Interesting when you start breaking it down. S20 (better academically from a metric viewpoint) received tons of mail from top schools and not much from schools below the USNWR top 50 or so. D17(current junior) is starting to receive equal volumes as S did a few yrs ago, but from a much lower (simply by rankings) level of school. So it must have something to do with test scores, passing AP exams, etc. As someone pointed out, he didn’t have a snowball chance in … getting in to some of those schools. Certainly qualified academically and could handle the work but not the 1500s SAT to get in 50% range.
Part of the marketing approach is to raise awareness and increase app count so they maintain their ridiculous admit percentages and therefore maintain their rankings. It’s a big game (or more appropriately put, a big business). They know these borderline students have virtually no chance but they want the app count high. Would be interesting to see admission stats solely on applicants with X metrics. They would still be quite competitive but those single digits would likely increase as I’m sure a large chunk of the gross applicant pool is nowhere near the stat pool of admitted students. Yes they decline lots of perfect scores but there must be way more 1450 applicants (because there are).
“Part of the marketing approach is to raise awareness and increase app count so they maintain their ridiculous admit percentages and therefore maintain their rankings.”
Which ranking system still uses admit percentages or number of applications in their calculation?
USNWR doesn’t include number of applications, admit percentages or yield, but since there are so many different rankings, maybe some others do?
Can’t point you to specific rankings (although I’ve seen some that include admission rate in their overall formula with varying percentages- I just don’t remember which ones).
More specifically, my point is:
School X receives 10k apps and admits 1k for 10% admisison rate. In reality, how many of the 9k had a real chance? Nobody knows with holistic approach but they have to immediately weed out a large %. let’s guess it’s 50% due to being lesser qualified. They marketed to many of these kids. They received apps increasing their headcount, but they were never serious admit candidates. So, in this scenario, you could make an argument that the real admit rate is more like 20% (of the real admissions discussion pool). The marketing they do certainly affects application #s.
Anecdotally, S received numerous large, full color, glossy brochures (very expensive) from HYP, Duke, Vandy, etc. No way he could get in to any of them demonstrated by he didn’t. Got in to several great schools (call it the next tier) but being unhooked with very good test scores (but not exceptional - mid 1400s) and great grades / ECs was not enough. They are looking for something special yet they get a ton of “bluechip” kids like my son to apply (top 10 in class, class president, sports captain, All everything in HS). They do have room for those, but very limited as htey are looking for something exceptional. D is getting stuff from lots of 40%+ admit schools.
While most of the popular rankings no longer use admit % or # of applicants in their calculations, these metrics can still have an impact on the “Expert Opinion” ratings (20% of the 2019 USNWR rankings). Those ratings are mainly a measure of academic reputation, so perceived selectivity can have an impact. I think this is why we continue to see the schools publicize their “most competitive class ever!” admissions results at the end of each cycle.
As an aside, while the volume was annoying, we did become aware of some schools that we were not previously familiar with as a result of their direct mailings. I think there can be some value there for those of us who were not as informed on the scores of schools out there at the beginning of our search before we spent so much time mining the treasure trove of CC information.
Definitely see what you’re saying. We too got mail from Vandy, and I think Georgia Tech. I’m guessing because geographically those are fairly close by. However, I am 100% sure daughter would not have gotten into either, not even close. There’s no way her grades, class ranking, or ACT would have even come close to cutting it, so they are definitely sending out to kids they know can’t get in.
Think of it as just marketing, like the mail you get trying to sell you credit cards or vacation packages.
Who knows why they mailed your kid? It could be due to scores. Maybe because of geographical diversity. Or it could be that you live in an affluent zipcode. Yep, they sell data parsed that way. See https://cbsearch.collegeboard.org/ and read what they say about the “Segment Analysis Search”.
Sometimes colleges are also looking for religious diversity… If your child lists their religion (esp anything other than Christian), s/he will likely get multiple mailings from colleges looking for kids with other beliefs to attend…
After a ton of mail with DD17 we advised DS to be an informed consumer. He didn’t fill out any information about classes, income, grades, classes, etc and he did not give permission to share his information. It is hard because they register for these things themselves and every time it makes it seem like it is required that they fill out the demographic information. DS has higher PSATs and SAT scores and has only received information from the schools he sent his free score reports to - no unsolicited mailings yet.
They charge for the tests, charge to send the scores, and gather/sell the information of minor children. Quite the business model.
After D17 got bombarded with tons of email which completely overwhelmed and annoyed her, I am definitely going to have D23 (zoiks, I can’t believe my baby is heading to HS next year!!) create a dedicated gmail address when the time comes so that the flood of marketing junk doesn’t wind up killing her inbox. D17 didn’t mind the snail mail so much because it was easier to ignore, and she did find out about a couple of schools she wouldn’t have considered otherwise.
Some schools are more aggressive than others.
I somehow got two things (small postcards) total from UChicago, and then dozens of emails from schools like Swarthmore (which are just the worst, most obnoxious emails in college marketing IMO), Xavier, Seton Hall, and LIU Post.
I got a few gorgeous mailers from schools like Duke and Vandy. Entire magazines from Dartmouth and Amherst. Quaint booklets from Princeton and Yale.
I didn’t apply to any of those. (Though I would have.)
Ironically, I got almost nothing from Rice, which is where I’m headed in the fall.
YMMV.
I think that all college mail slips through from alternative universes in which our kids showed interest in each of the different schools from which we get junk mail. There is simply no possible way that a single Earth could produce that much junk mail.
We changed our kid’s name (we’ve been using the new name at the school since freshman year, but she took her PSAT 10 with her old name), and we receive junk mail addressed to both names.
I hope that they’ll stop soon. We already have seen a major drop in the amount of junk mail that we receive. The more selective schools stopped in December. Yesterday we got only a single piece of college junk mail. Hopefully it won’t start again in the summer.
This continues to creep me out. Sometimes we get mail from schools recently searched on line. Is this co-incidence or is Big Brother watching our computer? Do they know which schools are on the Naviance list? Mailings drastically increased when DS registered for the SAT, which makes sense at least.
But today we got 2 issues of “Private colleges & universites” which looks like ads for colleges. Does anyone else know what I’m referring to. Published by “Carnegie Dartlet.” DS’s is 271 pages thick, and DD’s is 111 pages. How are people customizing mailings to my kids? His PSAT score was higher, does that explain all of this?
I’m probably overthinking it, but with twins anything that appears targeted, rather than random, stands out.
@OHMomof2 If it is targeted they don’t always do the best job. Both my kids got stuff from ivy league schools, neither of them had a chance of getting in. They did get a lot of mail from out of state schools that California students typically apply to and also from a lot of schools that would like to have California students attend and apply to add geographical diversity…
I think colleges, especially selective ones, just want more people to apply so they can deny them. I don’t know how many of these schools had a genuine interest in my kids.
