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

A Word About the Yale Admitted Student Questionnaire

08 Jul

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

“Awesome,” I said to myself. “This questionnaire has been helpfully designed to take only a few minutes- how thoughtful of the Yale Admissions Office!” How wrong I was. I opened the questionnaire-packet to find myself confronted by about 100 questions. Allowing a mere 10 seconds per question, that survey would take nearly 17 minutes to complete. “A few” indeed. Was the survey gratuitously long? Not particularly–I still filled it out. But I was annoyed by the misrepresentative sell. Was it necessary?

4 Comments

Google bans ads for essay services: so do I

23 May

Posted by Sam Jackson as Advertisements, Internets, marketing

I know I mark myself by saying that I just got this from Slashdot, but… the BBC reports that Google is going to soon drop ads from agencies which sell essays and papers online. I had a personal scuffle with this just a few days ago when an online paper selling organization asked to [...]

1 Comment

A word to schools about post-application surveys

21 May

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

I only got an invitation to fill out one survey, personally: Tufts asked me to fill out a survey explaining why I asked for information and all but then never applied. Yale hasn’t sent me anything yet, so I assume they aren’t going to be sending one at all. However, I have been talking with [...]

1 Comment

Boston Globe agrees with me: Uncensored Student Blogs are best

07 May

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

I caught this April 16 article (”College blogs tell it like it is“) when it first came out in newsprint, but this was during my blogging downtime so I just filed it away somewhere to gather dust. I was reminded of it again when TargetX mentioned it in their Email Minute last week.
Remember how I [...]

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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.”