Interesting things colleges do....

[Dmmetler]

DD got a box today from Agnes Scott, with a very nice little charm in it, along with an gift card welcoming her to the Scottie family. She still hasn't gotten a written acceptance letter (she got a nice e-mail). 

 

Any other interesting gifts from schools?

[Selkie]

My dd has been getting lots of socks and stickers.🙂

[GoodGrief3]

A few plane tickets to come visit 🙂 But nothing cool like a charm.

[RootAnn]

@GoodGrief3Plane tickets? How cool is that!!

[Dmmetler]

44 minutes ago, GoodGrief3 said:

A few plane tickets to come visit 🙂 But nothing cool like a charm.

DD had a couple of schools who had offered to pay travel costs (mostly Women's colleges, but she wasn't terribly interested in NE schools, which is where most of them are), but COVID shut things down before she could take advantage of it. I'm not sure if any of the schools are even actually open on campus again yet. 

 

 

[Farrar]

My mom was a Scottie and I almost went. That's so Agnes Scott that I laughed out loud.

[Jennay]

DS received a Christmas ornament from Messiah.  They also gave a lot of swag when he went for a visit - T-shirt and CDs.  

[Nicholas_mom]

At one school, ds keeps getting something everytime we visit the school (we visited alot).  He has a t-shirt,  2 knapsacks, 2 water bottles.  He also received a Christmas card with a hand written note.  All from one school.  The others nothing.

[Alice]

Ds has gotten mutliple things from one school that shares his name. It’s kind of fun becasuse I don’t think that’s where he’ll end up but he now has a blanket, socks, a glass straw and some other stuff all essentially personalized. 🙂

[teachermom2834]

My ds got a package today with stickers and a banner and a notepad. His acceptance was a pop up card that played the fight song when opened,

But for the most part my kids haven't gotten much more than a sticker on acceptance and sometimes a t shirt on a visit. But, admittedly, our college lists are always kind of low budget type places 🙂

[Arch at Home]

My kids have never gotten much more than a sticker and a small pennant upon acceptance. That said, college visits have garnered much more...t-shirts, water bottle, stress balls, and sweets. Universities by a particular religious order are popular for visits by my kids because of their t-shirts.

[GoodGrief3]

On 12/29/2020 at 3:49 PM, RootAnn said:

@GoodGrief3Plane tickets? How cool is that!!

Useful, for sure. We live far, which limits the visiting typically. It would be nice if that happens for #3 but it feels like a different season for college admissions this go-around.

 

[GoodGrief3]

On 12/30/2020 at 3:52 PM, Jennay said:

DS received a Christmas ornament from Messiah.  They also gave a lot of swag when he went for a visit - T-shirt and CDs.  

I would have loved getting an ornament! I actually bought ornaments during a few college visits, because that's my thing. My daughter did not receive on in 2016, though we did get a mug during the visit. Probably my least favorite sort of swag, haha. I'm sure I am not the only one with way too many mugs (in general, not just college)

[chiguirre]

Dd got some nice Navy swag when she enlisted. She's got the official Navy Delayed Entry Program t shirt, baseball cap, mini backpack, bumper sticker and water bottle. They must feel the pressure to compete with college swag. I think it's effective because dd uses that mini backpack a lot because it says Navy on it. She only wears the t shirt to DEP meetings because it has to last till June.

We only got a U of Houston pen when we did their Cougar Preview day. Definitely a low budget operation.

Dd has a UT tank top she got at rowing camp. She doesn't wear it much because it's not wicking, unlike the Navy t shirt. If you're going to do swag, especially camp swag, it should be useful for the intended activity.

[Dmmetler]

Agnes has since mailed out a box for scholar’s weekend with a lot of stuff (t-shirt, tote bag, colored pencils, notepad, pen, hand lotion and purple M&M’s, and then sent a nice pack of materials for women’s history month. 
 
One of L’s friends got a hammock from one school. Obviously we didn’t apply to the right places! 

[BlsdMama]

I’m shocked - none of your received masks? We ended up with two, lol. 

[MamaSprout]

9 hours ago, BlsdMama said:

I’m shocked - none of your received masks? We ended up with two, lol. 

We got one from UAH... Dd wears it a lot. They also gave us sanitizer and a sting backpack that she uses for music lessons.

[kokotg]

Hendrix has a question on their application about your favorite candy, and then they send you your favorite candy (I have heard tell that they will go to considerable lengths to track down the candy if it's something obscure; my kid just said snickers, though). Aside from that, nothing more exciting than socks.

[Alice]

On 4/5/2021 at 12:01 AM, Dmmetler said:

Agnes has since mailed out a box for scholar’s weekend with a lot of stuff (t-shirt, tote bag, colored pencils, notepad, pen, hand lotion and purple M&M’s, and then sent a nice pack of materials for women’s history month. 
 
One of L’s friends got a hammock from one school. Obviously we didn’t apply to the right places! 

 

On 4/8/2021 at 10:45 AM, kokotg said:

Hendrix has a question on their application about your favorite candy, and then they send you your favorite candy (I have heard tell that they will go to considerable lengths to track down the candy if it's something obscure; my kid just said snickers, though). Aside from that, nothing more exciting than socks.

My oldest got a hammock also...from Hendrix. But no candy. 🙂

[Alice]

I also forgot to mention earlier that the most impressive swag ds got was from Centre. He got a packet of cards that were super personalized. It's hard to explain but each card had some aspect about Centre on it but had things like his name, his hometown, his interests, etc on them. He also got a poster that was super personalized with his name on it and other specifics like his hometown. 

[Dmmetler]

Agnes has done it again....I'm a little curious as to what is in this box, but it will have to wait, since the recipient is in a final exam right now....

[Roadrunner]

5 hours ago, Dmmetler said:

Agnes has done it again....I'm a little curious as to what is in this box, but it will have to wait, since the recipient is in a final exam right now....

Calendar? I am curious now 🙂 

[Dmmetler]

Really big yard sign.

[RootAnn]

That was my guess!!!

[Dmmetler]

It makes sense. This one seems to have been triggered by committing to the school, and I'm sure they are hoping for lots of posts on May 1. 

 

Since we have a corner lot, the high school Hydra is on one side and the giant Scottie dog on the other, so it doesn't look like the dog is about to eat the Hydra!

 

 

[LesleyParker]

On 12/30/2020 at 5:38 AM, GoodGrief3 said:

A few plane tickets to come visit 🙂 But nothing cool like a charm.

Wow! 😵😍 So cool!

[MamaSprout]

A 3-D puzzle card pack from Notre Dame that Dd actually took out of the package and built something with came today. Probably the most interactive swag she's gotten so far.

Also a 3-D printed elephant from an on-campus visit to Rose-Hulman a couple of weeks ago. They seem to print them a dozen at a time.

Edited July 4, 2021 by MamaSprout

[Janeway]

On 4/8/2021 at 9:45 AM, kokotg said:

Hendrix has a question on their application about your favorite candy, and then they send you your favorite candy (I have heard tell that they will go to considerable lengths to track down the candy if it's something obscure; my kid just said snickers, though). Aside from that, nothing more exciting than socks.

My older son got in to Hendrix and accepted only to have stuff cancel it. He never got any of that! But what would have been for entering fall 2020. Maybe they started doing all this because of Covid and the inability to visit.

[Serenade]

On 1/2/2021 at 5:56 PM, teachermom2834 said:

 

But for the most part my kids haven't gotten much more than a sticker on acceptance and sometimes a t shirt on a visit. But, admittedly, our college lists are always kind of low budget type places 🙂

This has been our reality as well.

[RootAnn]

Dd#2 got a box of swag yesterday from the college she's attending in the fall.

Cheap sunglasses, a keychain flashlight that was DOA, a keychain thing with a reusable straw that unscrews into three pieces inside it (weirdest item, IMO), a lanyard with an ID holder on the end, two reusable cloth masks, and some wireless earbuds. All items appropriately labelled with school logo, name, and/or design.

She wasn't impressed but we, her parents, were.

[Dmmetler]

13 hours ago, Janeway said:

My older son got in to Hendrix and accepted only to have stuff cancel it. He never got any of that! But what would have been for entering fall 2020. Maybe they started doing all this because of Covid and the inability to visit.

I'm guessing some of the Agnes Scott stuff was for that reason. Since they had almost no students on campus this year, I think they probably mailed out the Women's history month stuff, for example, to their current students and included admitted students (or at least, admitted students who had shown additional interest) on the list. Similarly, I'm assuming that normally you had to go to the Scholars' Weekend to get the swag-and maybe this year kids got more than usual. I do think that for MY kid, the fact that they sent stuff and had regular activities to connect prospective and admitted students with current ones  that went beyond the usual sales pitches was probably a deciding factor-But I also think part of that was to support their current students, who had been sold a residential LAC that prided itself on connections, internships, and hands on research, and then ended up taking classes online from their bedroom at home. 

 

 

[kokotg]

On 7/3/2021 at 9:17 PM, Janeway said:

My older son got in to Hendrix and accepted only to have stuff cancel it. He never got any of that! But what would have been for entering fall 2020. Maybe they started doing all this because of Covid and the inability to visit.

This was for fall of 2019. Maybe the candy started getting too expensive!