Thought I’d revive this thread to mention that in the past month my daughter has gotten a couple of emails from Colby (one of her RD applications) inviting her to apply to certain scholarships by filling out a form with some short answer essays. I assume this is yet another attempt by Colby (the game player of all game players) to figure out which RD applicants are most likely to yield. So incredibly annoying for the applicants.
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I am honestly not sure why it’s annoying. I felt the opposite: they are considering her and they want more context for her application. They have invited her to apply to scholarships. If they weren’t interested, why would they bother doing that?
If she does view it as an annoyance, perhaps that’s a sign that Colby isn’t the place for her.
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There is no reason they couldn’t ask these questions at the time of application.
And to be clear, I find it an annoyance; I don’t purport to be channeling my daughter’s feelings. But for what it’s worth, I hope she decides Colby is not the place for her.
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Presumably they believe she might meet the criteria for scholarship eligibility. I.e., they felt her application was merit aid-worthy and need more info to decide. Or, you might be right that they are simply gauging interest by making students do more busy work. But if that was the case, it would be very unethical (or worse?) to dangle a cash carrot with no real possibility of actually getting the carrot. If all they wanted was to gauge interest, I expect they wouldn’t mention scholarships at all, but rather, a generalized “we’d like to get to know you better so please write more.” It isn’t unusual for a scholarship to require some writing.
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Those scholarships at Colby are matched to professor research, iirc, so it’s not just “if we like your essay answers, we’ll give you $.” It’s a good thing to be asked!
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My first thought reading your post is that Colby is recruiting her!
In the book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” Robert Cialdini writes about 6 principles and one of them is “Commitment & Consistency”. He says once we’ve taken even a small stance we feel a natural tug to align future actions with that choice. In the book (showing it’s age I guess) he writes General Mills or P&G run contests asking customers to submit a sentence answering “Why I like [Product X] in 25 words or less…” These days you see similar promotions such as “Share the joy! Tell us what Dunkin’ coffee means to your morning routine in 25 words or less. Use #[CampaignTag] to enter.”
Since it’s almost time for decisions to be released if Colby is doing this to gauge interest they sure waited until the last second. It would have been a stronger signal if they had requested essays at the same time as other schools so they could see how she chose to spend her time and energy.
On the other hand, if they’re using it as a tool to influence an applicant they want to enroll the timing would be perfect. Not only would they be employing one of Cialdini’s principles but they’re doing it at a time when it’s most likely to be effective – just before the RD decisions start rolling in. I know years ago UCLA used to do this; my mom was on a local UCLA alumni scholarship committee. The admissions office gave them a list of top applicants they would then invite 6-8 weeks before decisions came out to apply for Alumni scholarships. Back then the invitation was effectively a “likely” letter.
But of course I’m just speculating why Colby is doing this. I hope you post whether or not she gets into Colby and whether she ended up applying to the scholarships.
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I guess I assumed that these requests are going to everyone.
I think she plans to fill out the form because she feels like anything optional is in fact mandatory. Anyway, I’ll let you know what happens!
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If they are going to everyone, I see your point. But, if they are going to a subset they particularly want and seem good fits for the scholarships, then it is a whole other thing and an actual positive sign your kid is being asked. Fingers crossed it is the latter (even if you hope she chooses not to go there).
No, this isn’t requested of everyone. The essay requests only go out to a subset of students, and they are for a particular scholarship. I know one wow kid who had one and did something that was quite exciting to him and had funding for it.
From Colby ‘s website:
Colby’s Presidential Scholars Program offers a group of the top students in each incoming class access to a cohort-based opportunity to engage with Colby’s centers, institutes, and labs, which provide expansive learning opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom. Presidential scholars also receive access to a pool of grants to design their own projects, and funding for music lessons.
There’s also another one, again with funding, called Pulver.
So be proud of your kid for standing out and being invited.
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Thanks for this context. I just want to note that it is sad that the cynical games colleges often play by hyping up students make people think it’s a scam when their kid is invited to something actually special. The lack of trust in school marketing and outreach is so real.
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The glass half full counterpoint with this particular Colby situation is that it’s impressive that a highly selective college is making an effort to determine if they want to give money to a top student who they are considering admitting.
I think we are missing something here, and it’s pretty simple. Kids have to understand that they won’t get everything they want in life. They will try, they will fail, but eventually the majority eventually succeed in getting jobs, having experieinces, finding a partner, bidding on a house, or whatever it might be.
I get it that disappointment and frustration can be compounded by having to do extra things for applications, especially when there’s no acceptance letter at the end, but that is life. I personally don’t see most of what’s being discussed here as scammy. It’s really important for parents to help manage expectations.
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When current parents were applying to colleges and jobs, getting admitted or hired was less competitive, with less likelihood of extra surprise essays or additional rounds of interviews. So parents managing or setting expectations based on their own experiences may underestimate the competitiveness and work needed to get in.
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We can all tell our kids, “even if you do all this stuff, you might not get in/get the girl or boy/get the job/get the house.”
Managing expectatations. We can all do that. Doesn’t matter that our experience was different.
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I’ll admit that I don’t understand the point you’re making here. Yes, we should prepare our kids for the unexpected ups and downs of life. That seems to be different than a college saying “Here’s an unexpected essay because we don’t think you’re really interested in us.” Colleges, jobs, etc. are all certainly able to do that. We’d be annoyed with this happening in the rest of our lives. We see it with employers that ghost job applicants or throw a last minute interview in, etc. It’s not right there (it is their RIGHT to do it, but it’s not RIGHT to do it), so I don’t see how it’s right to do it for college admissions. We’d call out the employers that do this in the same way for this “bad behavior”. I don’t see the issue with calling out the colleges that do this also. It doesn’t mean you won’t apply, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t go if you get in. But it’s bad behavior that should be recognized so that others may know what to expect in the future.
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I agree with this part of your post.
Since I am the one who mentioned things that feel like a scam, I want to clarify. First, my annoyance at the normal extra essays for admission (rather than for a scholarship) after the application was already submitted, has nothing to do with whether the kid will get in or not. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, my kid had one school with six extra essays for admissions that were due with her application. Plenty of other schools with one or two. I have zero issue with her having to put in all that work for some schools that are even likely to reject her. The frustration has zero to do with “extra things” it had everything to do with disrespect for their time, which I will not rehash since I covered it previously. My view on scholarship essays after the app is not the same.
On the scammy point, I was not meaning to suggest that extra essays are inherently scammy feeling. But, when we have colleges that before applications are heavily recruiting kids to apply who they know have almost zero chance of admission in order to boost their rejection rate. And, we have colleges that are waiving fees for everyone and no supplementals to apply so that they can boost their application numbers, often primarily in an effort to boost their rankings, and then “surprise,” they ask everyone to do an “optional” essay after the fact that students feel are not truly optional if they want to go to that school, that bait and switch when the kid has already planned out their post application time with other commitments, feels scammy to me. It is done to serve the college’s interest and not the students, otherwise they would have been upfront about it like the schools who ask everyone to do supplemental essays before they apply.
But, expectations of admission or rejection is a wholly separate issue, and has nothing to do with what makes me irate me about this practice.
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Oh yes. Not northeastern and I don’t remember which but one music application had a long supplements essay that I think was due 48 hours later mid-school week. I want to say Oberlin but not sure I am remembering correctly. And no hint that is was coming and it wasn’t optional.
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Adding to this list from last year.
Santa Clara University. After applying SCU sent an email about a 300 word supplemental essay in the application portal. Only a few days to submit it (Nov 1 was Early Action deadline, supplemental essay due Nov 6th). Kiddo annoyed for sure. They make a point of stating it is optional, but as we all know they never mean that.
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Stevens Inst. of Tech has an essay in the portal this year (fall of 27 entrance) it is the same one that is in their common app last year.. No due date is listed..
It is technically optional.
There is also, in portal scholarship essay for kids who have done FIRST robotics.
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