COLLEGE RECRUITMENT FOR TOP STUDENTS RESULTS IN MOUNDS OF MAIL, CONTACTS

Takara Stanley never got so much mail as when she started thinking about college.

The Cape Girardeau Central High School senior has received boxes and boxes of information from colleges across the country from Ivy League schools to institutions she'd never heard of before.

"It's a massive amount," said Stanley, a top CHS student who has been saving her mail for more than a year.

Marketing experts estimate the average college-bound student receives more than 200 unsolicited mailings as admission officers use Madison Avenue techniques to compete for a dwindling number of potential students.

Schools have resorted to consultants, telemarketing, glossy catalogs, promises of hefty scholarships, direct-mail advertising, even video-cassette and computer-disc promotions.

Stanley said, "One school wrote me a letter and said they paid 19 cents for my name. I thought that was kind of insulting.

"I started getting stuff when I was a sophomore. It was kind of exciting. I would sit and read through every word," Stanley said.

But now the volume of mail has skyrocketed and Stanley rarely opens the stacks of mail she receives each day.

"All that money they spend, it seems like a waste," she said, "and it's real environmental all that wasted paper."

Ingersoll, Williams and Associates, a Denver consulting firm, said private colleges spend an average of $1,200 to $2,000 recruiting every student who enrolls. Public universities spend $350 to $750 per successful recruitment.

Fred Snider, dean for enrollment at Southeast Missouri State University, said marketing strategies are also at work in Cape Girardeau. But he emphasized that Southeast targets a particular type of student to actively recruit.

"We have 13 National Merit finalists this year," Snider said. "These are the kinds of kids who could go any place in the country."

The university purchased a list of finalists and worked the list to bring those 13 students to Cape Girardeau.

"We do quite a bit of direct mail," Snider said. "We might start with 60,000 or 70,000 prospects."

"We send out more personalized information and try to refine the list more and more so we are not sending material to people who are not interested at all."

Currently Southeast has 13,000 high school seniors and just over 3,000 juniors on the prospect list.

Admission counselors go into high schools and college fairs throughout the state, and in selected metropolitan areas like Chicago and Nashville.

Southeast hosts a Show Me day each year inviting high school students on campus for a visit.

"We have tours of the campus individual people can set up," Snider said.

Southeast has even produced a recruitment video.

"We have some shots of Linda Godwin (Southeast alum and astronaut) saying nice things about the university and little bits on each of the colleges, specific programs and student life," Snider said.

As the list narrows, recruitment efforts pick up. "We do more telephone calls and those kinds of things."

While Snider admits college recruitment is competitive, he says Southeast is most interested in trying to find students who will fit into the university here.

"We are trying to match up students," he said. "We would much rather find we have the fit when they come here rather than find out when get here that Southeast wasn't what they really wanted."

Amy Orr, admission counselor at Murray State University at Murray, Ky., said students on the school's recruitment list receive something in the mail at least once a week.

"Any university that is wanting to go out and reach the students needs to do some marketing," Orr said. "You can't sit back and wait for students come to you."

Murray State employs marketing experts in their admissions department. "We just can't let a student slip by," Orr said.

"We have a marketing cycle set up. We mail out applications, view books, greeting letters during certain months," she said.

The university will do mass mailings of up to 50,000 pieces at certain key times.

Plus, she said, any time a prospective student requests information, it's in the mail the next day.

The university also buy names lists of prospective students from ACT, a college entrance exam that many high school students take.

"For Murray State, it's very crucial to make it personal to the students, to make them feel they are special," Orr said. "I want to be very personable, friendly and get to know students and their names."

She said she often calls her prospective recruits to offer information or just to chat.

"It's very competitive," Orr said. "The university is expecting us to bring in more students this year. That's our job every year."

She recruits at 43 schools in Missouri. "Some senior classes have dropped (in enrollment), and that makes my job more difficult."

It's not too easy for high school students either, Stanley said.

Stanley, who is undecided about a career, is looking for a strong liberal arts college. "But I also want unique people and a great student body," she said.

"When I initially started thinking about it, it was real fun and exciting. But the closer it gets, it's real scary."

Stanley's top college choice is Georgetown; she is completing the application now. She has also considered Harvard and Stanford.

"I've been seriously looking at colleges based on their reputation," she said. "My parents have not really tried to influence me. They are encouraging me to apply to the best place."

When she learns if she has been accepted, then Stanley and her family will address the issue of cost.

"Cost is a big factor," she said. "All the top 25 schools don't offer much financial aid, except need-based financial aid."

And she admitted, the cost may cause her to reconsider universities closer to home.

Stanley offered advice to sophomores and even freshmen beginning the college search. "Definitely start thinking about it soon. And don't send back the reply cards unless you really want them to mail you the information."

(Some information for this story was provided by Associated Press.)