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If Washington University at St. Louis is such a top school, why do they send so many brochures and pamplets out. I mean I recieved alot of stuff from them when I was a freshman, and now I'm still recieving. Most other high ranked schools don't send anything out unless you ask for it. Just wondering

By Chen (Chen) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 06:22 pm: Edit

Raises its selectivity and therefore its ranking on the US News or ranking in people's minds that everyone wants to go to this school.

By Pdragon17 (Pdragon17) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 09:17 pm: Edit

I dont think its only the brochures that raise the applications. The fact that Wash U is on the common app and does not require any additional essays on its supplement motivated a lot of friends who were looking for one more school to add to their list to apply to Wash U.
I think the brochures are to increase its name recognition. A lot of people, primarily in the northeast, often overlook Wash U. They know its a good school, but do not put it in the same class as the Ivies, where it should belong. But the name recogntion also increases the number of applications.

By Mafmaf22 (Mafmaf22) on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 09:45 pm: Edit

i think they do it to reach out to top students who might not know of them, or mught have not been interested. They send out tons of stuff to most top students. i know so many kids in my school who are really smart who get tons of stuff. i have a lot of mail from them. also they've got a huge endowment so they have some extra money to let people know of them and to spark kids interest

By Fatherofed (Fatherofed) on Monday, January 26, 2004 - 09:40 am: Edit

Silly question. If Audi never advertised, no one would know they make a great car, same for Starbucks, Crispy Creme, Haagen Dazs, etc.
It's all marketing. How many people do you know who ask "Wash, what?". Some people tend to be geographically limited.