Granny_Weatherwax Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 DS is getting a whole new rush of college mail, both email and snail mail. It's making this process so much more difficult. With most application deadlines in the next few weeks, do many schools do last minute pushes to increase application numbers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 DS is getting mail and phone calls from colleges in the north east. He's letting the calls go to voice mail and throwing away the mail at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 All of mine still occasionally get college brochure mail - probably one a month or so on average. I've no idea why. Oldest GRADUATED from college last May. My guess is they're sending things in case their choices didn't work out? The military still sends offers too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GailV Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 All of mine still occasionally get college brochure mail - probably one a month or so on average. I've no idea why. Oldest GRADUATED from college last May. My guess is they're sending things in case their choices didn't work out? The military still sends offers too. Yeah, older dd is In college and still receiving mail and email. Hope springs eternal amongst admissions people, apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 My dd is getting "it's not too late to apply" letters. I hope not. Dd is a junior, she isn't planning on doing applications for 9 months. Two schools have been particularly desperate calling and mailing weekly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 DD got them for a couple of years after she began at U of MI. I think that likely the colleges sending them were not doing a very good job of purging their mailing lists. Ds is still getting them plus emails. One place in particular is being really annoying. He actually called them and told them that he would not be applying because they were not strong in his major, so the admin tried to get him to CHANGE MAJORS! Not kidding. Ds eventually just said, "I'm sorry. I am really not interested. Please take me off your mailing list. Have a pleasant day." CLICK. Hung up without waiting for a reply. He didn't like being rude, but it was getting really annoying and the guy just wouldn't take a hint. I wonder if some of the more persistent ones have any idea how desperate they look? It made me look up that school's stats, and it was very interesting. Last year they took in 2500 applications for 1000 freshman slots, accepted 65% of the applicants and had a freshman class of only 350 students. So only 21.5% of the students accepted attended the school. This means either they are a fall back school for a lot of students who got into their first or second choice schools or they are expensive and stingy with merit aid making the finances problematic for the bulk of the accepted students. At least, those are my two theories. That and the very offensive email in which they encouraged parents to make a $1500.00 non-refundable deposit to the school BEFORE receiving notice of acceptance which would be matched in the fall with another $1500.00. Nice scam. You give us $1500.00, and if we don't accept your kid, we keep it. They gave the deadline for the matching as well before they make their scholarship determinations so the parents would be sending those checks in blindly hoping their kid would be accepted and with enough merit and financial aid to afford the place. Otherwise, if they can't go, it's $1500.00 down the tubes. It made me suspicious that the very unethical plan was to reject every student who sent in the deposit as a quick money making scheme, and only accept those students who never sent it in so they would not have to make good on the matching. I can't prove it, but I smell a rat! :glare: Needless to say, they didn't do as ds asked and he received another email yesterday. :banghead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 Wow, Faithmanor, that's crazy. I haven't seen anything like that with any of the schools communicating with DS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 It made me look up that school's stats, and it was very interesting. Last year they took in 2500 applications for 1000 freshman slots, accepted 65% of the applicants and had a freshman class of only 350 students. So only 21.5 of the students accepted attended the school. Very interesting indeed. The OP asked why the mail keeps coming, and I'm sure this is one big reason. As the number of applications that the average student submits grows and grows, I can't imagine how difficult it must be for admissions departments to manage their yield, and fill their incoming classes. Sounds like this school really messed up their yield that year. And I wonder how desperate the college is to fill the freshman class. The conventional wisdom is, the sooner you apply for aid, the better you do, all other things being equal. If the college's yield is much lower than planned and the student/parents know this, I wonder if that puts more negotiating power in the hands of the student? (And, this is a nice counter-balance to the "why do you have to be so accomplished to get into college" thread.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Very interesting indeed. The OP asked why the mail keeps coming, and I'm sure this is one big reason. As the number of applications that the average student submits grows and grows, I can't imagine how difficult it must be for admissions departments to manage their yield, and fill their incoming classes. Sounds like this school really messed up their yield that year. And I wonder how desperate the college is to fill the freshman class. The conventional wisdom is, the sooner you apply for aid, the better you do, all other things being equal. If the college's yield is much lower than planned and the student/parents know this, I wonder if that puts more negotiating power in the hands of the student? (And, this is a nice counter-balance to the "why do you have to be so accomplished to get into college" thread.) This is an excellent point. While I am ANTI this particular school for reasons prior to the "make the non refundable deposit" scam, I do know a student who is a freshman this year at that school. He had turned them down previously due to finances. They are a $34,000.00 a year school and their largest scholarship is $12,000.00 with very few smaller ones that can be stacked on to it. Two weeks before he was supposed to begin school at a local, cheaper institution, and only 10 days before freshman reported to this campus, he received a phone call from the college admission's department announcing they'd suddenly found another $12,000.00 a year plus free books if he would change his mind! His parents had $4500.00 a year they could give him (they would have had more, but made the choice to fund an art institute at $45,000 a year for his older brother and it took the bulk of the college savings they had for the their two sons) so with a $5500.00 subsidized loan, it was affordable and though again I am death on the school, I am more than willing to admit that in his particular major, they do an excellent job...far better than the cheap school he was going to attend. So, I do think they really messed up their yield and then were frantically backtracking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Gotta love the perpetual "This is your last chance to apply for free with a simple application and no essays" emails. They continued through last summer and may still be going. Highly recommend that students create a separate email for college communications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 DD is still getting snail mail. She hasn't mentioned email still coming in. Oldest (sophomore in college) hasn't gotten snail mail like some others here. We are thinking of having youngest (9th) grade start taking the ACT this year instead of next. I'm sure snail mail will start soon after. We won't send scores to colleges this year though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Just wait until your child is a college senior. Then she/he will start receiving mail concerning the graduate programs at the colleges to which she/he applied as an undergraduate! Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I'm guessing that there are enough kids who don't go right after high school or who don't stay at their college that it's worth sending the mail. And if it drives up the college's selectivity ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I think much of the mailing is farmed out to companies that handle such things. If the school doesn't rescind old lists or edit their new lists then the mail keeps coming. The schools probably don't put man hours into guessing which names need to come off the list, it probably isn't cost effective for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Well, here is an odd one. A school that my niece attends and whom I suspect of giving out our contact information, has been sending a lot of emails to ds. He isn't interested in applying there and has emailed them his regrets, nicely, more than once. They are a persistent lot and today's email subject line read, "Go beyond empathy and discover your purpose." Pretty sappy recruitment catch phrase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 I think much of the mailing is farmed out to companies that handle such things. If the school doesn't rescind old lists or edit their new lists then the mail keeps coming. The schools probably don't put man hours into guessing which names need to come off the list, it probably isn't cost effective for them. But, but... my guys are super special snowflakes... how could you imply that these schools don't REALLY give a hoot about them??? :lol: Rule #2 in life's lessons: It's all about the money. (Rule #1 is "Life isn't fair. Get used to it." But that doesn't really apply here. It's just added to satisfy curiosity some might have.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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