Found MANY annoying stalkers even AFTER my D sent emails saying “I will NOT be applying, but thank you.” Greatest frustration is when the deadlines for applications/scholarships passed and then the emails read “We have extended the deadline for you…we can’t wait to hear from you!” When THAT extended deadline passed 2 schools had adcoms CALL. At one point my D wanted to apply just to get them to stop, but we held on tight and rode out those bumpy weeks without applying.
Does Transylvania U count?
The bottom of every email has a link to take yourself off the mailing list. Writing them you won’t apply is a waste of time.
University of Denver. Their persistence did make us slightly curious - curious enough to do a little research - but not enough for D to apply.
Schools engage in broad-based marketing campaigns for many reasons. They are, after all, businesses and act accordingly. Most large businesses market far beyond to just those who are likely–or even able–to spend money on the goods and services the business provides. Whether it’s to increase brand awareness, appeal to a more broad-based demographic, stimulate donations or other indirect benefits, there are sound business objectives that support the conduct of these activities by the schools. Unless they follow your kids around and hand them unsolicited mail in their driveway at night, it’s hardly stalking. Annoyingly persistent in many cases, yes, but isn’t it the parents’, the counselors’ and the kids’ job to know historical admission standards and whether or not a student should be applying to a Wash U or a U of C? Are students and their families really being victimized and duped into recklessly writing $75 application checks based on having received informational and marketing materials? If so, the shame finger many of you are wagging at the schools is aimed in the wrong direction. Obviously, if a school is actively making misrepresentations, that is another matter entirely. Since it is so prevalent, isn’t this flood of email and paper something that a college counselor should be informing–and counseling–her students about while they are juniors in high school?
That same college counselor probably advises her students to apply to one or two “stretch” schools as part of their overall application strategy. Why shouldn’t the highly selective schools compete for those stretch applications by marketing themselves? A kid with a 28 ACT was recently accepted by Wash U, where the average admittee’s ACT is something like a 33-34. Yes, it’s exceedingly rare but what are you saying folks–that Wash U shouldn’t have marketed itself to him and thousands of other longshot students like him in the laudable pursuit of hoping a couple of great kids would rock their world with their applications and warrant the exception? It’s up to the student to do the due diligence and determine whether applying to a particular school is worth the risk.
I do agree with @foursite to some extent. After all, our “precious darlings” really should be savvy enough at this point to have some sense of where they fall on the spectrum for many of these schools. If they aren’t, they can do some investigation. There’s more information out there than ever before.
That said, these boards are just full of kids asking about their chances…and they clearly have very little chance at some of these schools…so maybe their hope is exceeding their common sense. And maybe this is the fault of some of these schools who are over-marketing themselves.
Of course these schools are “businesses”, but they purport to be businesses with the missions of educating mostly young adults and improving the community and world in which they exist through research. Therefore, it strikes me as a little bit mercenary when they target an overly broad audience of, basically, children.
Sometimes it seems as if these colleges and universities exist more to perpetuate their own existence than to fulfill their most important missions: research and education.
That said, @foursite is absolutely right that this is our world now. Mass marketing is here to stay, even from “businesses” that should know better. If nothing else, it’s probably a good, early lesson for kids to learn how to ferret out what is genuine and what is nothing but pure marketing. However, I don’t have to admire any school or “business” employing such tactics when it comes to kids.
" A kid with a 28 ACT was recently accepted by Wash U, where the average admittee’s ACT is something like a 33-34. Yes, it’s exceedingly rare but what are you saying folks–that Wash U shouldn’t have marketed itself to him and thousands of other longshot students like him in the laudable pursuit of hoping a couple of great kids would rock their world with their applications and warrant the exception?"
Just curious, what was the hook of the student with the 28 ACT?
Some of these annoying stalker schools sometimes offer me benefits such as no application essay, fee waived, and automatically consideration for scholarship. At first I thought if it’s worth to apply, but when I look at the statistics from these schools, with no doubt I turn away from applying. Anyways, I heard from about at least 10 annoying stalker schools and I applied to none of them.
There is a “wish not receive any more emails” or “unsubscribe from this school” at the bottom of these irking emails. So I wouldn’t say that schools are still continuing to stalk when you can just click those options to be unsubscribe.
I’m about to place a hex on Liberty (lol). After I told someone that my S was not applying and to not call anymore, they have come up with a new trick – robo calls that sound like someone is trying to sell me life insurance. :-w
The purpose of this thread isn’t to disparage colleges that market to students … even to those students who may not seem to fall within that school’s admit range. Instead, it’s to question the value (and ethics) of colleges that send an absurd number of communications (sometimes several per week) to students who continue to show no interest. It makes it hard for these kids to ferret out the “real” mail from the colleges they’re actually considering.
And this inbox overload seems even more offensive when it’s coming from colleges that turn away the lion’s share of their applicants. Sure, I don’t mind if, say, Yale and Columbia write to my son once or twice to try to get on his radar screen if they’re not there already. But, beyond that, a barrage of correspondence after he’s never responded seems inappropriate, and it’s not the same thing as casting a broad net to look for the exceptional world-rockers.
As a parent to B student athletes, living in Illinois, we got tons of mail and email from the following: SIU-C (the most), St. Louis U, Biola (us too), Columbia College in Chicago, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio U, Grand Valley State, and a bunch of tiny schools like Anderson University, and others I can’t remember.
We had visited SIU-C, and asked for information from Ohio U, but none of the others. Some of the pamphlets were really impressive. Our kids aren’t going to any of these schools, but we still get the emails and mailings.
Hi Sally, I just joined College Confidential since my sophomore got his first-ever PSAT scores. Love the phrase “stalker schools”… unfortunately, my son’s high school strongly encouraged students to plug in the College Board “access” code… that was just 2 1/2 WEEKS ago & my kid has to-date received 40+ emails (with the snail mail starting to arrive too). Ugh! It is a big distraction - not a great way to start this daunting process. I look forward to following your posts.
I realize that this is not the purpose of this thread, but I have been fascinated by the huge difference in mail that my S got versus my D. My S (HS graduate 2012) did not take PSAT or honors courses and his ACT was just good enough to get into the state flagship school. He got mail from our state colleges and a few private colleges within his specialty area (art). My D is a NMSF and has been sent emails and snail mails from colleges and universities all over the country ever since taking the PSAT. As an academic myself at a state flagship university, I have no idea how these schools can afford to send out all these elaborate mailings–some of which are essentially a paperback book. I keep thinking of all the scholarships they could fund with the money they have wasted on trying to recruit her! I guess I am way to practical…
Back to the thread, schools that she really did not consider that kept sending information and emails included Reed College, St. Olaf College, George Mason University, Oberlin College, University of Tulsa, Beloit College, McAlester College, Iowa State, Arizona State, Case Western, and Kenyon College.
@CoMoMom - Your D is a NMSF? Have you been on the national merit threads lately? A few people have gotten rejections so far and everybody else is waiting nervously. I would like to extend the invitation to join the nervous NMSF community, and hopefully your D will make it.
American. There was some mail, and then after I visited BAM! I have no clue how they managed it, but there was reliably a piece of mail from them every day for a month in my mailbox, urging me to apply ED. Washington College was another offender, along with Champlain and Siena College. Siena even started sending me emails like “Am I reaching you, butterfreesnd?” and “I need to hear from you today, butterfreesnd.”
OTOH, my state flagship was very quiet, and my top choice (Stanford) I think sent me a grand total of two pieces of mail over two years.
@albert69 Yes, my D is a NMSF. I have been reading the national merit threads pretty much daily… It is a stressful time for sure with NM finalist notifications as well as merit scholarship semi- or finalist notifications coming out between mid-Jan and mid-Feb…
Does it make sense for a junior to send ACT scores to target colleges when the student has strong ACT scores? I am thinking it helps show an “expression of interest” but I guess it might also trigger the spam that everyone is talking about?? Also, what triggers the avalanche of college spam? I’ve heard PSAT scores are the primary offender but is it SAT registration/scores?
DD got very few emails or snail mail - because she didn’t check the box on her PSAT. She was a NMF, got into (and is attending) UChicago. BTW, they did send her an enormous amount of mail, but she had expressed an interest. I suspect they would have sent her the mail anyway, but we didn’t find it to be unusual because she was actually interested.
DS (currently a sophomore in HS) did check the box on his PSAT, and like clockwork, the emails and snail mails started appearing the first week in January. So far, nothing from UChicago, but plenty from Columbia and Olin. However, he enjoys the attention and is (hopefully) realistic about his chances of (not) getting in. It’ll be interesting to see if this excitement fades as he keeps getting stuff.
I completely agree with the OP - once a kid has ignored the first 2 emails, stop sending them!
Maybe Columbia is using a third-party mailer & it took time to get unsubscribed.