Desperate, pleading emails from college admissions departments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought there was a distinction between SLACs and LACs, where the "S" meant "selective" as in Williams, Amherst, usually Swarthmore, and then draw your own line for selectivity where at the regular LACs. All SLACs and LACs are small in a relative sense, being colleges not universities.

Nope, it's generally understood to mean "small," and that's been the case for a long time. The "S" as in "small" was intended to highlight the lower enrollments of private LACs, in particular, compared to big state universities.

How is "small" liberal arts "college" not redundant?

There are colleges with over 4000 students that only award BAs to undergraduates. I would not consider them SLACs (i.e., Dartmouth is not a SLAC, but Bowdoin and Williams are). But the "s" is primarily for emphasis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always thought there was a distinction between SLACs and LACs, where the "S" meant "selective" as in Williams, Amherst, usually Swarthmore, and then draw your own line for selectivity where at the regular LACs. All SLACs and LACs are small in a relative sense, being colleges not universities.

Nope, it's generally understood to mean "small," and that's been the case for a long time. The "S" as in "small" was intended to highlight the lower enrollments of private LACs, in particular, compared to big state universities.

Who, exactly, "intended" the S to stand for small? Like another PP here, I've understood it to mean selective for several years now.

[Anonymous]

It's Small Liberal Arts College, not "selective"!

My DD is getting those emails and letters too. She never visited, never contacted one school, and it's sending her letters urging her to apply, offering her money, etc.! Crazee!

She did attend an open house at another school nearby (another SLAC), so they shared information? I don't understand that, but the Interwebs make it so easy to get info on people.

DD has very good stats, far too high for this school! It seems a bit pathetic, if you ask me. It's not a terrible school, though, just a nice middle of the road SLAC. I guess these schools are getting desperate for more students, and they all want to up their rankings in US News, so they are trying to grab the high stats students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's Small Liberal Arts College, not "selective"!

My DD is getting those emails and letters too. She never visited, never contacted one school, and it's sending her letters urging her to apply, offering her money, etc.! Crazee!

She did attend an open house at another school nearby (another SLAC), so they shared information? I don't understand that, but the Interwebs make it so easy to get info on people.

DD has very good stats, far too high for this school! It seems a bit pathetic, if you ask me. It's not a terrible school, though, just a nice middle of the road SLAC. I guess these schools are getting desperate for more students, and they all want to up their rankings in US News, so they are trying to grab the high stats students.

It's amusing that you make a BFD out of it. College spam is just one more type of spam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Small Liberal Arts College, not "selective"!

My DD is getting those emails and letters too. She never visited, never contacted one school, and it's sending her letters urging her to apply, offering her money, etc.! Crazee!

She did attend an open house at another school nearby (another SLAC), so they shared information? I don't understand that, but the Interwebs make it so easy to get info on people.

DD has very good stats, far too high for this school! It seems a bit pathetic, if you ask me. It's not a terrible school, though, just a nice middle of the road SLAC. I guess these schools are getting desperate for more students, and they all want to up their rankings in US News, so they are trying to grab the high stats students.

It's amusing that you make a BFD out of it. College spam is just one more type of spam.

Thanks for that nice post, PP.

[Anonymous]

Why does it matter whether "s" stands for "small" "selective" or "sh*t"? It means nothing anyway.

[Anonymous]

Prepare for an onslaught of such mail. Have you recycling bin handy. However, I did find them interesting from a sociological standpoint so I always opened them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does it matter whether "s" stands for "small" "selective" or "sh*t"? It means nothing anyway.

It's a way for certain schools to emphasize the priority they place on undergraduate teaching, rather than on research or sports. That matters to some, not so much to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Small Liberal Arts College, not "selective"!

My DD is getting those emails and letters too. She never visited, never contacted one school, and it's sending her letters urging her to apply, offering her money, etc.! Crazee!

She did attend an open house at another school nearby (another SLAC), so they shared information? I don't understand that, but the Interwebs make it so easy to get info on people.

DD has very good stats, far too high for this school! It seems a bit pathetic, if you ask me. It's not a terrible school, though, just a nice middle of the road SLAC. I guess these schools are getting desperate for more students, and they all want to up their rankings in US News, so they are trying to grab the high stats students.

It's amusing that you make a BFD out of it. College spam is just one more type of spam.

Isn't making a BFD out of things the whole point of DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's Small Liberal Arts College, not "selective"!

My DD is getting those emails and letters too. She never visited, never contacted one school, and it's sending her letters urging her to apply, offering her money, etc.! Crazee!

She did attend an open house at another school nearby (another SLAC), so they shared information? I don't understand that, but the Interwebs make it so easy to get info on people.

DD has very good stats, far too high for this school! It seems a bit pathetic, if you ask me. It's not a terrible school, though, just a nice middle of the road SLAC. I guess these schools are getting desperate for more students, and they all want to up their rankings in US News, so they are trying to grab the high stats students.

She took practice PSATs starting freshman or junior year, right? I think the College Board shares your info unless you take steps to tell them not to.

What I don't get is why DS, with a B+ average after sophomore year, is getting spam from the top universities in the country/Ivies, who would probably laugh at his application. A few years ago older DD, who had a 3.9, hardly heard from any of these places even though she actually got in and attends one now. I get that some schools (U Chicago, Wash U in St Louis) spam everyone, but this is above and beyond and many of the schools spamming DS now really don't need more applications, if their extremely low acceptance rates are any indication. Either it really does pay to be a boy in the admissions game, or even the top universities are getting into this spam marketing game.

[Anonymous]

DD had over 3,000 college emails in her inbox last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

She took practice PSATs starting freshman or junior year, right? I think the College Board shares your info unless you take steps to tell them not to.

What I don't get is why DS, with a B+ average after sophomore year, is getting spam from the top universities in the country/Ivies, who would probably laugh at his application. A few years ago older DD, who had a 3.9, hardly heard from any of these places even though she actually got in and attends one now. I get that some schools (U Chicago, Wash U in St Louis) spam everyone, but this is above and beyond and many of the schools spamming DS now really don't need more applications, if their extremely low acceptance rates are any indication. Either it really does pay to be a boy in the admissions game, or even the top universities are getting into this spam marketing game.

My kid is a jock with a 3.5 GPA who wants to attend a big school where weekend revolve around football. He's received more mail from NYU and Chicago than any other schools.

He's taking it in stride, but when the brochures from Sarah Lawrence start showing up it may be a different story.

[Anonymous]

Is the WashUSTL mail spam if it comes in an actual postage -paid priority envelope?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's "small" everywhere but DCUM, where it becomes "selective."

That explains why I was on a thread the other day and someone was arguing that some very small, definitely liberal arts college wasn't a SLAC? I was trying to figure out if they thought it was big, or liberal artsy. Now I understand!

[Anonymous]

I agree, it is redundant. I laugh at the fact that my son is getting hoards of mail and emails from UChicago, WUTSL, and others along those lines. He's not a bad student per se (GPA in the 3.5 range, scored a 1920 on the SAT) but both he and the universities know it's not going to happen. All they want is that $40 application fee and to appear more selective.