<p>^^ You never know when that might become necessary. I went to my first choice, while another school kept the file open. My father pulled funding as part of a divorce stunt between my freshman & sophomore year. The school I was attending wouldn’t work with me to get financing. A quick call to the other school and I was registered and set to go. This was two weeks before the beginning of the semester. The second school was not sub-par to the first in any way, it was just a different approach. I was very fortunate.</p>
<p>I actually like the personal touch. I was impressed Lafayette was able to integrate my son’s ECs into his acceptance letter and then encouraged him to see he could initiate those activities at Lafayette. At least I know one college actually read his application. (Thank you Vanderbilt. They wrote a personalized email to my son after one admissions guy wrote to say he enjoyed his essay.)</p>
<p>Sure, we got those phone calls. For awhile, they called every night, but I assumed that was because my son kept missing the calls. That’s what happens when he’s so busy with ECs!</p>
<p>What I DO NOt find worthwhile are those constant, unsolicited emails with “apply now!” or “your application is ready!” from no-name colleges this late in the process.</p>
<p>But, then again, I wondered why my son wasn’t getting emails from the college of his choice. Where’s the balance?
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<p>Of the two schools that did the most “wooing”, one was offering a full tuition scholarship and the other a nearly full tuition scholarship. So, it didn’t feel like a sales pitch as I don’t think the schools make much money on room/board and other expenses. </p>
<p>The contact that impressed my son the most was the call from a current student (and, in fact, that’s the school he chose.) On the parental side of things, ironically, the college that was my first choice did the poorer job of “wooing.” We recieved several invitations for parents of accepted students but we live 1500 miles from the campus. In addition to the invitations, more contact would have been nice. </p>
<p>In fact, while it was always my son’s choice to make, the job that college did really built up my enthusiam for his choice. There were also invitiations to the campus itself but in addition to that were hosted chat sessions, several letters from various people at the university, parents of current students and so on. I realize these letters were sent to a lot of people but they conveyed a real enthusiam for the school, its students and their families. We also recieved a letter from the the assistant director of admissions for our geographic region, which I really liked. It made me feel that we could be involved from a distance, as that is our only option. </p>
<p>I was also impressed with the effort made by our state flagship as it is a 50K+ students campus. We were invited to regional events, the admissions office was always prompt in replies to my son’s questions and offered to set up phone calls with current students and even faculty. The regional rep sent a personalize birthday postcard to our son, which we all thought was a nice touch (& inexpensive on their end. win-win.)</p>
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<p>I am as well. It can’t be an easy job because surely there is a wide variety of what accepted students and their family would find persuasive and there is only so much money to spend on the task.</p>
<p>I haven’t been irritated so much by communication from schools to which I’ve been admitted as I have been by communication from schools to which I didn’t apply (here’s looking at you, Hofstra). The biweekly “super-special” extensions they offer in the hopes of getting me to apply are extremely annoying.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, Harvard does relatively zero marketing during the month of April to actively persuade admitted students. It’s peer institutions, however, are quite assertive.</p>
<p>My D heard from most of her schools during this month. However, the two that seemed to bombard her with almost daily emails and lots of snail mail were University of Richmond and American University. Several emails and letters were addressed to the parents too. It was just too much and really a turn off. The other schools were more reasonable, a few things here and there, including an occasional call from a current student. Wash U, where D will attend, did not email her at all and just two letters came to the house. D was fine with that - they wrote when they had useful information to share and made her know she was on the radar but she did not feel harassed. The two schools that wouldn’t leave her alone really turned her off with their excessive marketing.</p>
<p>I made phone calls to accepted students for my alma mater last year – basically, alumni volunteers were handed a list of kids and asked to call them, ask if they had any questions and let them know about an accepted student day they could attend. I certainly didn’t feel like I was part of a marketing ploy. I did it because the school’s pretty big and I think it’s a nice gesture. I enjoy talking to teens and parents and thought it was important that they have someone they could call if they needed to ask a question. (I’d refer them on to someone who could answer they’re questions. My data points are a little outdated ;o)</p>
<p>love that info on Gettysburg. Nice touch to be gracious like that</p>
<p>It does feel a bit intrusive, especially if a school you are not considering at all calls up to check on you. Other than that, special attention from a school you plan to attend or are seriously considering does feel lovely. I haven’t received anything beyond emails/some letters, but they are nice to have if you are considering attending. Other than that, let the student decide.</p>
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<p>I suppose the implication is that we’re suckers to have fallen for such a cheesy and obvious tactic as a personalized admission letter. You’re entitled to see it that way. D (and we) saw it as a reflection of one of the school’s strengths – its small size and, yes, its interest in students as individuals. This was critically important to D; she had no interest in any school which could only have sent form letters. The letter confirmed to D that she’d made the right choice, and a year later, I can say that it’s an accurate reflection of the school.</p>
<p>The other item which made an impression on D was a letter from a recent grad, telling what she’d done with her degree, where she was working, and how she felt the school had impacted her life. The t-shirt didn’t hurt either. ;)</p>
<p>I was actually really surprised with how much attention Skidmore gave me! They awarded me one of their few merit-based scholarships, but invited me on campus and paid for my parents’ hotel room for a total of three nights (it was a seriously nice hotel/hotel room, too!). They paid for all of our meals, and one of the admissions officers came into work my last day just to meet me. Not to mention how many professors came out of their offices to meet me! When I received my official acceptance letter, there was a lengthy note from the Dean of Admissions (more like a letter, considering the fact that it covered a separate piece of paper entirely), and several students contacted me. I had to call admissions one day regarding a question I had, and after the admissions officer found out it was me calling, she spent a good half hour just…talking to me. It was really nice to get that much attention! The school gave me an amazing financial aid package, too, and graduating debt-free makes it seriously easy to be won over.</p>
<p>Several parents of Skidmore students also called my parents and I just to get to know us and find out if we had any questions. Someone might find this slightly intrusive, but it didn’t all happen at once, and was much more of a pleasant surprise than anything else! </p>
<p>What did bother me, however, was (and still is) the constant e-mails previously described by raychacha. It’s one thing to try to get me to apply to your school during the conventional application period, but when I keep getting offers of “extended priority applications,” all it does it make me hit the unsubscribe button, which doesn’t always get the job done! If I didn’t apply to the school in the beginning, why would I do it now, when I’m clearly about to or have already made a decision?</p>
<p>I’m a student - I didn’t find any of the post-acceptance attention I received to be too much; in fact, I have to say I enjoyed the attention, sales pitch or not 
Here are my feelings on individual schools: </p>
<p>I would say that Case Western, Johns Hopkins, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley were the best. Case Western really did a lot of well-done marketing, IMO, and Johns Hopkins did a lot as well. I was especially impressed with the efforts of UC Davis and UC Berkeley, considering how many students they admit. </p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon was perhaps a tad less than the other schools, but they did reach out, and when I contacted them, they were extremely helpful, and set me up with all sorts of people to contact. </p>
<p>As much as I love Smith, I have to say that they were really not up to par with my other schools in the post-admissions wooing. I received an email from an admissions officer saying she liked my essay in February, which was definitely a nice touch, but they really fell short after that - they did send emails, and one brochure, but nothing near what my other schools did. I can’t really say that would have changed my decision, but I really did notice the difference.</p>
<p>Having applied ED to my first choice, I wasn’t ever really a candidate for wooing. Carleton did have a current student call me sometime late in the spring to talk about the music department and ask if I had any questions, which I thought was nice, especially since I’d already committed to attending.</p>
<p>I really hated getting unsolicited phone calls from colleges the summer before my senior year. I’m probably “too nice” over the phone–I feel sorry for telemarketers so I usually let them finish their little speech before telling them I’m not interested as politely as I can–and having to tell a current student that I was not interested in applying to his/her school made me incredibly uncomfortable. To make matters worse, we didn’t have caller ID at the time and my mom refused to pretend that I wasn’t home. So awkward. I imagine it must be worse to have to talk to a representative of a school that accepted you when you’ve declined, unless you have a more understandable reason like financial aid discrepancies.</p>
<p>I love it. The more a college shows that they want me, the more than I want to go there. I appreciate the extra effort on behalf of the admissions office, and while I do know that they treat all admitted students this way, it makes me feel special nonetheless. 
Yeah, ultimately the college wants your money, but you’re going to be spending money on college regardless… so why not go somewhere that’s putting an effort into getting you to come there?</p>
<p>EDIT… I do agree though that all the personalized emails/free applications from schools that I’ve never heard of get to be tedious and a tad annoying. I’m still receiving mail telling me that “it’s not too late to apply” even though I’ve basically made a final decision as to where I’m going.</p>
<p>UVA called once and sent a few emails. I loved it.</p>
<p>Our D got calls from a few schools (including UVa twice) but the school that made the biggest impression was Brown. Brown “reserved” three cars on an Amtrak train for students travelling to the accepted student day. (The idea of reserving cars was absolutely inspired.) As D was waiting at the station, a Brown admissions officer appeared, along with some current students. As soon as D introduced herself, the admissions officer launched into a discussion of D’s high school, its admissions history, and D’s main extracurriculars. He did not know who would be taking the train, but he had done his homework. We were impressed.</p>
<p>Here’s an approach to wooing (and wowing) prospective students that I’ve never seen before! [The</a> Beacon - Colonel Coalition greets prospective students with surprise mob](<a href=“http://www.wilkesbeacon.com/news/colonel-coalition-greets-prospective-students-with-surprise-mob-1.2227348]The”>http://www.wilkesbeacon.com/news/colonel-coalition-greets-prospective-students-with-surprise-mob-1.2227348)</p>
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<p>Ugh. I agree wholeheartedly. Even from my favorite school I have received letters about the black community on campus and have received photographs full of black students. It’s definitely patronizing and I’m really sick of it. I don’t want to be a part of the black community. I want to be a part of the Stanford community.</p>
<p>I’m bummed. My kid got hardly anything! A personal note from two schools with admission, a couple newsletters… One school (that he won’t be attending) sent a metal bookmark with admission and a poster later. His top-choice school sent a letter about his top-choice department. Nobody called him or us or gave him candy or a shirt… Oddly, the most selective school he was accepted to has also been the most solicitous with useful emails and webinars to parents and children. And he is going to neither the one most in-contact nor the one that gave him the goodies.</p>
<p>Oh wait - he did get candy from a school that he never actually applied to (for that matter, had never shown any interest at all to) - Flagship U.</p>
<p>I think actually the emails and attention did make some difference to my son’s decision. He got a lot of emails, and a personal note on an admission letter or two. The school he ultimately decided on (Northeastern) sent him focused emails: letters from the department he had expressed interest in, and other areas he had been accepted to, and had a current student call him. But they also did something that no other school I know of did (and none of the others my son was accepted to). They had an accepted students dinner in our international city!! 2 admissions officers and the Dean of Student Affairs. They made a presentation, but also spoke to as many students and parents as wanted to speak with them.
It encouraged my son to write some letters to ask different questions, and he found people responsive and helpful. So it was certainly a marketing tool, but it was followed up with personal attention which we hope will continue!</p>