<p>Got a letter today expressing profuse thanks for my son's decision to apply to Oberlin from the Oberlin College Parents Council. It included a list of dozens of parents and students to contact to answer questions and to serve as a resource.</p>
<p>Does everyone get this letter? Or is it some kind of indicator about first cut? Sending it out to all apllicants would cost thousands of dollars...is it a sign? :)</p>
<p>Thought?</p>
<p>I don't know if it is a sign of anything, but we got one today, too. Let's hope it is a positive sign, but I have my doubts.</p>
<p>My daughter got the letter, too, and maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I took it as a positive sign. I can't imagine a college would try to "sell" itself to kids it isn't likely to accept. She also had gotten a letter from the department she's likely to take courses in. BTW: We have a son at oberlin, and he just loves the school. Is lobbying his sister very heavily to join him there.</p>
<p>Yea - I take it optimistically too - with 20,000 or so applicants I figure it would have cost about $8000 to send it to everyone. (They weren't sent out bulk mail). Yes - Oberlin's a great school. Cross fingers!</p>
<p>Like dadx3, I have my doubts too.</p>
<p>First of all, a record year for Oberlin College would be anything more than 5552 applications, which is what they got last year. 20,000 would have the admissions office running for cover. I would bet it is more like 5700, maybe 6000 at the very most.</p>
<p>Next, as a parent of someone in the Conservatory, I have never even heard of this Parent's Council and there is no mention of it that I can find on the Oberlin web site. It is possible that it is a College-only thing, but my guess is that it is something cooked up by the College admissions office to help them increase yield. An increase in yield means that they would take few if any off the waiting list this year and would let them lower the acceptance rate in future years. The combination of record numbers of applications, lower acceptance rate and high yield is exactly what looks good to the folks at US News and World Report who come up with the annual rankings of colleges.</p>
<p>Oberlin, currently number 22 among LAC's, has been slipping a little in the rankings recently. I think they are trying to crack the top 20 again and one extra mailing to 6000 or so applicants would be a small price to pay if they can make that happen. If you don't believe USNWR rankings are important to the administration at Oberlin, have a look at <a href="http://peacock.adm.oberlin.edu/ir.html%5B/url%5D">http://peacock.adm.oberlin.edu/ir.html</a> toward the bottom of the page. That "Gulp!" says a lot.</p>
<p>yes, bassdad, it no doubt is something designed to increase yield. but i think it would be rather disingenous of a school to try to "sell" itself to someone it subsequently rejects. i realize oberlin, like every college, is concerned about its ranking etc. but i think (hope) it's above giving kids false hope unnecessarily.</p>
<p>I know that we got a similar letter last spring and son was admitted. He is not a conservatory student. We got quite a bit of mail from them with contacts if we had any questions or wanted to talk to anyone - parents, students, department people. Since he was admitted I don't know if this is stuff that goes out to everyone or only the likelys.</p>
<p>Schools sell themselves all the time to kids they will subsequently reject. I've got a junior in high school who recently took the PSAT's and is now getting tons of mail from colleges, some of which would be extreme reaches or total impossibilities for him.</p>
<p>Also, I don't think a letter of the type described can really be assigned more than face value - another way for people who are still in the process to gain more information. I do not think it was intended to offer hope (false or otherwise) to anyone, just to let applicants know that they have not been forgotten and to keep them thinking about Oberlin. To me, it appears to be a matter of keeping up with other schools who employ similar marketing tactics.</p>
<p>So far, we are four for four with applicants who have received the letter. If that trend changes, then perhaps I will change my mind.</p>
<p>Agree -- we need to hear from are students who did NOT get this letter. anyone out there?</p>
<p>i will add that the oberlin letter was very different in tone from a letter my daughter received from another school, which focused on describing how the admissions process worked and encouraging her to stay in touch. we did not detect any optimistic message in that letter at all, though it wasn't discouraging either.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, my son withdrew his app after an ea acceptance at a different school and we still got the letter. I have to say however, that Oberlin is a class act in terms of how they have communicated with my son. He received a lovely note after he withdrew and it left him with a good feeling about Oberlin.</p>
<p>I got that letter, too.</p>
<p>My son got that letter last year and was accepted to the College and Con. He also got many more letters from other similar groups. One was from a history professor (whose wife I believe also teaches at Oberlin) extolling the school. </p>
<p>I think its a very good sign and think it's only sent to those they want to accept. It seems to be only from the college, not the Con.</p>
<p>My son got one of the letters, too, but I don't think it means anything. Just a way for Oberlin to keep reminding us of what a good and attentive school they are. I've been impressed with their efforts at keeping contact -- first an acknowledgement of application received, then a letter from the major department, an email from the admissions officer, and now this. But I can't imagine that they'll admit everyone to whom they've written. Hope I'm wrong!</p>
<p>I wonder if we all got the same list of parents. Some on our list are from across the country and one is our neighbor!</p>
<p>Agree -- we need to hear from are students who did NOT get this letter. anyone out there?</p>
<p>mchs- I applied ED this year and did not get the letter. So I guess that probably shows it really is about improving the yield-they wouldn't have bothered sending such a letter to me bc they knew if I got in, I would go. :)</p>
<p>yes, I did not recieve a letter. well, come to think of it, i may have...Oberlin mails to my dad's house, and I'm staying with my mom right now. But he usually would call me if anything came. what i DID get...is an entire coursebook in the mail. Anyone else get this?</p>
<p>We got it too. It doesn't sound like it's a positive sign. I also got a verification form for financial aid. They want tax returns etc. but after seeing our EFC, I think why bother? We also got the big course catalog.</p>
<p>well, I didn't get anything yet except the financial aid thing, tax returns, and something about the fearless packet... It could be the fact that I haven't sent them my SAT scores yet since I am waiting for the Jan. one tomorrow.</p>
<p>I haven't gotten anything, except the viewbook and other stuff about ten fays before I sent in my application. I haven't even gotten a confirmation. I'm an international student, though, so maybe things are different?</p>
<p>Oberlin got a record number of apps this year so I guess that they are still processing the international student applications.....</p>
<p>Honestly, it would be more Oberlin's style to send a letter to every applicant's family than to upset people. They have a good sense of community. Don't you think something like that might backfire the following year, if they leaked word of cuts and distinctions at this point in the admissions cycle through such a letter to some, not all?
Waiting is very hard, though.</p>