<p>DS just received a letter from Colorado School of Mines offering him the chance to apply - no fee, no essay, 21 day admissions decision, priority housing/scholarship consideration. The letter indicated that the information they had on DS came from the College Board.</p>
<p>Obviously it's a marketing ploy, but DH says it implies some level of "desperation" on the part of the school. I have heard thru a friend that her daughter has gotten several of these "offers" - but I don't recall the specific schools.</p>
<p>Any thoughts? DS is not interested in the school, but just curious............</p>
<p>Because as far as I could tell in HS - most people choose colleges based on ease rather than actual fit. I know several people who didn’t even apply to their ‘dream’ or preferred school on the basis of essays and other application hangups.</p>
<p>I agree with woody. I’ll add that maybe it’s their way of trying to pull in some “reach” students, i.e., send some easy apps to kids who might not normally think of ColSchool of Mines, (say a student who would be in the 80th or higher percentile), and maybe they’ll reel in a big fish they wouldn’t normally get a shot at.</p>
<p>so it’s a gimmick - to increase ranking or pulling in good students that to-date have displayed no interest…but not necessarily due to any sense of desperation on the school’s part.</p>
<p>A college that sends out these letters to highly qualified applicants that normally wouldn’t even think of applying to that school is tanking their matriculation rate. That won’t help with rankings, because they still have to admit just as many people (if not more) just to fill their freshman class, and the fewer people that matriculate the worse it looks for the college.</p>
<p>I think that the colleges send out these letters hoping that if they send out enough of them that at least a handful of very bright students will accept based on ease and that hopefully these students can raise the college’s reputation a bit.</p>
<p>It’s a good school - but he’s just not interested…mainly because it’s not in the geographic area he wants and doesn’t have the program he wants.</p>
<p>Both of these bolster factors used in the USN&WR rankings. Increased applications combined with a relatively fixed number of spots results in a lower acceptance rate. And any top students that these colleges do snag could increase average HS rank and standardized test scores which also help ranking.</p>