<p>Chicago does a tremendous amount of marketing, and it’s great marketing. I have no idea why it doesn’t make an impact at hyeonjlee’s kid’s school, but honestly it makes me think a lot less of hyeonjlee’s kid’s school to hear that. (I have decent awareness of famous high schools, and I had no idea that there was some high-ranked one in NJ, so I guess the ignorance runs both ways.) Chicago is not a popular application at my kids’ public high school, either, although it usually gets 3-4 applications from top students. But it gets comparatively more applications from several of the other top public schools in the area, and at one of the best private schools for the past decade it has been the second or third most popular destination for graduates (the most popular being Penn, by a mile).</p>
<p>My daughter barely knew anything about Chicago other than that a fair number of kids from her old school went there every year and her old teachers told her to check it out, until she started paying attention to its marketing materials. They were the ONLY college marketing materials she thought had a decent ratio of substance to b.s., and that didn’t insult her intelligence on a regular basis. Chicago went from being part of the pack to being a high choice solely on the basis of its letters, post cards, and viewbook.</p>
<p>One reason I admire Chicago’s marketing is because it doesn’t just solicit applications. It tries to solicit applications from people who might actually like the college.</p>