<p>JHS,</p>
<p>perhaps the reason why my S1’s HS is not nationally well known: too small (only about 60+ kids) and pretty recent (10+ year history). It draws a very small group of kids from a very large and prosperous county (I used to joke that my husband and I are the only card carrying democrats) with a highly competitive academic scene. Hence the kids selected are naturally high achieving (just a law of statistics). I also noticed that guidance counselors there were rather passive and do not do active advising - since the students themselves and parents are so into it, they don’t seem to feel that they need to do active counseling - they seem happy to “aid” (as in “focus on the paper work”). Hence, if the kids are not forthcoming with the Chicago application, they are not going to talk about it and they will certainly NOT reach out to students who they think will be a terrific candidate for U Chicago.</p>
<p>I still stand by my sentiment that UChicago does poor marketing. My son was targeted by some schools as early as 7th grade when he scored 1430 on SAT verbal and Math as part of the John’s Hopkin’s gifted program identification. Since then, and especially after he took PSAT, we were inundated with marketing materials from all sorts of school: zero from UChicago!!! He finished his dealings with ETS with 2400 SAT on one and only real SAT he took. If my son is not a good target, I don’t who know else would be? Or, is U Chicago so haughty that they will not stoop so low as to do target marketing simply based on such inane and superficial numbers like SAT??? Is there some kind of national radar U Chicago uses to spot that candidate with the “life of a mind” mantra genetically coded into their brain?</p>
<p>If we did not do our own survey on a college version of “who’s who in the econ scene”, he would have NEVER even considered U Chicago: it was simply NOT on the radar around here in this large, very academically competitive and wealthy school district. On the other hand, if S1 did not get an EA from U chicago, he would have automatically applied to Cornell as a safety. In fact, many kids form son’s HS automatically apply to Cornell. A couple of years ago, something like 20 kids (out 60+ total in the graduating senior class) got accepted by Cornell though only a couple decided to attend - I don’t know this years stat - even though among the East Coast schools, Cornell is very far from NJ. Cornell is generally considered “poor man’s Ivy” (poor, not in term’s of $$$, but in terms of intellectual & competitive heft). Even Duke without the automatic Ivy recognition and far from NJ - there are many kids who applied from that HS and several attending. </p>
<p>So, what’s wrong with this picture? </p>
<p>Chicago’s lack of active marketing simply leaves WAY TOO MANY good students on the table. It’s one thing if they considered Uchicago and decided not to apply due to whatever reason. It’s totally another if they did not apply simply because it was not even on the radar. I believe they need some very active marketing simply to increase the “unaided brand awareness” even before more sophisticated target marketing practice takes place.</p>