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Why Colleges Are Just Not That Into You
The charade in which schools solicit more applications than they need—just to improve their selectivity ratings—isn’t just underhanded, it’s cruel.
If a high school student performs well on the PSAT—or even if he doesn't—he can look forward to a deluge of fawning, come-hither letters and packages landing in his mailbox soon afterward.
If you’re one of the millions of families currently running the college application gantlet, you’re no doubt familiar with these mailings: colorful, congratulatory brochures replete with love-letter language designed to make an anxious college-bound high school senior swoon. Reed College sent one a few years ago to students that schmoozed, "Listen: college admission people all over the country, including me, have decided that you are the kind of smart student they want."
“We can seem like masters of the bait and switch,” writes one admissions dean.
How flattering! Until you take into account the fact that Reed summarily rejects two-thirds of “you,” which makes its invitation (worded as if it were practically an acceptance letter) seem downright Machiavellian. Isn't this sort of sly linguistic charade—"you are the kind of smart student" we want, not "the smart student" we want—a little cruel to impose on adolescents competing in one of the most emotionally wrought contests of their lives?
When Reed was called out on its misleading pamphlet by Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews, whose college-bound daughter received one in the mail in 2003, Reed’s admissions dean Paul Marthers wrote a mea culpa that’s posted on the school’s website. In it, he bemoans the very solicitations his office sneakily sent out: "Prospective students and their parents probably do not realize that many colleges, Reed among them, sometimes contract out the writing of the search letter to direct mail firms skilled at crafting catchy phrases…I suspect that prospective students and their parents wonder sometimes whether admission deans are educators or sales managers. We can seem like masters of the bait and switch.”
I don’t mean to pin this whole confidence trick on Reed—it’s standard practice at nearly all college admissions offices. Mathews, who also wrote the excellent Harvard Schmarvard, told me he checked letters from 100 colleges the year his daughter applied, and only one, Harvard, had any language indicating that the letter should not be taken as a hint of impending acceptance. (Something you’d figure Harvard applicants would be smart enough to figure out on their own.) These letters "create false expectations of admission, particularly in the many low-income households where the search letter is a new and unexpected feature of the process,” Mathews says.
One high school senior I talked to who's applying to Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Chicago, among others, told me she opted out of receiving mail based on her PSAT scores. An older friend who had already gone through the process had told her that it would only get her junk, the collegiate equivalent of takeout menus under your windshield wiper. Opting out cut her college mail load down to virtually nothing, save for schools she'd contacted for information herself. "How much more money could colleges spend on financial aid or teaching if they didn't waste so much on marketing?" she wonders.
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Tons of pieces have come to our house from colleges and Universities for our oldest (Senior), now our Sophomore twins are getting the same. Redundant and wasteful come to mind. You would think higher education institutions could figure out a more efficient and environmentally friendly way.
As a former college Admissions Dean, I can provide some insights into this article. First, most of the people in Dean/Director positions in college admissions are decent, hard-working and ethical individuals. I do not believe that these folks, as a group, are deliberately trying to pull a bait and switch on unsuspecting high school students or their parents.
I have to disagree with the statement from the admissions director who said that they contract out the writing of the letters to students (referred to as "Search" letters). Yes, we may hire a mail house or a direct mail firm to handle the tens--or hundreds--of thousands of letters that are sent out initially, but it is ultimately the responsibility of the college's chief admissions officer to ensure that those letters convey the most appropriate messages regarding that institution. To blame the mail house for a poorly worded letter, or for one that appears to offer more than an encouragement to consider the school during the college search process, is disingenuous.
On the other hand, while "You're the kind of student we're looking for" may sound like we're parsing our words to both attract and then deny potentially qualified students, in reality admissions offices may not have enough information on a particular student's academic background to be able to say, with absolute certainty, that you are 'exactly' the student we are seeking. If the information from the test vendors (ACT, College Board) only contains a PSAT or PACT score and a self-reported GPA--which is notoriously overstated, in my experience--then how is a selective or very selective school to know whether that student is, indeed, someone who would succeed at that particular college?
And believe it or not, any admissions officer worth his or her salt is most concerned with student success. Yes, we are evaluated on the number of new students entering the school, as every school I can think of relies--to some extent--on either the tuition and fees received from students and/or the subsidies provided by the state if it's a public institution. Budgets are built a year or more in advance, and those budgets assume an enrollment of X with a revenue of Y so the school can project whether to hire additional faculty or staff, or renovate a residence hall, or institute (or drop) academic programs. Those new student enrollment goals are an important indicator of whether an institution is going to be able to follow through on its plans, or whether retrenchment will be necessary.
At the same time, however, almost anyone who's been in college admissions for more than six months can tell you that just bringing students in the door is not enough. No institution wants to be a revolving door, where new students walk in and just as quickly leave voluntarily or flunk out. So we try to paint as accurate (and attractive) a picture of the institution as possible, to encourage students to at least look at and consider our colleges and what they have to offer, and to get a sense of the types of students who enjoy their experiences and are successful at that college.We are, in the best possible sense, focused more on recruiting graduates of our institutions rather than just an entering class.
Interesting idea as to why colleges may want to attract more applications, however it doesn't apply to your case study. Reed College has refused to take part in the U.S. News & World Report rankings since 1995, so their reason for participating in the aforementioned "bate and switch" must reside elsewhere.
We liked the admissions come-hither letters - they were great fun. They were great help in separating the outright liars from the simply slick and deceptive. We simply checked on the admissions percentages (the number of students who appliy versus the number of students accepted), available at various sites on-line, and trashed every one who sent us a letter and had a less that forty percent admissions rate.
As has been pointed out in the numerous books documenting the deficiency of the education at the "selective" colleges, judging a college by the achievement level of the students before they enter, is like judging a hospital by the condition on which patients enter. How many of the people who were the architects of the economic disaster were "educated" at these institutions? It is time to start looking at outcomes when judging these schools.
We received a ton of letters as well, and found them useful in learning of schools that are outside our northeast region. We know that our son's test scores are better than his grades suggest and have no illusions about what kind of school will accept him.
This is not a new practice, I receide such mailings over 25 years ago after I took the PSAT. At least today's high school has the option to opt out of such mailings. Colleges and Universtities use common marketing practices to get their names out there. Not all schools are household names, and to be competative smaller schools have to reach out to potential students. As has been stated (much better than I can) Admissions Officers are honest, hard workign and ethical. A College is not going to ruin it's reputaion on a recruiting brochure.
To be honest, I am more curious why this College Sophomore is writing a blog about something he knows very little about and has done scant reserch on. Futhermore, why is featured on this blog? This seems to be the pattern with his posts, unresearched blatherings from the uninformed.
How else should colleges advertise to students who may not be thinking about applying? I received search letters from schools I wasn't particularly considering, applied, and ended up getting in.
The author seems concerned about low income students being schnookered by disingenuous mailings, but unfortunately many students in that category rely on unsolicited mailings to learn about schools outside their area that they might otherwise never hear of. Also, (granted this was about a decade ago) as a National Merit Finalist I received unsolicited letters of acceptance from schools offering me tuition breaks or, in one case, all expenses paid plus a stipend. For someone desperate for a way to pay for college, such offers must be life changing. So, I would encourage people to check the box.
More recently, I applied to law schools, and can attest they employ the same sort of disingenuous techniques. While I did well on my LSAT, my self-reported GPA (which was not inflated) left me woefully short of the standards required for entrance to William & Mary law. But that didn't stop them from sending me an e-mail that opened with "Congratulations! As a strong law school applicant, we are pleased to offer you an application fee waiver when you submit an application for admission to William & Mary Law School for the class beginning in the fall of 2008." I didn't end up applying, but I assume that if I had, I would have been rejected in a heartbeat, all in the name of US News and World Report selectivity.
Jay Mathews has one T.
They wouldn't waste the money if it didn't work. Pure economics.
I went to a community college to get a degree in practical nursing. I purposely chose that one because I wasn't 100% sure of the field and did not want to commit to 4 years to get an RN degree. What if I changed my mind halfway through and thousands of dollars in loans later? As for the FASFA, freaking hardest thing I ever tried to fill out with my children, it's like, "Get me a stiff drink first, then we can fill out that form." One of my sons opted to do the 4 year college thing, changed his mind, switched to community college and finished with two degrees. OOORAH!
The gatekeepers or admissions officers it has been said are simply glorified file clerks. 5 thousand plus transcripts showing a 4.0 GPA and 700- 800 SATs in each v/m/w ....lets face it they are just filing the applications.
Show me a heavily endowed legacy school I will show you a mediocre student population. I heard someone say on the radio that admissions officers are just like head waiters or hostesses showing the prepsters to their tables. It is difficult to trust the college entrance system after observing the banking system.
Just another example of a failing society. Thank you Derida for your post - I work with mostly new grads from tops Bay Area schools. "Amazing" doesn't cover it. In conversations, I learn that they don't even know basic material - stuff I learned in high school. If it wasn't going to be on a standardized test - they didn't learn it - nor did or do they care to. It's all a matter of crossing the "T" for adminssions sake. Frustrating. Unfortunately, employers aren't helping the situation.
Thank you.
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