College Daze Each And Every College’s Sales Pitch Sounds Amazingly Similar

Since the beginning of my college search, I’ve received letters, brochures, viewbooks and course catalogs from more than 100 schools, mostly unsolicited. If there was anything to be gained from examining what they sent me, I would have been flattered by the attention.

Unfortunately, nearly every college says the same thing.

For many young adults, including myself, the decision of where to attend college is a big one. Every school seems to want to “help” with that decision. A huge percentage of these schools argue that their beautiful campus, exciting activities and challenging academic environment make them the college for you.

Sadly, these distinctions make little difference when lined up next to hundreds of identical claims. Many colleges brag about their low student-faculty ratio, the high involvement of students in intramural athletics, and the diversity of their student body.

These are all pleasing catch phrases, but what do they really mean? Not much. I expected that when I received the school’s second mailing more light might be shed upon the qualities and drawbacks of the school and studies I was interested in. Still, not so.

Often, the second mailing consists of a viewbook with picturesque images of happy, involved students and profiles of first-year students. And what specific information on a major or extracurricular activity I received rarely provided more than the name of a department head.

My plea: Tell students a little about yourself!

Too often, all a school will divulge is the name of a mascot and its archrival in Division III volleyball.

It would have been helpful to know more than that as I picked which schools to spend my time and money on visiting in the past couple of months.

In the end, the colleges’ mailings did little to help my college decisions. And since all schools brag about their environmentally-conscious student body, it wouldn’t be a radical idea, then, to say what was worth saying, leave the useless stuff out and save a little paper.