<p>It is the middle of November and this week we've received 3 letters from schools encouraging my son to apply and telling parents not to be afraid of their high price tags. What are colleges thinking? </p>
<p>I could understand seeing a letter like this from a university that my son visited but didn't apply to, or from a school that has difficulty attracting enough students. But while not ivy, these are quite competitive schools--and 2 of them, he has never expressed interest in or had any contact with. We are less than 2 weeks away from our high school's deadline for regular college applications. Why are colleges sending recruiting letters so late in the application season?</p>
<p>anything to get their application numbers up, perhaps??</p>
<p>Probably for kids who are considering them, but uncertain about their chances, and so the colleges want to give them some encouragement to actually put on the stamps and send it in.</p>
<p>Schools will have all sorts of demographic data on your son if he's taken standardized tests. If he got three of them, he probably fits in some categories (geographic, income, standardized test scores, et al.?) that these schools know yield them a high proportion of last-minute apps. as the result of such "we're need sensitive" letters.</p>
<p>Let's do some worst case scenario thinking.... your kid applied to his dream school EA; you are all now panicking that your list is top-heavy, so that in addition to being deferred or rejected by the EA school, he's still got to finish up 5-6 more apps for places he may not get into.</p>
<p>Sounds to me like a sound strategy for the school (if they've got the numbers that this works for them in the past) that sending these late-in-the-game letters can generate interest from kids who meet their specs, are in the ballpark for admission, who may not have thought about them up until now.</p>
<p>A couple of my kids friends ended up at their "after-thought" schools.... rejected by the top schools on the list; not enthused by their safety once they see who else from their HS is going there; happy to have a new place to visit in April which surprise, surprise, looks pretty tempting when seen with a fresh eye.</p>
<p>I think they are for my kid - hasn't started her essays, doesn't really have a school that she loves, decided not to bother visiting several schools she is contemplating applying to, doesn't want to ask anyone for a third recommendation letter ("the adcoms will be annoyed if they have to read more than two"). Apparently she is waiting for the College Admissions Fairy to get everything done.</p>
<p>Schools brag about selectivity. They need ^ numbers of applications so they can reject enough students so their selectivity numbers look impressive!</p>
<p>LIke drb said, for many kids this is not "late in the game". Heck, the stuff isn't even due for another month.</p>
<p>I think the bigger problem is schools like th OP's, that put in **their own **deadlines, as if there's not enough pressure on these kids to meet the school's deadlines. I thought schools were to serve the students? Guess not.</p>
<p>FWIW, my own D had 450 kids in her class and they did not have deadlines. It was between you and the teachers for recs, and guidance would do their part to help no matter what.</p>
<p>It is unfortunate that more and more colleges are being run in the style of commercial organizations, where returns from marketing is more cost effective than money spent in infrastructure. Colleges have discovered that marketing brings in returns.</p>
<p>MY view is that getting a student to attend a private school is like making a $200,000 sale. For the most part, you (or your child) are a marketing target and 'Admissions' is the marketing force. Think a little like this and it helps you understand their point of view. </p>
<p>In many ways it is just an upper middle class version of selling timeshares. AND just like timeshares you can get great value and enjoyment from your timeshare.... but you are trading work for space. </p>
<p>Just random thoughts, always great to get minis viewpoint.</p>
<p>Oh, it was an incomplete, poorly written comment. What I meant in my comparision is that for a timeshare you are trading your 'labor' for space at the beach. At University we are trading our 'labor' for an education (or degree) for our offspring. </p>
<p>(btw apologies to the economists out there for my simple comparisions!)</p>
<p>I guess the attitude on the College and University side that I resent to some degree is the aura that they are doing you a favor by 'letting' you child attend 'their' university. I think it is occasionally helpful to think in simple terms that in many respects an education (at least in the sense of Universities and degrees) is a commodity, we are the consumers and the Colleges are the sellers.... I just wish they would act that way!</p>
<p>In the meantime I will play the game like everyone else!</p>
<p>I am really puzzled about the amount of money some schools spend on bread-on-the-waters marketing. I understand why Chicago keeps sending my son stuff -- he visited there, has registered, plans to apply. I understand why Wash U sends stuff -- statistically and demographically, he's right in its wheelhouse (or it in his), and how could they know he isn't interested? -- and it seems to have given up, appropriately, after not getting any response to the first five mailings. But USC? USC has spent a minimum of $20 going after a kid where there is no particular fit at all besides test scores that might put him in the running for merit money. Even then, it's conceivable that he might apply to USC (not in this universe, maybe, but in some not-too-different alternate universe).</p>
<p>Yesterday's mail included a big darn package from . . . SUNY Stony Brook. For the life of me, I can't imagine what kind of yield Stony Brook expects from expensive mailings to out-of-state kids with very high test scores. We got a glossy viewbook from SUNY Buffalo a few months ago, too. Texas Tech has been a pretty big mailer, too, although nothing like these packages. I don't want to think that people are just throwing public-institution money away, but it sure looks like it.</p>
<p>Dont know what I find about this subject worthy of posting...but it is thanksgiving week!</p>
<p>I do agree with you on the marketing. First USC is a private school, so I guess they can spend the tuition (and donation) money how they want.</p>
<p>They public institutions must compete with the privates , so an arms race, I guess.</p>
<p>However, I would think, there would be better ways to market, such as on myspace pages, and chat rooms.....emails, text messages.. cryptic posters in the bathrooms. I would like to think that the marketing (I mean admissions) groups at these school know what they are doing ...but maybe not</p>
<p>first off, when the Application Fairy is done with other kids, please send her along to my DD. We are in the same boat. Not finished with a list, hard to get her to visit schools, madly in love with Fordham but needs to see others, and start fixing up the essay send the darn things in to the colleges.</p>
<p>At our house DH went online to Peterson's Guide and put his own name with her info. So although she is getting viewbooks, it's nothing compared to the pounds of them DH gets every day, plus the phone calls and "personal" letters.
The only thing worse was for a joke, we assume, someone put his name into a Win a Trip contest that was a way to get names of pregnant mothers.
Although he obviously was not pregnant the mail comes constantly, and it gets updated as the non-existant child ages. First baby pics, toddler stuff, gymboree etc on through summer camps. sigh.</p>