<p>My daughter has requested information from a variety of schools throughout the country. Some schools send elaborate and expensive booklets while others respond with a one or two page black and white brochure. Some just send a postcard for you to return asking for more information.</p>
<p>So far, I have not been able to identify any correlation between the nature of the school (e.g., size, prestige, high or low acceptance rate, public or private) and the size and cost of the materials. </p>
<p>What do you think the type of brochures a school sends to prospective students says about the school? Do you think the fancy materials have had an impact on your child's initial opinion of the school?</p>
<p>I think it depends most on how much money the school chooses to devote to recruiting/advertising/marketing/etc. For example, if the school doesn't NEED to recruit as much because they get a steady stream of applicants each year and they aren't looking to grow, they won't spend as much on recruitment material as a school that's trying to grow its student body.</p>
<p>I don't think you can really make a correlation. When my daughter's decision was done we hauled no less than seven large huffy bags of college brochures out of the house. </p>
<p>The items that impressed her and made her look twice were schools that sent clothing, CDs, music, gift books, etc. But she didn't end up applying to any of those schools...</p>
<p>It means it has a big, glossy brochure. That is it. There can be thousands of reasons why and how it got the big, glossy brochure. Our tiny elementary school now has a big glossy brochure because a parent who is in the business has sponsored one for us.</p>
<p>^^^^ Yeah, I'm not sure it says much, but one brochure that caught my son's attention was Pomona's. Unsolicited, the college sent him about a 20-page cardstock brochure that really intrigued him. He loved the profile of the kid studying environmental analysis (what my son wants to study), the idea of late-night "snack" (his needs are simple) and the school's small size.</p>
<p>I had heard of the school on here and was able to tell him I hear great things about it. He wants to meet with the admissions rep when he/she comes to his campus (Pomona visited last year; hope they come this year!).</p>
<p>I certainly don't. When I applied to colleges in the Dark Ages, most of my picks were from those schools that contacted me. My kids, however, seem to have ignored the brochures. We were so inundated with them that melded into the environment. This generation seems to be more into on line encounters, anyways. I think he did check out some student bulletin boards and sites on line. Facebook would be a great way for colleges to get a line to kids, in my opinion. The paper seems to be more for the parents.</p>
<p>Yale sent me a plain letter saying they were interested in me; Random College, USA sent me the biggest and most colorful brochure ever. I think this fits in with the idea that those colleges that already have attention won't do much, but the places that are trying to get students to notice them will do as much as they can (a reasonable strategy).</p>
<p>I've heard various parents say they approach the scads of mail different ways. When ds's mail started pouring in, I'd have him read it in the car on the way home from sports practice (I was driving, not him!) He'd tell me which ones were interesting, which weren't, etc. We agreed to just stick them in a big box after his initial glance and that he'd only request more info if something was truly compeling. There were fewer than a half-dozen of those.</p>
<p>I know it's cheaper and greener to send a one-page letter than a brochure, but unless you're going to say something different/funny/truly compelling then he disregarded it. "Dear XXXX, Your scholastic achievements are admirable. Congratulations! We think you belong here," just didn't cut it for him.</p>
<p>I have a friend who ignored the mail totally up until this point, threw it in a box and has set aside two days this summer for her and her son to look it all over, talk about what he's looking for in a school, how far away he wants to go, etc. Sounds like a good plan, too.</p>
<p>It reminds me of receiving annual reports from companies. Some are on a few sheets of cheap paper and some are expensive productions. As a shareholder, I prefer those on cheap paper. I think the annual reports for Berkshire Hathaway were pretty plain but they made for the best reading.</p>
<p>This is the most effective brochure I've ever gotten (and I recycled something like 35 pounds of mail from colleges this spring.) It hookwinked me into wanting to go to UofC. Thinking about it with some distance, I would probably have hated many things about UofC, but I was lost in the 'ah, an intellectual oasis' glow I got from that brochure.</p>
<p>There was one school, Southern Methodist, that kept sending my S info about their engineering program. He was applying for film production majors (and put that on his PSAT survey) and his math scores were only okay. I kept wondering why they would waste their money that way.</p>