This week, NCCRUA released its sophomore e-mail list. Here are some of the e-mails that my son received:

A top college wants to get to know you! – Washington College

College Preparation Check List – University of Washington St. Louis

David, you’re on our radar – Harrisburg University of Science and Technology

David, you’ve been selected – Ursinus University

David, you’ve been selected by Hofstra – Hofstra University

Great work, David! – Messiah College

Hello, David! – Hood College

Help with your college search from H-SC – Hampden Sydney College

Help with your college search from H-SC – Hampden Sydney College (received twice)

Kick-start your college search – Drexel University

McDaniel College will change your life – McDaniel College

Pleased to meet you, David – Randolph Macon University

Pleased to meet you, David – University of Richmond

Tulane University has selected you – Tulane University

You’ve been selected! – Quinnipiac University

Finding the shortcomings with these school’s e-mail approach is too easy. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Note that several use precisely the same wording or variations of the same wording in the title line. Several compliment my son on his academic accomplishments even though he is only two months into 10th grade. Several others start use the word “selected” with the innuendo that he has been admitted to a particular school.

This is one of the admissions search strategies of Royall & Company, a firm out of Richmond, Virginia, that has grown to dominate college search in this country. You send a very large list of students starting in their sophomore year a teaser e-mail. In the e-mail is a link to a dedicated web site where the student can order a seemingly objective informational booklet and at the same time information about the particular college. Here is the text of two e-mails:

David,

You’ve been selected to take the free quiz, Simplify Your Shortlist: Discover Your College Type <link> . Answer a few questions based on your personality to find out the kind of college that might be right for you, as well as to discover majors you may want to consider.

Simplify Your Shortlist: Discover Your College Type <link> is available only online – click here <link>  to get started.

Once you take the e-quiz <link> , I’ll also send you Your Future Is Now: How Successful Students Plan for College <link> . This free guide from Ursinus College will help you get on track for college acceptance.

Take your e-quiz and request Your Future is Now. <link>  When you do, I’ll continue to send you timely updates and information from our Office of Admission. You’ll quickly discover the opportunities that await you here, such as unparalleled interaction between students and faculty. Your professors won’t just teach you, they’ll become role models, mentors and guides for lifelong learning.
<lnk>

Sincerely,

Richard Floyd
Director of Admission
Ursinus College

and

David,

Looking for a college that’s a good match for you can be fun! To help you see how you’ll adapt to college life, I would like you to take Your Own Path <link> , Quinnipiac’s brand-new eQuiz. We recently developed this interactive quiz to help smart sophomores like you!

And when you begin your online quiz today, I’ll also mail you How to Have a Life in High School (and Still Get Into College) <link> , a free guide to balancing your college search and having fun.

Take your quiz and receive your guide here. <link>  Plus learn more about Quinnipiac (pronounced KWIN-uh-pe-ack). We’re a medium-sized university in Hamden, Connecticut, where you’ll find big opportunities for an education unlike any other.

I hope to hear from you soon, David!

Sincerely,
Joan Isaac Mohr
Vice President and Dean of Admissions
Quinnipiac University
275 Mount Carmel Ave.
Hamden, CT 06518-1940

P.S. I encourage you to take a closer look at Quinnipiac University and find out more about what we can offer you <link>  now and into the future.

I think I understand why colleges employ this strategy. Admissions marketing has become an extremely labor intensive, time consuming process. Royall offers to colleges the promise of a relatively easy, turn-key approach to filling the prospect pool with qualified applicants.

At the same time, I can’t help but notice that the schools are employing a strategy targeting the most naive, passive and easily impressionable students in the admissions funnel. Do they really think that a 10th grader doesn’t have the common sense to see through this hollow flattery and self-serving rhetoric? And what about those 10th graders who do? I guess the schools are assuming that the students won’t carry a lasting bad impression of the school for using such a patently consumerist and shallow way of approaching them.

These e-mails are one argument among many for upgrading the quality of school’s marketing offices and not leaving creative execution to admissions offices exclusively or to direct mail mills like Royall. At least if you are going to employ this strategy, it needs to be employed with creativity and originality. I can’t imagine that any school actually thinks it’s effective to use exactly the same teaser heading as another institution. But I don’t think admissions offices have taken the time to think this through.