Why students keep flunking school sites [Reality Check!]

09 Nov

Posted by Sam Jackson as Admissions, Internets, Teenagers, marketing

College websites were rated worse this year than the last–I’m not surprised that this is the ninth straight year of decline, and you shouldn’t be either.
TargetX is generally pretty spot-on with their weekly e-mail minute (though not always) and a few weeks ago they wrote about a survey of 100,000+ college-bound students polled by the [...]

3 Comments

Do Looks Matter? Thoughts on the Admissions Office Aesthetic.

05 Oct

Posted by Sam Jackson as Admissions, College, Teenagers, Visits, marketing

Norman Kraft of Zen Writes Inc. keeps a higher education marketing blog called “Zen and the Art of Higher Education Marketing” which I read regularly (or at least as regularly as he posts–happily, the last couple of weeks have been pretty consistent) and generally find to be very on the mark. Two weeks ago he [...]

6 Comments

Yawn: U.S. News & World Report 2008 embargoed College Rankings Leaked, still deeply flawed

16 Aug

Posted by Sam Jackson as College, Irrelevance, education, marketing

Our good friends at IvyGate, through what I assume must be great cleverness and sneakery, posted the top 25 overall and top 25 Liberal Arts colleges in the U.S. News’ 2008 rankings earlier today. At first had ethical reservations about saying really anything on the topic since I felt I could be indirectly promoting the [...]

2 Comments

Marketing and Sales in College Admissions: A Worrying Trend

14 Aug

Posted by Sam Jackson as Admissions, Teenagers, marketing

I don’t think sales and marketing go hand in hand with teaching, and I question whether they are the best match for honesty in college admissions.
That’s why I’m a little annoyed when I read through old posts like this one, delving into the past some: TargetX mentioned in an Email Minute back in January that [...]

7 Comments

Five of Many Reasons Why Yale Should Have an Admissions Blog

14 Jul

Posted by Sam Jackson as Admissions, Blogging, College, Internets, Ivy League, Teenagers, Yale, education, marketing, personal

In March the Yale Daily News ran a nice little piece about the growing admissions blogging trend nationwide. The key piece in it for me was the news that Yale had no plans to start a blog or similar transparency-promoting site anytime soon. Zachary Abrahamson reports:
Blogs Elucidate Admit Process March 9, 2007
Yale presently has [...]

7 Comments

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Who is Sam Jackson?

I'm currently a sophomore at Yale University and I've been blogging about college admissions and higher education marketing trends since I began my college application process in 2005. I now also write about my experience here at Yale, and am an official Yale blogger. Click here to read my 'about' page.

Kind words about my blog:

Andrew Careaga calls it “a service to all of us in the higher ed marketing business.”

Christian Long says it has “dramatically inspired college admissions folks to take notice”

Bob Johnson says “I like [it] because I agree with so much of what he says.” and that “Paying attention what Sam writes will let you focus more closely on students who will actually attend your school.”

Karine Joly says my witty and fresh style “offers a rare glimpse at the mind of our elusive prospective students”

and TargetX calls my blog “good reading” and me “wise-beyond-my-years.”