<p>My son got one of those invitations to a conference sponsored by Duke, Harvard, Penn, Georgetown and Stanford. We went tonight to check it out. It was not very informative, but more rah, rah, rah, Go Ivy Leagues... if you apply here you'll see more palm trees kind of thing. Nothing new that you can't find on their web-sites or right here on CC. I guess what I'm getting at is that if they have a million applicants a year anyway, and they are so selective, why the promo ads?</p>
<p>Promo ads = more applicants = more people paying application fees = more money for the school.</p>
<p>Promo ads = more applicants = they can reject more people = lower acceptance rate = higher rankings.</p>
<p>Higher rankings = greater lay prestige and notoriety = more applicants = more people paying application fees = more money for the school…</p>
<p>…and so on. I think you get the point. (It really is a “vicious” cycle.)</p>
<p>yeah, kinda figured that but as a mom, still had high hopes that they invited him by choice. my son knew one of the other invitees, ranked 1st in his class. guess i just needed a reality check.</p>
<p>I don’t share collegiatedreams’ cynicism. All colleges do marketing and outreach – would Collegiatedreams say these schools *shouldn’t *host these events? Wouldn’t they then be castigated for only being the playgrounds of the prep schools and rich elites?</p>
<p>Darned if you do and darned if you don’t. Also, some schools (e.g. Yale) are scaling back their mailings so as to not unrealistically confuse students – b/c they know the odds are so slim.</p>
<p>Bust this myth too: ADMISSIONS RATE IS NOT A FACTOR in USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>jamminj: your family is subject to tons of mailers from colleges b/c your kid is performing at a high level – this is just part of that.</p>