The Marketing from some of these schools is nuts- and totally wasteful

[Anonymous]

My kid has been bombarded by stuff from High Point since he took the PSAT sophomore year. Every few weeks he's gotten glossy books, packaged in super expensive looking packaging. We made sure to opt out of their mailing list digitally and things stopped for a bit but have started back up. Today he got a PEN via FEdEx!!!! Nonsense. I am sure there are others here as well. Seems so wasteful all the magazines, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has been bombarded by stuff from High Point since he took the PSAT sophomore year. Every few weeks he's gotten glossy books, packaged in super expensive looking packaging. We made sure to opt out of their mailing list digitally and things stopped for a bit but have started back up. Today he got a PEN via FEdEx!!!! Nonsense. I am sure there are others here as well. Seems so wasteful all the magazines, etc.

You have to have the "do not share" button selected. The marketing is a huge waster.

[Anonymous]

I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Well pre-covid, when everyone had to take the SAT/ACT, UChicago and a few others were well known for marketing to anyone with at least a 1100 SAT. My own 1150/3.5UW/no AP kid got tons of material from them. No way in HELL would my kid have had a chance at admission. I knew that, my kid knew that, the guidance counselor knew that, and U Chicago knew that. They market to everyone. It would be different if they just sent their material to kids who scored 1400+ or 1500+. You know, the kids who actually fall within their 5-100%. But marketing strongly to kids who have absolutely no chance is wrong.

Huge difference between normal advertising and targeted college advertising---just like we don't target tobacco and liquor ads to kids/before 8/9pm on TV, we shouldn't be advertising colleges at kids who can't "have it" and yes a kid with a 1100 is NOT going to UChicago, that's ok, but no need to make some parent/kid (often first gen/not knowledgeable about the process) actually think their kid has a chance. It's false advertising and dangerous and not needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

You need to read "Who gets in and why" by Jeff Selingo. It's all about this type of marketing and he does a great job differentiating between the "buyers" and the "sellers" of college admissions. U Chicago knows exactly what it is doing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Well pre-covid, when everyone had to take the SAT/ACT, UChicago and a few others were well known for marketing to anyone with at least a 1100 SAT. My own 1150/3.5UW/no AP kid got tons of material from them. No way in HELL would my kid have had a chance at admission. I knew that, my kid knew that, the guidance counselor knew that, and U Chicago knew that. They market to everyone. It would be different if they just sent their material to kids who scored 1400+ or 1500+. You know, the kids who actually fall within their 5-100%. But marketing strongly to kids who have absolutely no chance is wrong.

Huge difference between normal advertising and targeted college advertising---just like we don't target tobacco and liquor ads to kids/before 8/9pm on TV, we shouldn't be advertising colleges at kids who can't "have it" and yes a kid with a 1100 is NOT going to UChicago, that's ok, but no need to make some parent/kid (often first gen/not knowledgeable about the process) actually think their kid has a chance. It's false advertising and dangerous and not needed.

The lists they buy don’t list the scores for each student. It’s just a batch of scores and names. They don’t know who scored where. They can’t buy any subset of list that they want. Think about it for a second. Do you think it would be OK if Chicago said I just wanna buy the list of the students who got 1590 or higher? Of course that would be unacceptable, right?

The fact is, they have absolutely no idea they wouldn’t except your kid until they see the application. Just like they can’t tell whether or not you can afford a Rolex or a BMW based on your zip code.

You, of course, know whether the kid has a chance or not. I respectfully suggest you save the indignation for some other transgression.. It’s neither warranted nor worth it on this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Well pre-covid, when everyone had to take the SAT/ACT, UChicago and a few others were well known for marketing to anyone with at least a 1100 SAT. My own 1150/3.5UW/no AP kid got tons of material from them. No way in HELL would my kid have had a chance at admission. I knew that, my kid knew that, the guidance counselor knew that, and U Chicago knew that. They market to everyone. It would be different if they just sent their material to kids who scored 1400+ or 1500+. You know, the kids who actually fall within their 5-100%. But marketing strongly to kids who have absolutely no chance is wrong.

Huge difference between normal advertising and targeted college advertising---just like we don't target tobacco and liquor ads to kids/before 8/9pm on TV, we shouldn't be advertising colleges at kids who can't "have it" and yes a kid with a 1100 is NOT going to UChicago, that's ok, but no need to make some parent/kid (often first gen/not knowledgeable about the process) actually think their kid has a chance. It's false advertising and dangerous and not needed.

“Dangerous?” Good lord. You don’t need to resort to this level of hyperbole to make your otherwise valid points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Well pre-covid, when everyone had to take the SAT/ACT, UChicago and a few others were well known for marketing to anyone with at least a 1100 SAT. My own 1150/3.5UW/no AP kid got tons of material from them. No way in HELL would my kid have had a chance at admission. I knew that, my kid knew that, the guidance counselor knew that, and U Chicago knew that. They market to everyone. It would be different if they just sent their material to kids who scored 1400+ or 1500+. You know, the kids who actually fall within their 5-100%. But marketing strongly to kids who have absolutely no chance is wrong.

Huge difference between normal advertising and targeted college advertising---just like we don't target tobacco and liquor ads to kids/before 8/9pm on TV, we shouldn't be advertising colleges at kids who can't "have it" and yes a kid with a 1100 is NOT going to UChicago, that's ok, but no need to make some parent/kid (often first gen/not knowledgeable about the process) actually think their kid has a chance. It's false advertising and dangerous and not needed.

The lists they buy don’t list the scores for each student. It’s just a batch of scores and names. They don’t know who scored where. They can’t buy any subset of list that they want. Think about it for a second. Do you think it would be OK if Chicago said I just wanna buy the list of the students who got 1590 or higher? Of course that would be unacceptable, right?

The fact is, they have absolutely no idea they wouldn’t except your kid until they see the application. Just like they can’t tell whether or not you can afford a Rolex or a BMW based on your zip code.

You, of course, know whether the kid has a chance or not. I respectfully suggest you save the indignation for some other transgression.. It’s neither warranted nor worth it on this issue.

Why would it be unacceptable? That's exactly what the students want, to learn about schools that might admit them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Professor who reads enrollment reports here. Yes, exactly. # of applications is a metric universities measure and applaud themselves over increasing. It also lowers their % of accepted applicants, which raises their prestige, and repeats the cycle.

If a university has $$ to do this (few do, but some do) they are going to mail more people more stuff.

[Anonymous]

^ might admit them??

My kid has been getting mailings from schools with 3-7% acceptance rates.

They “might not” admit almost everyone.

It’s for their ratings and $—they want more people to apply. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Well pre-covid, when everyone had to take the SAT/ACT, UChicago and a few others were well known for marketing to anyone with at least a 1100 SAT. My own 1150/3.5UW/no AP kid got tons of material from them. No way in HELL would my kid have had a chance at admission. I knew that, my kid knew that, the guidance counselor knew that, and U Chicago knew that. They market to everyone. It would be different if they just sent their material to kids who scored 1400+ or 1500+. You know, the kids who actually fall within their 5-100%. But marketing strongly to kids who have absolutely no chance is wrong.

Huge difference between normal advertising and targeted college advertising---just like we don't target tobacco and liquor ads to kids/before 8/9pm on TV, we shouldn't be advertising colleges at kids who can't "have it" and yes a kid with a 1100 is NOT going to UChicago, that's ok, but no need to make some parent/kid (often first gen/not knowledgeable about the process) actually think their kid has a chance. It's false advertising and dangerous and not needed.

The lists they buy don’t list the scores for each student. It’s just a batch of scores and names. They don’t know who scored where. They can’t buy any subset of list that they want. Think about it for a second. Do you think it would be OK if Chicago said I just wanna buy the list of the students who got 1590 or higher? Of course that would be unacceptable, right?

The fact is, they have absolutely no idea they wouldn’t except your kid until they see the application. Just like they can’t tell whether or not you can afford a Rolex or a BMW based on your zip code.

You, of course, know whether the kid has a chance or not. I respectfully suggest you save the indignation for some other transgression.. It’s neither warranted nor worth it on this issue.

Nope. They do get a list with cutoffs.

My kid scored perfect in 3 sections of the ACT on first try and since then has been getting phone book size mailings from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, etc. Tons of top 10 schools.

The cover letter for Yale said “based on your scores”…

[Anonymous]

For us it was Case Western. A glossy brochure at least once per week…sometimes twice.

Really turned my kid and the family off of the school. Just felt like wasting so much money when most kids don’t consume print media at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Well pre-covid, when everyone had to take the SAT/ACT, UChicago and a few others were well known for marketing to anyone with at least a 1100 SAT. My own 1150/3.5UW/no AP kid got tons of material from them. No way in HELL would my kid have had a chance at admission. I knew that, my kid knew that, the guidance counselor knew that, and U Chicago knew that. They market to everyone. It would be different if they just sent their material to kids who scored 1400+ or 1500+. You know, the kids who actually fall within their 5-100%. But marketing strongly to kids who have absolutely no chance is wrong.

Huge difference between normal advertising and targeted college advertising---just like we don't target tobacco and liquor ads to kids/before 8/9pm on TV, we shouldn't be advertising colleges at kids who can't "have it" and yes a kid with a 1100 is NOT going to UChicago, that's ok, but no need to make some parent/kid (often first gen/not knowledgeable about the process) actually think their kid has a chance. It's false advertising and dangerous and not needed.

“Dangerous?” Good lord. You don’t need to resort to this level of hyperbole to make your otherwise valid points.

You know there is some parent out there blaming the colleges/lack of acceptance for their kid's poor mental health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree it's gross and wasteful. My kids is at a magnet school where the kids are bombarded with UChicago marketing materials. In the Bethesda Magazine article, it was reported 55 students at this school applied last year and 0 were admitted. It's often about inflating application numbers, nothing else.

Are you suggesting that the folks in marketing who are responsible for encouraging as many students as possible to apply are sending out marketing materials with the intention of getting the maximum number of students to apply?

Is that really some kind of conspiracy? I mean, how is the college supposed to know you won’t get admitted unless you apply? Do you expect them just a guess because of the school you go to?

Do you get this mad when stores you don’t shop at send you advertising?

Well pre-covid, when everyone had to take the SAT/ACT, UChicago and a few others were well known for marketing to anyone with at least a 1100 SAT. My own 1150/3.5UW/no AP kid got tons of material from them. No way in HELL would my kid have had a chance at admission. I knew that, my kid knew that, the guidance counselor knew that, and U Chicago knew that. They market to everyone. It would be different if they just sent their material to kids who scored 1400+ or 1500+. You know, the kids who actually fall within their 5-100%. But marketing strongly to kids who have absolutely no chance is wrong.

Huge difference between normal advertising and targeted college advertising---just like we don't target tobacco and liquor ads to kids/before 8/9pm on TV, we shouldn't be advertising colleges at kids who can't "have it" and yes a kid with a 1100 is NOT going to UChicago, that's ok, but no need to make some parent/kid (often first gen/not knowledgeable about the process) actually think their kid has a chance. It's false advertising and dangerous and not needed.

The lists they buy don’t list the scores for each student. It’s just a batch of scores and names. They don’t know who scored where. They can’t buy any subset of list that they want. Think about it for a second. Do you think it would be OK if Chicago said I just wanna buy the list of the students who got 1590 or higher? Of course that would be unacceptable, right?

The fact is, they have absolutely no idea they wouldn’t except your kid until they see the application. Just like they can’t tell whether or not you can afford a Rolex or a BMW based on your zip code.

You, of course, know whether the kid has a chance or not. I respectfully suggest you save the indignation for some other transgression.. It’s neither warranted nor worth it on this issue.

Why would it be unacceptable? That's exactly what the students want, to learn about schools that might admit them.

You want anyone to be able to buy a list showing exactly what your kids SAT score was?

You want schools to know SAT scores you may retake or not submit?

Yes i would find that unacceptable. You will too, once you think about it.