<p>A young woman I met recently told me about a highly selective university that had denied her this spring. She said that she had felt "courted" by admission officials and was thus shocked by her rejection. Based on letters and emails she'd received from the admission office, as well as a comment she claims was made by the rep from that college who visited her high school, she had expected good news in April.</p>
<p>When I heard this girl's "numbers" (SAT's, GPA, class rank), it didn't surprise me that she'd been turned down by the college in question. I saw this school as a "Reach" for her. But I added her story to a long list of other times that seniors in my orbit have felt that they got the bum's rush from a top-choice college.</p>
<p>Did this happen to any of YOU? In other words, did the attention that you (or your child) received from a particular admission office lead you to expect an affirmative decision that never came?</p>
<p>I definitely did. As a recruited athlete, I was actively recruited to two schools (one Ivy, one top LAC) besides the one I ended up choosing. I was only accepted to one of those schools. Thankfully, it all worked out, but I had both coaches from the other schools saying that I could have gotten in without their support, and their support would be an added bonus… I felt fairly blindsided by them, but, like I said, it worked out in the end for me and I got into my top choice school anyways</p>
<p>We were a little surprised, I guess, that ds was WL’d from a school that offered him (and he accepted) a paid trip for an overnight. He was accepted at the other schools that paid for a flight out and to which he applied.</p>
<p>After months/years on CC, I wasn’t delusional enough to believe that HYPSM or any of the top schools were locks/safeties or anything like that. It’s good to realize that fact and leave the rest up to luck. When April 1st came around, I was admitted to excellent schools and the rejections meant little because of the aforementioned acceptances and because I was psychologically prepared for it.</p>
<p>I think a fair number of naive young people believe that the form letters they receive from the top schools are not sent out by the thousands. Face it, when we were kids, some poor person would have had to hand type every single letter if our name and address was included at the top. Today it is much easier to get a personalized letter, and for the uninitiated it can be deceiving.</p>
<p>That’s why I said I guess we were surprised. We certainly didn’t think an offer to fly ds out was a guaranteed acceptance, but that’s a lot of money to spend on someone you decide you don’t really want that bad. But whatever. :)</p>
<p>I was not referring to you, Youdon’tsay. I was making a general statement. I have heard kids brag about being recruited for their academics when they have just recieved a form letter that 10,000 other kids received.</p>
<p>No prob. I was really harkening to an0maly’s response. I knew better than to let him get his hopes up. But thinking about it now, I wonder how many kids are invited to visit a school all expenses paid and then get rejected/WL’d. Seems like expensive marketing to me!</p>
<p>A paid trip overnight seems more elaborate than the form letters that they send out to everyone who takes the PSAT. I can understand why someone would be seduced by that. As for the form letters, it’s easier to see it as an advertisement. They’re not saying, “We are desperate to have you here!” they’re saying, “Give us 75 bucks for the privilege of filling out a 10 page application and writing three essays about the 8239st page of your best friend’s dentist’s autobiography”.</p>
<p>It’s like a guy proposing to you with a huge diamond ring, then saying, “Nah, I’m actually marrying your sister. You can have the ring though. Good luck!” Seems like a lot of effort, although I suppose it must make sense from the university’s perspective since the cost of the ticket is probably negligible to them in comparison to the size of their athletic department’s budget.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people look at letters and the like and then think they are being courted. Often I think this is just a matter of misunderstanding. Paid visits are an anomaly. I wouldn’t think that would lead to an acceptance given the language of these events (come explore our cmapus!), but I can see how and why they are so easily confused.</p>
<p>I’ve only heard of paid visits after acceptances. My friend was accepted at WashU St. Louis. He choose UofM over WashU, yet they still paid for him to come and visit the campus during the school year. Talk about desperate. ;)</p>
<p>I was “courted” after I applied rolling decision to a local state school. They admitted me four days after I applied (around Halloween) because my SAT was 300 points higher than the average at the honors college (and this was in the days of the old SAT!). They called me a couple of times and otherwise sent me great material encouraging me to go. They even let me defer my decision until I had heard back from other schools on non-rolling admissions. It was too bad for them that I ended up getting into 2 other schools in that regular decision period… I think the academics there would have gotten me where I needed to go, but socially I am glad I did not end up there – one of my close friends actually ended up transferring away from there because of all of the problems she encountered. In any case, I really only ended up applying to 4 schools (the safety and 3 RD reaches), I knew what I wanted and I didn’t need to be courted. In addition it was the year the old/new sat switch occured so many colleges I had planned to apply to weren’t accepting the old SAT and I wasn’t willing to take it again to apply to any of those places, so I think that also affected recruiting that year as well. Finally, my point is that the schools courting are doing so for a reason – you may make them look better, but you need to evaluate if a school that didn’t court you or a school that did will be the better fit for YOU.</p>
<p>You just have to separate ADVERTISING from admission, they are administered by different staff and they do not have any communication between them. Any thing offered by the school to those rising Srs’, however attractive, is just want you to apply. Once you applied, the acceptance comes in with different considerations. They DONOT relate to each other.</p>
<p>I guess that is one of the reason why Chicago can boast a 40+% increase in applications. And HPY can boast a reduction of at least 1% of their acceptance rate to around 7 or 8%.</p>
<p>You have to realize folks this is BIG BUSINESS. Forget your notions that universities are only interesting in education. The sending of fancy brochures, plane tickets to visit a campus, free t-shirts, etc. it’s just schools marketing like the big corporations. The cost is bundled into everything and it’s the reason they resort to these tactics to continue to feed the monster they’ve created. It’s a big part of the reason tuition is what it is these days. Things went from being about education to making money quite some time ago so you have large marketing departments separate from admissions. And like it or not, with the current economy these institutions are after “full pays” so admission chances will be down for some.</p>
<p>All expenses paid trips to colleges are no different than those to interview at a company located in another part of the country. I’ve been flown from coast to coast, and everywhere in-between, all expenses paid, air, hotel, limo, dinner at expensive restaurants, two-dozen times, for job interviews and half the time I didn’t get the job offer. I was obviously courted, but a free trip was no guarantee of the final prize. I never felt ripped off. In the end, they made a different decision. After all, it’s their money, so why complain?</p>
<p>This is the way of the world, or at least the United States of America. Why should colleges and universities be any different?</p>
<p>In our case, daughter was admitted to a school she’d had a 3 year “relationship” with, but given a horrible financial aid package. We’d specifically address her financial need with them for two years, and they’d been very reassuring that they would make it possible for the right kind of student. 30K in Parent PLUS loans on an EFC $0 is not quite “making it possible” to me. Looking back at the situation, they actually offered her <em>more</em> financial aid for their pre-college program than they did for her admitted student package.</p>
I was really harkening to an0maly’s response. I knew better than to let him get his hopes up. But thinking about it now, I wonder how many kids are invited to visit a school all expenses paid and then get rejected/WL’d. Seems like expensive marketing to me!</p>