<p>Thanks for clarifying, Sam Lee. I didn’t really get that you were intimating something negative (which invasion and others may have).</p>
<p>In terms of those potentially copying UChicago’s approach, I think such copying would be really difficult to do. Again, UChicago has a great, pretty singular product, and a lot of events have transpired that has raised its status and stature. Other schools simply can’t copy that. In thinking through the matter more, I think it’s about more than just heavily funding the admissions office. The structure of the college (e.g. how many moving parts and different schools? how harmonized are the schools?) and the cohesiveness of the admissions office matters a lot to make this all pan out. UChicago may have one of the more sophisticated shops out there for this, and that’s not easy to replicate. </p>
<p>Oh, a relatively recent interview with Morton Schapiro indicates that he may move the school in the direction of more marketing, btw:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/schapiro-northwestern-now-a-first-choice-to-many/2011/04/13/AFSXTacD_blog.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/schapiro-northwestern-now-a-first-choice-to-many/2011/04/13/AFSXTacD_blog.html</a></p>
<p>With the relevant quote:</p>
<p>“I think we’ve been a little more aggressive moving past the modesty of Midwestern values to market ourselves,” he said.</p>
<p>Also, I may be mistaken, but at the start of Henry Bienen’s time as NU President, I thought he focused more on marketing and admissions, at least vis a vis peer schools at the time.</p>