Did you know you can start college next fall, before earning a high school diploma or even taking the SATs?According to the recent invitation I received from Bard College at Simon's Rock, you can drop out of normal highschool and start college now. That is if you are in 10th or 11th grade and have the money to afford it. "Why wait?" the appealing brochure questions. It is the "only college specifically designed for students ready to tackle college early, without finishing high school."
As desirable and tempting the idea of going straight to college is, I had to be realistic. The truth of this program is that all of the fees add up to a grand total of $59,108 annually. Four years of college already adds up to a hefty amount so to pay for an additional two years of college before college is unnecessary. In comparison to the average college tuition at $22,203; this early college is on the higher end of crazy tuitions.
By having such an expensive tuition, the program is only accessible to some people. Maybe people living in the north shore of Chicago, or other wealthy suburbs. If only a small group of people can afford the program, do they still send their brochures out to everyone? To what extent can admissions target a certain group of people without crossing a racial or class line?
Not only does the program target a higher class, the brochure also clearly targets prospective students. On one of the pages (left), they took a page from a standardized test and filled in the bubbles spelling out "Over high school?". By doing this, they are appealing to high school students by showing a mutual disliking for standardized testing and showing empathy. Instead of making me want to attend to early college even more, it turned me away. Although a creative choice and design, it made the program seem unprofessional. In addition it made it seem like an easy way out, like cheating your way out of high school.
It was interesting that they chose to target students rather than parents; aren't parents the ones that would be paying the tuition? If they appealed to parents more rather than students, they would be more effective in recruitments. What does making students the target say about their power over their own parents?
1 comment:
Nice job blogging this term, Isabel. Here you make some savvy observations about marketing etc. Here are a few other things to keep in mind, though. Cite your sources. Sounds like this school is costly but that they are also trying to get people "through" their degree programs faster (though still in four years). in other words, the American desire for speed and efficiency might also be worrth exploring.
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