p>Royall says that's fine for a highly selective school like MIT. But he resents any implication colleges are hounding students. If students don't bite on their pitches, the colleges back off. And the hope is that, with more effective targeting, students may get fewer pitches but more that are likely to interest them.</p>
<p>When the letters really pile up, some students do tune out.</p>
<p>Personally, I'm of the opinion it's a waste of resources, Lucia Oliva Hennelly, a senior at Santa Fe Preparatory School in New Mexico, said of the four or five pieces of mail she's been getting every day. Ultimately, they had no effect on her college list, which includes Stanford and several other selective schools.</p>
<p>No one I know really takes this stuff seriously, she said. I think it could be put to a better cause for scholarship money.</p>
<p>Still, she acknowledges the mail could help students who haven't received good college counseling.</p>
<p>Morales, the Las Cruces student, also said none of the material he got changed his top two choices: New Mexico State and Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, a school he found on his own using a search tool to identify colleges strong in science and Japanese.</p>
<p>Still, the advertising barrage forced him to at least investigate some other colleges. And it was a healthy reminder about impending deadlines.</p>
<p>I can be lazy and not want to look at anything, he said. All these letters coming in the mail forced me to consider my options. "</p>