Reed, Wash.U, Case Western, U.Chicago. We finally caved in and applied to Case Western. Incredibly persistent. There seems to be a huge difference between colleges in terms of how sophisticated they are at using modern e-business tools. I guess it should not surprise anyone that these 4 schools are climbing up the ratings each year in leaps and bounds
@electronblue @voiceofreason66 Monmouth always tried to lure me in with that same tactic. I was interested in them a long time ago, well before I started the application process. However, even when I stopped showing any interest in them, they STILL sent me those weird letters. Monmouth is a private school that has mostly NJ students, so it’s rather weak academically. It would definitely have been a third safety.
Some other notable offenders are University of Pittsburgh and Caldwell University. I was about to apply to Pitt but had a last-second change of heart and decided to apply to Fordham instead. Even after I told them to cancel my application, they continued to send me emails and snail mail urging me to apply. It was very annoying, to say the least. Caldwell is another obscure school in my home state that just wouldn’t let up. Often times, I would look in my mailbox thinking that I heard back from a school that I liked, but it would just be another one of their stupid postcards. I don’t know why they even bothered.
Seton Hall and Pace also used to leave me voicemails. Seton Hall especially annoyed me, because the only voicemails they’d leave were ones begging me to attend their open house. No thanks!
Oh, I forgot University of Denver has sent my D emails and snail mail since freshman year. Have all kinds of beautiful brochures and books that I just hate to throw out because I feel like they paid so much money for them and some of them are really nice, even a couple personalized (Rutgers). Finally threw out a lot over the holidays, especially if they were nowhere on the radar. High Point sends a lot of things in the mail as well as email. D got a CD of the chorus/orchestra over the holidays, CD of the President speaking, a calendar with famous quotes, and two or three books on different topics. They must spend a fortune on advertising if they send all of that stuff to every student.
Georgia Southern University! It’s a great school and I really enjoyed my visit there in May (not because I’m considering it, but because I was helping to move my cousin back home for the summer) but it’s just not the school for me. I think the problem is that it’s one of those schools that everybody in South Georgia goes to and they are a little too aware of that.
I caved in to Fordham because I had an application fee waiver and I didn’t have to write any extra essays, so it was basically a “Why the heck not?” decision
Liberty has been awful with phone calls, emails & glossy brochures even after I supposedly removed us from everything.
Case Western was actually nice sending me so many emails. I decided to add it as a safety since it was a free application fee. U of C and Wash U did the same, and I was borderline in applying and I probably might have applied to both if I didn’t get in my top choice early. It took me a while to get some persistent religious schools like Texas Christian University to stop emailing-- same with some state schools like North Carolina or Indiana or random ones like Southwestern that I had NO interest in ever applying.
Chicago and WashU immediately come to mind when I think of “stalker schools”. Honestly, it’s a bit ridiculous. The former likely only does it to boost their admissions selectivity (the acceptance rate was around 40% not too long ago, as much as the Maroons would like to believe otherwise). And the latter? Well, I’m not really sure what WashU is up to, seeing as they waitlist basically all applicants who haven’t demonstrated enough interest, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with yield.
There are other offenders out there, but these two are the worst. Yuck!
I had never even heard of WashU until July of this past summer, when they sent me an invitation to their fly-in with an offer to pay for airfare! That got my attention. I went on the visit and ended up loving the school beyond belief. I sent in my application by the end of September and was admitted first week of December (surprise, I was a regular decision candidate but they liked me a lot I guess.) I had never gotten an email or letter or single brochure from them until I got the invitation to their fly-in weekend… strange.
As an African-American I get above average amounts of college emails because of how colleges love their URMs or whatever. It’s horrifying how many colleges spam me and other people I know. By far, the biggest stalkers were Clarkson, RPI, Swarthmore, Fordham, and Tulane. Clarkson had downright creepy email headers like “, we haven’t forgotten about you" and ", why aren’t we reaching you?” Swarthmore might have emailed me every single day in the fall telling me that I could apply with a fee waiver and only had to write one short essay. Fordham and Tulane spammed hard looking for an EA application from me but neither received one. For me, I know that I appreciated hearing from colleges that I was considering applying to and had indicated interest, but was never even slightly swayed by a school not on my list.
A buddy of mine got a bunch of crazy e-mails from Macalester College. I mean really clowny stuff like “Peel Open the Orange that is Your World” :
http://i. imgur. com/db0wn4N.png
At first he thought it was some sort of parody or a joke college in the middle of no-where he’d never want to go to. And while he might have been right about the “middle of no-where portion” (no hate to my wonderful Minnesotan friends :p), the more he researched about Macalester the more he was attracted to this whacky, eccentric liberal arts college. It’s one of his top picks now and he had never thought he’d be applying to the “College Most Obsessed with Squirrels” in the Nation (look it up, it actually is).
Since sophomore year, I’ve kept track of all the college mail I’ve received, and in total, I’ve received over 2500 emails and a box full of postcards and letters. The colleges that email me the most are small local colleges that contact everyone at my school, but I also occasionally get oddball schools that are 3000 miles away that I could never attend. I also get mail from schools like UChicago, NYU, UCLA, and Vanderbilt that I know I have little to no chance of getting accepted to. Overall, the worst offenders for me have been Washington College, Albright College, Arcadia University, Washington College, SUNY Maritime College, Cabrini College, and Temple University. The deluge is getting even worse now that their application deadlines are coming up, and I’m getting passive-aggressive subject lines asking why I haven’t applied, which make me even less willing to apply. I really want to just unsubscribe from all these college emails, but I’m curious to see how high my college inbox will go.
I was using my dad’s email account when I took the PSAT, so that’s the email most colleges got. So, the emails mostly went to that email, and since I got my own email shortly thereafter and my dad doesn’t really use his that much, I mainly ignored them, though I noticed that crazy college emails came. I would read through some of them for entertainment purposes. One of my favorites was some little LAC’s email that read something like, “XXX College has one of the nation’s strongest liberal arts programs. We see you have selected Aerospace Engineering as your major. XXX College’s broad and emphasized program in liberal arts can help you achieve this goal. Our diverse environment … blah blah blah and so forth.” It was SO obviously a form letter - they would say the same thing whether a student put down journalism or zoology!
U Chicago and Rose Hulman (which had some truly awful snail mail marketing pieces) were the stand-outs amongst the heavy mailers.
Kunkka, the only unsolicited marketing material that had an impact in our household was from Macalester, including that ‘orange’ piece- D2 liked their materials, and ended up applying. Unfortunately for our budget, despite the walloping merit aid they offered she chose a different school…
Stepay, I think Vassar is the ‘anti-stalker’ school: though we have several file drawers full of (unsolicited) mail from colleges, none of my lot have ever gotten mail from Vassar that wasn’t directly related to some contact from us (for example, we got a mail shot when we confirmed a visit on admitted students day).
U Chicago, Washington University in Saint Louis, and Tulane.
@CJMac02 I’ve gotten a lot of emails from them, also! They now all show up in my spam folder.
I also used to receive emails from Muskingum University. What on earth? They wouldn’t even put their location on their emails; I had go to Google it myself. They’re not even known for anything, I don’t even know why they bothered to contact me. They’re the second-most unknown college to ever contact me…the winner of that battle would have to be Tusculum College in Tennessee.
Oh, my goodness, Rose-Hulman’s mail was horrid! Why would they think that sending brochures upon brochures of a giant nose-man would make anyone want to apply? It sent me screaming in the other direction… 
I have been getting a ridiculous amount of emails from William and Mary and I have shown no interest whatsoever in that school. I’ve also gotten a lot of mail from UVA and I hate that school, and I haven’t shown any interest in it.
Tulane has sent me more than 50 emails, and at least a dozen mailings.
Honestly, for me its Ivys (IM LOOKING AT YOU HARVARD), really obscure schools that seem to have no application deadline (Hostra, Duquense, Loyola, Wooster, etc.), and state schools, for me being Texas, so UT and Tech and A&M.
Purdue and Tulane stalk me a bit as well, and I almost caved to Purdue
I don’t understand why UChicago is stalking me, I am a hardcore engineering prospect. Why would I go to a university that does not have an engineering department. They send me emails about people that got in and study literature. To be honest poetry and prose just creep me out I am positive I will hate the environment there. On top of that I live in India and they send me actual snail mail every 2 months, how much would that cost! I mostly laugh at the mails while my mother rolls her eyes at me for being unappreciative. 