{"id":7711,"date":"2017-11-17T08:26:17","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T14:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=7711"},"modified":"2017-11-16T22:35:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T04:35:13","slug":"update-college-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/11\/update-college-marketing.html","title":{"rendered":"Update on college marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So we\u2019ve finally made it past the college application process, coached my son through essays, made some campus visits, clicked \u201csubmit\u201d 4 times, and are now waiting for the fat envelopes (or, yes, the virtual equivalent thereof) to come with my son\u2019s name on them.<\/p>\n

But I wanted to share with you three items that came in the mail recently:<\/p>\n

\"University
University of Chicago mailing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is just one of many mailings from the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n

Now, I have nothing against this university, but we did get mailings with a surprising frequency, especially since my son\u2019s first try at the SAT wasn\u2019t earth-shattering and the improved results from his second time around came after we\u2019d already gotten a number of such mailings.\u00a0 Besides which, even his second SAT score is below their 25th percentile<\/a>, so he hardly seems like a top candidate for them.<\/p>\n

But this is where I\u2019m cynical.\u00a0 He might not have a prizewinning SAT, but I suspect that they\u2019re looking at more than that.\u00a0 I\u00a0 wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they\u2019re targeting him based on other demographic factors \u2014 that is, his zip code, in an upper middle class town, or even the specific neighborhood of his street address, which, while it\u2019s no Lake Forest or Glencoe, still means there\u2019s a pretty decent chance of your mailer hitting a family that could pay full freight.\u00a0 I further wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they paired that up with our credit rating as another element indicating our ability to pay full-freight.\u00a0 (Though, if they data-mined a bit more, you\u2019d think they could figure out that we\u2019re also the sort that aren\u2019t willing to pay that sticker price.)<\/p>\n

\"University
University of Illinois Springfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cregional\u201d universities in Illinois have been experiencing a major drop in enrollment<\/a> over the past decade, with drops of 20% \u2013 40% (the only exception being SIU \u2013 Edwardsville).\u00a0 But the University of Illinois system is growing in enrollment:\u00a0 10% at the Urbana-Champaign campus, 18% at the University of Illinois \u2013 Chicago, and 14% at the University of Illinois at Springfield.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the University of Illinois at Springfield<\/a>?\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019d be surprised if you\u2019d heard of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a young university, established only in 1969, and a part of the University of Illinois only since 1995.\u00a0 Up until 2005,\u00a0enrollment\u00a0was limited to upperclassmen and graduate students.\u00a0 It enrolls 3,400 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students, almost all in master\u2019s programs, a far cry from the 29,000 at UIC and the 47,000 at U of I.\u00a0 It has only two dorms and one cafeteria, unlike the myriad of options elsewhere.\u00a0 And it\u2019s main marketing approach:\u00a0 you\u2019ll get a \u201cU of I degree\u201d \u2014 that is, there\u2019s a good chance that future employers or networking contacts might not know the difference between the<\/em> University of Illinois, and the University of Illinois at Springfield, and will consider you as having attended the more prestigious Big 10 school.\u00a0 Plus, Illinoisians generally have more confidence that the legislature will fund the Universities of Illinois than the \u201cregional\u201d universities (and, especially, the university that\u2019s in Springfield itself); hence, the exodus from the latter schools.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s an appalling waste of money, to have the facilities of the regional universities sit empty while the Universities of Illinois embark on building programs, all because the legislature can\u2019t get its act together and the universities can\u2019t, or won\u2019t, cooperate.<\/p>\n

\"University
University of Missouri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, earlier in the fall, and over the summer, conservative outlets schadenfreudishly reported of the massive enrollment decline at Mizzou<\/a>, following student anti-racist protests resulting in the resignation of the university president in capitulation to student demands.\u00a0 And based on the postcard that arrived several days ago trumpeting the ease with which out-of-state students can obtain Missouri residency, and correspondingly reduced tuition ($11,000 vs. $26,600<\/a>), I\u2019m going to guess that applications and interest are still low.<\/p>\n

Remember back when I wrote about the massive enrollment drop<\/a> at the Detroit Public Schools, and the fact that, however positive schools of choice and options for families might be, the school system is nonetheless facing substantial problems due to legacy costs?\u00a0 At the university level, too, well, it\u2019s a good thing, I suppose, when universities which are well-run win in the \u201cenrollment competition\u201d against those with poor management, poor academic standards, low value for money, and so on.\u00a0 But the waste of resources \u2014 of buildings which sit empty at some universities while others go on expansion sprees \u2014 is still unsettling.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Featured image:\u00a0 University of Illinois; public domain)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So we\u2019ve finally made it past the college application process, coached my son through essays, made some campus visits, clicked \u201csubmit\u201d 4 times, and are now waiting for the fat envelopes (or, yes, the virtual equivalent thereof) to come with my son\u2019s name on them. But I wanted to share with you three items that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,678],"class_list":["post-7711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-universities","tag-university-admissions"],"yoast_head":"\nUpdate on college marketing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So we've finally made it past the college application process, coached my son through essays, made some campus visits, clicked "submit" 4 times, and are\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/11\/update-college-marketing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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