<p>My son liked the letter he recently got from University of Chicago - it said something along the lines of "you are not your scores" and that some years from now when you look back over your life accomplishments, no one will care what your scores were .... HOWEVER we are writing to you now because your scores were good. It made him laugh. He ended up researching the school and is going to go visit it, so I'd say the letter worked.</p>
<p>For my daughter, the initial draw was good viewbooks. A bad viewbook gave her a bad impression of the school. Too much "stuff" without much focus turned her off, as did pictures of students dressed in clothing that was outdated (she figured the pictures were not of current students). She liked the pieces sent by Rice, Duke, Tufts, Oxford at Emory, Rhodes, Davidson, Grinnell, Carlton, Wash U, Kenyon. As she began looking beyond mailings, she really enjoyed the wonderful first-year journals at Furman & Centre. After applying, some schools made a tremendous effort to keep her interested. She LOVED the Hendrix mailings --- very current, very informative. Hendrix also sent letters from alumni & staff, and made phone calls. Other schools that did a great job of keeping in touch through letters & mailing pieces were DePauw, Furman, Centre. Initial personal contact from Oxford at Emory was so impressive that she almost applied just because of it! I can't overemphasize the value of a personal touch, as well as the importance of KEEPING in touch after the student has applied --- and particularly after a rolling or EA acceptance.</p>
<p>Son just received a mini brochure in the mail from St. John's College with their entire reading list for all four years. He's not interested in it but I sure am! I may try and make my way through that list. The brochure itself is printed like a mini book - very impressive!</p>
<p>Both of my kids HATE those "canned" student pictures. Is there a law somewhere that says every college viewbook and brochure has to include at least one picture of a group of inanely smiling students sitting on the grass under a tree that's ablaze with autumn color? The one piece of marketing material that caught my daughter's eye out of the hundreds she received was a booklet from Goucher College that had absolutely nothing in it but pictures of REAL students, their backpacks, and their shoes. Cut out the smiling under the tree pictures (on the websites too!) and show prospies some unstaged pictures and videos of actual students of all types. May scare a few parents to see some tatoos and piercings, but kids need to be able to visualize how/if they'll fit in.</p>
<p>But I agree with Cheers - one on one contact with faculty who don't treat a prospie like some dumb high school student is the ultimate dealmaker. In fact, one of the reasons my daughter picked her college was because two faculty members took the time not just to meet with her, and include her in their classes, but also to actually show her around their respective buildings and facilities and escort her to her next appointments across campus. Even more impressive, when she ended up in one of the prof's class as a freshman, he remembered her by name and specifically mentioned something they'd discussed during her visit over a year and a half before. He has become an amazing mentor to her since then. While every college talks about "caring faculty" this school actually demonstrated it in spades on my daughter's visits, and that did more than any brochure (frankly this school's brochures and website are only so-so) ever could.</p>
<p>The best marketing for my son was the tour at Champlain College when they paired him up with a student in a major he was interested in. It was just the three of us and the student was articulate and funny. It was one of the few tours where the student was not a humanities major. Afterwards my son sat in a video game design class and that sealed the deal. It's not where he ended up but it was the very first time he could see himself living on campus I think.</p>
<p>At the family weekend last fall I asked about 5 students from out of Virginia (son attends Roanoke College) what brought them there and they all said the postcard with the picture of the campus with the Blue Ridge mountains in the background. Not that that was all, but it was the first thing that made them interested in learning more.</p>
<p>UNC was really sweet to me. They called first to talk to me about my essay and the lady that called was extremely sweet.
For the Scholarship Interview, they put us at this amazing hotel and paid for our taxi cab from the hotel. And the money from the scholarship felt nice, too :) </p>
<p>BHP at UT had a dinner for like 7 admitted applicants at a local Mariott. The day I got accepted, the admissions people called to congratulate me and ask me if I had any questions.</p>
<p>Emory and UChicago have been really nice with processing my financial aid, which was really problematic. Emory accepted me earlier than most people.</p>
<p>I have not read the whole thread, so forgive me if I am repeating information.</p>
<ul>
<li>Websites (Should be efficient, organized, and nice looking. Student and admissions blogs are esp. helpful; MIT is an excellent example)</li>
<li>Handwritten notes/phone calls/someone actually signing the letters (We all like knowing that someone actually read our apps, even though that is fairly obvious. It is nice to be treated like more than a number.)</li>
<li>Travel Stipends/Scholarship Weekends</li>
<li>Scholarships</li>
</ul>
<p>The majority of view books look the same. They all have glossy pictures of smiling students and mention all the wonderful opportunities. I remember Barnard's as being extremely attractive, although I did not actually apply there. Course catalogs were much more interesting. </p>
<p>What doesn't work:
- Repetitive mailings (I don't need the same letter five times over or multiple letters every week)
- Mistakes in the letter (At least spell my name correctly and know what grade I'm in; i.e. don't send a letter about senior year stuff to a sophomore)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I remember Barnard's as being extremely attractive, although I did not actually apply there.
[/quote]
LOL, my daughter did apply there (and goes there) and I have no recollection whatsoever of the Barnard viewbook. [But that was last year -- maybe they have a new, nicer one this year?]</p>
<p>I think the one that my d. spent the most time with is Chicago's -- which is unique because it actually focuses most of the space on detailing info about their academic offerings. So I guess I would have to vote for that one as being the most informative.</p>
<p>I remember I received a book from Chicago entitled "A Day in the Life". Brilliant, thoughtful, deep, in fact everything I expected from a college. Pity I ended up not applying though (Future Engineering Grad :))</p>
<p>Yale's local alumni association held an information session during Thanksgiving break where they invited three current undergrads, home for break, to just share their experiences. It was two freshmen and one sophomore who had graduated from local high schools.</p>
<p>I was a HS senior and had already been accepted by a very competitive state school that was showering me with money -- basically, I was done with applying! I went to the Yale session just because my friend needed a ride there. </p>
<p>I was blown away by the raw enthusiasm of the three students as they related their college experience. With local kids talking about the college (I'm in the midwest), it made Yale less "distant".</p>
<p>I went home that night and pulled out the Yale app that had been sent to me unsolicited. Subsequently, I've had opportunities to sit on panels such as that and volunteer a few nights each year to do the college fair info sessions. I try to keep in my mind what I saw in that info session so many years ago.</p>
<p>Bottom line: one of the best selling tools are current undergrads (or even alumni) "telling it like it is" and not just trying to sell you. If the excitement is sincere, it's definitely conveyed.</p>
<p>Agree that personalized letters had a big impact, raising interest level and sense that S might be a real person who matters. Washington and Lee did this to perfection. Series of short, personal, and focused letters (no gushing, thank you!) over a two yr period, none repeating previous info. Few, and sometimes no, "glossies" - at most a small brochure on topic -- that did not repeat what the letter said. This style was consistent with personal connection made by real professor who gave admissions info session -- no visual aides, he held the audience of summer tourists spellbound. S can still quote from this session. Much later S had one hr, one on one interview with same prof -- who also invited parents in at the end. Later scholarship competition extended his sense of personal connection. Guess which school he picked?!</p>
<p>Total foil - Washington Univ - I wondered if I might become violent if we rec'd one more expensive, glossy, impersonal, improperly addressed promo from this institution.</p>
<p>Turn offs -- beloved alma mater for both H and I didn't get S's name right on correspondence, much less send anything personal -- this is a kid known to admissions his entire life -- plus scholarship form letter was long and flowery -- and about 4 months later than anyone else's.</p>
<p>The box of candy delivered on Valentine's Day with heart shaped candies with sayings like "We want you" and "U Belong Here" didn't hurt. Nor did the message from the Department Head saying "If you choose not to go here, please tell me why so we can improve our program to attract students like you." The jigsaw puzzle of a group photo of the student guides he met at the interview with an empty chair and the message "You belong here" was a little cheesy, but every little thing added up.</p>
<p>If the test of effectiveness is making the sale, then the winner in our house was: Washington Univ St. Louis. (Just goes to show that mailings can have a very different impact on different people.)</p>
<p>Anyway, the most useful was a thick book/magazine devoted to the College of Arts and Sciences and its special programs. The personal touch had real-life students talking about their chosen majors, or how they had arranged double majors to meet their individual needs, and it made a big impact on my son. It went into detail about travel opportunities and detailed several unique integrated majors. S1 actually brought up the materials in his interview, in response to a question about what made him interested in Washu, he said: "I read through all this material from a lot of other colleges, and I was, meh. Then I read about the Integrated Project in the Humanities in the viewbook and said, 'that's exactly what I'm looking for.'" It was a very good interview. </p>
<p>Follow up contacts from current students, parents, and a professor involved with the IPH as well as a good experience on the accepted student visit helped seal it. All the written communication from the school has been timely and helpful. They've always gotten the name right and it's not that easy to spell, so we're happy.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the all the experiences, this has become a nice healthy post... </p>
<p>Has anyone got any memorable or not so memorable experiences with "podcasts" or blogs on admissions sites? Have they been effective or not effective? Any specifics.</p>
<p>Thks</p>
<p>Lots of experience with blogs. Podcasts, not so much. </p>
<p>I think consensus is that basically, MIT leads the pack in its Admissions Blogs. They're staffed by a bunch of brilliant students and adcoms, and they allow you to gain a very accurate glimpse of life there. Besides they're absolutely hilarious to read at times and are just beyond compare.</p>
<p>Any other school's blogs pale in comparison...</p>
<p>So yes, they've been very effective. Ask any MIT applicant what caused him to fall in love with the school, and 'the blogs' would be fairly high on the list.</p>
<p>Ditto on disliking repetitive mailings- the 15 or more each from Arizona State and Case Western over many months of senior year made us feel they must be desperate for students of his caliber. After the first half dozen it was, here's another ----, add it to the pile. Schools should realize that if there's no request for further information the student has no interest.</p>
<p>MIT is my favorite college website. Human side to the highly technical/competitive.</p>
<p>I just picked up a postcard from the kitchen counter (trying to clear it off!!!) that I really like.</p>
<p>It's from Rochester Institute of Technology. </p>
<p>It says on the back:
"Donald...It's time to start packing." (Donald = a fake name, it has the kid's real name on there and information on signing up.)</p>
<p>And on the front it shows a car heading down a highway. It has a window sticker on it with my son's high school, a vanity plate with his name, and the highway sign says "RIT 24.1 mi from Rochester NY" (with our real town listed there).</p>
<p>It is really cute.</p>
<p>The design firm Pentagram (<a href="http://www.pentagram.com/en/offices.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.pentagram.com/en/offices.htm</a>) designed the websites for both MIT and Swarthmore. </p>
<p>Both are effective because a great deal of thought went into making sure that the concept and design of the websites communicate core qualities that define the schools.</p>
<p>For example, Swarthmore's site is designed to be extremely content heavy, serving as a magazine or blog of feature stories on the activities of students, alumni, and faculty. So, if you visit the site regularly, you can't help but get a sense of what the school is all about. Here's a feature story from the website, on the evolution of the school's website.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/x3689.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www.swarthmore.edu/x3689.xml</a></p>
<p>Thanks so much for the feedback folks - I'm glad the site is working well for you. If there's anything you think we could improve, just let me know and I'll try to make it happen.</p>
<p>By the way, Pentagram helped with the design of mit.edu's homepage - but mitadmissions.org is a different site and was designed 100% in-house. ;-) So we have the flexibility to change it / add to it at will.</p>
<p>Since any marketing office worth its salt would recognize this as marketing, I'll include the most powerful sell I ever saw:</p>
<p>When I was in second grade or thereabouts, PBS aired a segment on MIT's robotics competition where student-designed robots go head-to-head on simple tasks like a tug-of-war or scooping up ping-pong balls. I still remember the designs that won. Shots of the competitors were interspersed with film of MIT's fantastic concert choir.</p>
<p>Well, that was it. Other schools could just take the ball and go home as far as I was concerned. MIT was the be all and end all for me for the next decade.</p>