Re: recruiters calling “in the middle of dinner.” There is only a slim slice of time when a recruiter can hope to catch the student at home, plus take into consideration time zone differences etc. If calls will be made they have to be made after school hours and after things like team practices etc. Colleges are battling it out for prize students, so its likely the phone call approach will continue.
University of Kentucky stalked my older son (HS class of '11) really badly via snail mail. The whole family would laugh about the mail every time it came. I believe it continued even after he started school somewhere else in the fall. University of Advancing Technology also sent him mail all through his freshman year and I think even beyond.
I looked through every comment in this thread and was amazed not to see Baylor mentioned… My son received so much mail on such a consistent basis from them that it became kind of creepy… He even received what appeared to be a handwritten and signed birthday card on his actual birthday! He never expressed an interest in the school, never applied, but boy was he on their mailing list for a good 9 months.
He also received endless emails from Tulane. He did end up applying since it was a free application (I know, bad move!), got accepted, and then was bullied from November-decision day to commit to Tulane. It left such a horrible taste in my mouth.
Interesting how we react to things. D was accepted EA to Tulane and they do send a lot of emails, and regular mail as well. Invites to online chats, invites to an honors weekend, all that. It doesn’t bother her (or me) in the least. I certainly wouldn’t consider it bullying. Maybe the difference is that she is actually interested in attending Tulane.
I wouldn’t say my son wasn’t at all interested in Tulane, at least in the beginning… He did consider it for a while. What turned us off was the volume of emails and the tone, especially closer to decision day, when he hadn’t yet committed to the university.
Being a few years our of the cycle for my S (who is happily at Macalester), UChicago was the worst with mailing, sending T-shirt, towels, newsletters. I actually would call it Teasing, not stalking. He did not get in, but we knew he probably wouldn’t – but it was misleading of the school to send students so much stuff. Not to mention a waste of materials and energy. Kenyon sent things, but only funny postcards. Macalester also sent some printed items. I don’t think these materials made a difference in the decision – it was the community and academics at the school itself that won over my S. As I look forward to my D’s process, I will definitely not trust the stalkers’ intent. I agree that it’s done by many schools to boost applications.
VANDERBILT They flooded my son with mail, for at least two years. Got a very long letter, encouraging him to apply for merit scholarships, based on his outstanding record. Rejected him for ED. Very disappointing to watch kids being set up for rejection, in order to make a school look more exclusive.
Our guidance counselor told us they often send mail to “high income zip codes” …because they will need/not qualify for merit aid. This entire process just gets more confusing.
As a parent that went thur this years ago, I would like to add, I was told, “it’s because one gets on a mailing list.”
After son was accepted, enrolled, all the college material ends… Mailing list come the way of Sat 2, things kids ask for, give mail to , testing, all sort of ways… So if you think it’s staking, it really isn’t. They know their markets at that time and that’s what they are targeting. Admission is a numbers game, a money game, a ranking game. There is a lot that goes on than just accepting and recruiting students.
Washington and Lee. Everyday a new e mail came telling my son how much time he had before the deadline and how he was the type of student they wanted. They acted as if they were legitimately pursuing him. He had never contacted the college. However he had considered it but because it is insanely expensive and it is in a rural area it had not made the short list right out of the box. After daily e mails we began to question that decision. So you guessed it; he applied on the very last day possible. Then he contacted an alumnist in our area with whom he could interview since we had no time to visit the campus. When the admissions response came, he had been waitlisted despite having the scores and grades which fell within the acceptable range for admission. I, his mom, was ticked after the relentless flooding of e mails that we’d received. It felt like we’d been played. He ended up feeling lousy about a college to which he was not even originally going to apply. I’m sure he gained some valuable interview experience from interviewing with the alumnist, but other than that, it felt unethical especially in light of their low acceptance rate. I could have saved that application fee for a better use! Then all you hear about this particular school is how much partying goes on. So much for their students being the “smartie” ones.
I thought email would at least drop off but many colleges sending emails with desperate titles and saying they’ve extended their deadline JUST for your. Sure so they can reject at least a few more kids go get their acceptance rate lowered?
@2ndbase W&L was emailing your son constantly and didn’t even give him an application fee waiver? Dang. I’m glad you shared your story though! It stinks that it had to happen at you and your son’s expense, but hopefully it can show students that those emails don’t always guarantee interest.
Colleges are still bugging me now, saying that their deadline hasn’t passed yet or that their deadline is extended. I keep crossing my fingers that once February 1-15 is gone, colleges will stop. It almost makes me wonder if they’ll be bugging me until I’m enrolled!
This topic is a hot one for me. I’m not going to name names in terms of the schools (I see them all here) but I just can’t believe the volume of expensively-printed materials we get from some of these schools, both from ones we’ve never contacted or reciprocated and ones that we did express intent to (meaning, we are already applying so do you really need to keep sending this much stuff?). I know it’s all about selling the school and closing the sale but, seriously, maybe if they would just print and mail less their tuition might be more affordable for the people they’re trying to attract. I find it incredibly wasteful and sort of insulting when I think about how much they charge per year and then we get all these 4-color mailings on heavy glossy stock with all sorts of foldouts, etc.
Again, I think many of these schools have forgotten their purpose and mission: to educate, and to better society through research.
These marketing tactics aimed at getting masses of kids to apply are indeed expensive. It’s not just the glossy brochures and mailings. There are highly paid teams of marketing people employed to develop and implement these campaigns.
Back in “my day”, this sort of thing just didn’t exist. Schools earned their reputation and “rankings” the old fashioned way - they EARNED it.
Well, obviously it’s here to stay. But I don’t have to respect these schools and their marketing campaigns fall far short of impressing me.
Washington College and Mt. Holyoke were my stalker schools when I was looking and applying in 2011/2012.
I visited both, but applied to neither.
University of Dayton spammed me for a period, but when I didn’t even apply they stopped
Hood College, however, has become a stalker school since I turned them down two years ago. They continue to send me mail in the hopes of getting me to switch schools (not happening since I’m slightly a head of schedule and all graduate next year).
As soon as I saw the title of this article, I thought of Columbia. My daughter is a great student but probably borderline for an Ivy League school. She got inundated with emails from Columbia praising her and encouraging her to apply. She had no intention of applying, but being from the Northeast, we thought, why not. Let’s see what happens. So she applied and was summarily rejected. I wrote the admissions counselor, chiding them for all the emails, that by quantity alone, implied that they had a great interest in her. I also requested a refund of the admissions fee. I got a pompous response stating that being such a selective school, there are many students that don’t get accepted. No refund, either. I guess they are still considered Ivy League, but in my eyes, dirtbags.
My daughter’s biggest stalkers have been WUSTL (Washington University in St. Louis) and Champlain College. She is very interested in Champlain, but they have really been relentless with their e-mails reminding her to apply. Except that she is still a junior in high school.
The especially annoying thing about WUSTL is that right around Christmas I got a notice from the post office that I had a package waiting that was postage due. After waiting in a long line behind people mailing holiday packages I learned that the postage due item was an oversized mailing from WUSTL. I told the postal clerk that they could return it, as I was not paying for it because I did not request it.
And WUSTL has been in the habit of playing stalker for ages. My stepdaughter graduated nearly 17 years ago, and they were her stalker school. They sent probably fifteen times as much junk mail as the next-closest candidate.
When I was applying to schools, I remember getting continued mailings from this one school that constantly got my name wrong. My name is Beth, yet they addressed everything to Elizabeth. I have never ever been called or would have filled information in under Elizabeth, since…surprise! Not my name. It annoyed me so much I tossed every single thing.