Are FREE College Applications the Best Choice?

” I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” ~ Groucho Marx

Of one thing you can be sure.  There is almost always a motive behind “free,” and often a lack of appreciation.

Now that colleges are beginning to take a cue from tiny St. Rose College, free applications have spread across admission offices in this early recruit stage for Fall, 2010.  As the NYT reports:

“More than 100 other colleges and universities paid the same marketing company to send out variations of these (free) fast-track applications last fall, more than a five-fold jump since 2006. Some have spent upward of $1 million on their application campaigns, and many have seen their applicant pools double or even triple in the last two years.”

Hokey?  I can tell you from a distance of decades that it works.  When applying to attend graduate school, I applied to one university, primarily because the application was free, and actually ended up attending that school,  Kent State in Ohio.  It was not really my first choice but, for a variety of reasons including cost), became my only choice.  In my situation “FREE’ worked for both me and the university.  We both got the best of each other–so to speak.

But…what might be the drawbacks for the teenage applicants?

If your kids are like my twins, they truly don’t know where they want to attend college, though they have convinced themselves that they want to go (disclaimer:  I am not “making” them go…it’s they’re decision).  And I suppose the real problem here is that with “free” comes reduced expectation and a willingness to be led.  Some of these applications come with no real difficulties beyond transcripts…even your name and address are often filled in  (And, hey!  no essay?  That’s good enough for me!).  And I have to wonder if there is that lack of appreciation I mentioned earlier.  There is a certain psychology of aversion around the idea of  “free” and opening the process so widely.  After all, your kid might ask, how good could the school be if  they want me…and I don’t have to work for it?

So I would ignore  the word “free” when it comes to the application process.  It’s an unnecessary distraction.    It is obvious, but bears repeating:  Apply at the best school for your education, not to save $50 bucks.

Tagged as: Admissions