Many families are under the impression that kids can and should be marketed, packaged and pitched to colleges. They’ve heard that applicants need a hook, that applications and essays should be polished, and that a student can be engineered to deliver what the customer—in this case, the student’s most desirable colleges—wants. They believe that like widgets, students should be marketed with a strategic campaign.
There’s certainly some art to college application presentation. A haphazard portrayal will never be as compelling as one that clearly and forcefully presents who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and what you hope to get out of college. And in fact, I think there are some connections between modern marketing and college admissions, but not in the ways many families believe. Here are five ways marketing actually does work in college admissions.
1. The most effective marketing starts with a great product. No amount of marketing sizzle will make customers rave about a bad steak. And no amount of application polishing will make up the difference for an applicant who just isn’t as qualified as the majority of the pool, especially at the more selective colleges.
2. It’s a lot easier to market to people who already want what you’re selling. And you’ll have a lot more admissions (and financial aid) success if you apply to colleges that are predisposed to admit you exactly as you are, with or without the marketing.
3. Great marketing doesn’t have an “insert-name-of-company-here” feeling like the one below.
It’s not a good ad if I could swap out American for another airline and the ad would still make sense. And if you could substitute one applicant for another without rendering the application or essay untrue (Example: “My time on the student council shows my ability to work with others”), that’s not good marketing.
4. Honesty works in marketing and in college applications.
5. Great marketing is not one department. Advertising, mission statements, slogans—none of those things matter nearly as much as what a company actually does every day. How they answer the phone, how they treat their customers and employees, how they behave when they make a mistake–everything they do (and don’t do) is marketing. And for college applicants, your work ethic, character, interest in learning, etc. all contribute as much to your collegiate marketability as the words on your application and in your essays do.
Work hard. Endeavor to be a good person. Make an impact in and out of class. Find the colleges that fit you best, whether or not they’re prestigious. Then present yourself clearly and authentically. That’s your best college marketing plan.