Dave_Berry

"The glossy pamphlets flood in: 'Live, study, and work in both sleek high-rise towers and turn-of-the-century brownstones, reads the thick Boston University brochure." "Win a Hummer," says another.

Marketing of colleges adds to stress - Pasadena Star-News

nocousin

It is insidious and odious. Carnival barking for the top students, so they can all report to IPEDS and peer groups, to get the one Golden Calf they all desire: HIGHER RANKINGS. Of course their thirst and hunger for higher rankings is insatiable. Even if they attain the number one spot (Either National or LAC rankings), they still sneer at anyone below them on the ladder (with their minyans here adding fuel to the fire with obnoxious comments about being better than everyone else because they go to this or that school), and seek to make the gap between them and number two even larger. Its a false god.

Nothing wrong with presenting your best case in an effort to seek diversity of admissions, both geographically and socio-economically. But it also becomes an insidious game of luring unsuspecting innocent families into the game of "admissions lottery" where your chances of admission rival a state lottery, while they bloat their admissions revenues to pay for those glossy portfolios they send out, and improve their selectivity.....as if being in the realm of anything below 25% admissions rate is somehow a measure of "success and superiority" over their peer group schools.

Its entirely counter intuitive to the very mission they are supposed to be about. The hypocrisy of it all is odious.

I can say this much. I have seen a plethora of examples of kids with uber stats (1450 and up...some with perfect scores) and GPA's in the stratosphere....weighted averages above 5.0, and EC's coming out the wazzoo...attending schools that are not HYP or the uber elite LAC's. I have seen many, many fine students with very high stats attending second tier schools, and being happy as a lark, performing marvelously, being humble and caring and in service of others and not dripping in that elitist condescension we so often see at other places.

Who are the gravest offenders of these catalogues of spiffy marketing? I don't know. Some of the worst offenders are in fact lower tier schools desperately seeking bright students. Nothing wrong with trying to attract the best and brightest and share the wealth of knowledge. My sharply worded cynicism is reserved for those schools (and there are some prominent offenders) who use these tools to increase their selectivity when they have no earthly intention of admitting 90% of the kids whom they are soliciting by mail.

Let the tomato throwing begin.....

pseudovirus

there is definitely a pressure to go to a "top school". i've felt it for the past 4 years. and i'm not sure where the pressure is coming from, since i've been going to an average public school where most kids go to in state universities and get 18s on their ACTs, and my parents wish i would just stay home and go to community college. so where did i get this drive to get into a top school? internal desire, maybe? tv? movies? shiny, shiny college brochures? i have no idea.

wordygirljaye

"Which is better - to get a B in a hard course or an A in an easier one?"

"They told me to get an A in the hard one!" she says.

I HATE that answer, I've heard it so many times. Obviously, that's better--people want to know what's better if you can't get that. It's such an obnoxious answer.

jessiehl

High school students and their parents do this to themselves. College applications, even by strong students to top schools, do not have to be as stressful as so many people make them out to be.

gthopeful

I think you're silly for thinking there's a definitive answer between the two, hence the flippant response.

Complications

The amount of $$ spent by schools to increase applications is offensive, especially at a time when schools and parents are pressed for cash. And, the environmental waste is astonishing. Like many kids, my son gets at least 3 pieces of mail from the same college every week! And more than one college!!

And is it really such a big deal to increase your rankings that you will mail stuff to kids knowing that you aren't going to accept them?

My son did not look at one single piece of paper that has come to our house in the last 3 years. We started to save it but finally just started tossing it.

princessbell

Did anyone else think that was poorly written? I mean, I get the point, but...there are better articles to highlight.

mommusic

My son doesn't look at the mailings either (computer-generated letters beginning "Dear Firstname.") And neither of us is impressed by glossy brochures showing beautiful buildings, grassy commons or fall foliage, and students (one of each ethnic type) smiling at each other or gazing thoughtfully into the distance.

Well, maybe if they're playing frisbee...

momofthreeboys

It's interesting because neither of my older kids "like" the printed brochures. Both say "I have to visit. I have to see the place. See the students. Talk to people." I wonder how much would change if the colleges/unis just cut their budgets in half. Hah, I bet that day is coming sooner than we think.

pink001

Haha, pseudovirus, that's hilarious.

I'm in the same situation; people at my school just bubble in C straight down the line on the ACT, are fine when they receive their score of 17, and look at me like I have some sort of mutant brain when I tell them I got a 33. The celebrate D-'s, because then they "passed." I have no idea how I began feeling pressured to attend an Ivy league. It just happened. It's more media than pamphlets, though, because I've never received mail from a college that I'd actually consider attending. They're always weird ones I've never heard about in my life. I never get any from, like, MIT or Harvard.

Maybe it's from watching shows like Gilmore Girls. (I LOVE Gilmore Girls!)

otrebmu

[I've never received mail from a college that I'd actually consider attending. They're always weird ones I've never heard about in my life. I never get any from, like, MIT or Harvard.]
this. unless the school already has a name to begin with, sending junk mail doesn't improve its image

elinck

^ How are schools supposed to get on the radar for prospective students, then? Rely only on college guidebooks and hope for the best when it comes to internet searches? Sure, it can get tedious - but while there's certainly a subset that trashes anything that doesn't have a brand-name on it, there's another subset genuinely interested in looking at a broad range of schools, and mailings are an easy way to find potential fits to look deeper into. I got "junk-mail" from Deep Springs College, and while I thought I was pretty well versed in schools far and wide, I'd never heard of it, despite it's incredible academics and striking selectivity.

Smile614

pink001--

haha same in my school. Everyone aims to get a 20 because that's what it takes to get the the state university. If someone gets above a 30, people think they "wasted" too much time studying. If you have straight A's you're a genius and you MUST be going to an Ivy if you take more than 3 AP classes..

And when I was little whenever someone asked me what college I wanted to go to..I would always say Harvard because that was the only college I really knew about. After watching Gilmore Girls..it's Yale all the way!

mflevity

I don't think marketing has much to do with students' stress about the college application process. If you're smart enough to be applying to college, you are (or should be) smart enough to see through the glossy mailings.