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I understand this knee-jerk reaction. However it is completely wrong. It is foolish to block tracking like this. Blocking tracking on a university website or

I understand this knee-jerk reaction. However it is completely wrong. It is foolish to block tracking like this. Blocking tracking on a university website or email correspondence would be like setting your LinkedIn profile to private prior doing research on a job opportunity. This is the domain I work in at the moment and I can 100% assure you that anonymous behavior hurts your admission chances significantly. Don't ever visit a campus without letting them know you are there. Same goes for email and web site visits.

samename 8y ago
Absolutely not. This sets a dangerous precedent. Students aren’t just trusting their data to your institution, but also all the other entities in between. It is foolish to punish privacy-conscious students. We do not want to create a world where advancement is only possible by giving up one’s privacy.
- uberman 8y ago
  There are dozens of companies collecting and selling information about high school students. You can't take the sat or act and not be sold. Preventing the very people you do want to take note of your interest is cutting your nose off to spite your face. You can either accept it or not, but as an insider (not affiliated with a college) I can assure you that blocking tracking on email from admissions departments is a huge mistake. But hey, you do what you think us best.
  - samename 8y ago
    In the grand scheme of things, the tracking data collected is nothing compared to what is collected on college applications and standardized tests. Unfortunatey, that’s the world we live in. Fortunately I am not a high school student, but there are many implications to consider here. As an engineer, I would take issue with tracking students behavior. However, I am also more privacy conscious than the average engineer.
stallmanite 8y ago
Don’t visit a campus without letting them know you’re there? Could you elaborate on why that’s a bad idea?
- uberman 8y ago
  If you visit a campus with your (or as) a prospective student, be sure to take and register for the guided tour. Signals of interest like these are absolutely a factor during admission season. If you go and dont let them know, you are wasting part of the opportunity. Already taken the tour and want to go for a second or third visit then arrange to speak to a faculty member about the departments you are interested in. Your department of interest almost certainly has prospective student days. Try to time your visit with one.
  - rajacombinator 8y ago
    Really unlikely for these kind of stats to ever be a deciding factor. Massive waste of time from an ROI factor excluding the fun in visiting. I can only see it mattering for a mid tier “safety” type school trying to boost their accept/decline rate by denying obvious safety school applicants.
    - uberman 8y ago
      Some college rankings place importance on vanity metrics like acceptance and matriculation rates. This is a reality. Top colleges are typically more sensitive to and interested in optimizing for these measures. If you think that signaling intent as a student is not important, you are of course welcome to your opinion.
      - applecrazy 8y ago
        High school senior here. Just wanted to point out that while demonstrated interest is certainly a component in college admissions (like it or not), but varies from institution to institution on its importance. Quick tip: if you're wondering whether a school actually considers demonstrated interest, you can Google up "[school] common data set" (without quotes). Look for Section C7, which indicates the relative weight of the various admissions factors. Just throwing it out there.
hopler 8y ago
That sounds miserable. Your job is to help institutions make bad decisions that deny educational opportunities to children who aren't clued into how to game the system? The only mitigating aspet is that I suspect that this system isn't used at schools that deliver educations worth paying for.
- uberman 8y ago
  Actually, we do the exact opposite. We help students make good decisions to optimize their chances of getting into a top 100 university. I don't work for any institution. We help candidates appear in their best light and once they have received an offer we actively work against the interest of the college to help the student get the best aid package possible.

samename 8y ago

Absolutely not. This sets a dangerous precedent. Students aren’t just trusting their data to your institution, but also all the other entities in between. It is foolish to punish privacy-conscious students. We do not want to create a world where advancement is only possible by giving up one’s privacy.

uberman 8y ago
There are dozens of companies collecting and selling information about high school students. You can't take the sat or act and not be sold. Preventing the very people you do want to take note of your interest is cutting your nose off to spite your face. You can either accept it or not, but as an insider (not affiliated with a college) I can assure you that blocking tracking on email from admissions departments is a huge mistake. But hey, you do what you think us best.
- samename 8y ago
  In the grand scheme of things, the tracking data collected is nothing compared to what is collected on college applications and standardized tests. Unfortunatey, that’s the world we live in. Fortunately I am not a high school student, but there are many implications to consider here. As an engineer, I would take issue with tracking students behavior. However, I am also more privacy conscious than the average engineer.

stallmanite 8y ago

Don’t visit a campus without letting them know you’re there? Could you elaborate on why that’s a bad idea?

uberman 8y ago
If you visit a campus with your (or as) a prospective student, be sure to take and register for the guided tour. Signals of interest like these are absolutely a factor during admission season. If you go and dont let them know, you are wasting part of the opportunity. Already taken the tour and want to go for a second or third visit then arrange to speak to a faculty member about the departments you are interested in. Your department of interest almost certainly has prospective student days. Try to time your visit with one.
- rajacombinator 8y ago
  Really unlikely for these kind of stats to ever be a deciding factor. Massive waste of time from an ROI factor excluding the fun in visiting. I can only see it mattering for a mid tier “safety” type school trying to boost their accept/decline rate by denying obvious safety school applicants.
  - uberman 8y ago
    Some college rankings place importance on vanity metrics like acceptance and matriculation rates. This is a reality. Top colleges are typically more sensitive to and interested in optimizing for these measures. If you think that signaling intent as a student is not important, you are of course welcome to your opinion.
    - applecrazy 8y ago
      High school senior here. Just wanted to point out that while demonstrated interest is certainly a component in college admissions (like it or not), but varies from institution to institution on its importance. Quick tip: if you're wondering whether a school actually considers demonstrated interest, you can Google up "[school] common data set" (without quotes). Look for Section C7, which indicates the relative weight of the various admissions factors. Just throwing it out there.

hopler 8y ago

That sounds miserable. Your job is to help institutions make bad decisions that deny educational opportunities to children who aren't clued into how to game the system? The only mitigating aspet is that I suspect that this system isn't used at schools that deliver educations worth paying for.

uberman 8y ago
Actually, we do the exact opposite. We help students make good decisions to optimize their chances of getting into a top 100 university. I don't work for any institution. We help candidates appear in their best light and once they have received an offer we actively work against the interest of the college to help the student get the best aid package possible.