<p>I’m with applicannot - there are so many schools and so many are not on student’s radars that colleges use these tools to gain the interest of student’s who would otherwise not know about their schools and to hopefully draw these students in. Also, they likely do this to bolster their own rankings if they draw in high performing URMs. And the ploy is a good one - I’m sure many students who had never thought twice about a school gained more interest by attending so for every one student who has no interest prior and still has no interest afterwards, there are plenty who do get interested but they won’t know that if they don’t visit.</p>
<p>In many ways it is similar to the timeshare give-aways they offer if you sit through the time-share demo. How many countless people head into those sales pitches only with the intention of getting the free stay, free meal, what have you? Plenty - timeshare salespeople know this but they also know with the right pitch they can hook in many a buyer.</p>