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Shelby Espinosa
Dr. Narcisi
Honors Writing Seminar
11 November 2015
Gucci, Versace, and the Ivy Leagues ha!
Begin with something a little more related to your topic introduce either college or
marketing [Binge watching some of the decades most popular television shows has proved to be
a guilty pleasure indulged by many. Ask anyone about a character from her favorite show and
she could undoubtedly name everything about him or her, including details so small, they might
even know the real university the fictional character attended.] For example, Andy Bernard
in The Office attended Cornell University, Meredith Grey graduated from Dartmouth College in
Greys Anatomy, Rory Gilmore in Gilmore Girls attended Yale University, Sex and the City star
Miranda Hobbs is a Harvard Law School graduate, and characters Ted, Lily, and Marshall in
How I Met Your Mother all attended Wesleyan University. The university each character attended
is merely a small detail intended to give the characters more realistic features. Maybe they are
even intended to make the characters more relatable. But is it actually realistic that these fictional
characters all attended these universities? From the seven characters named, four fictionally
attended a prestigious Ivy League university, and although Wesleyan University is not in the Ivy
League, the university has its own prestigious standings with a 23.9 percent acceptance rate and
ranked #14 National Liberal Arts College by U.S News College Compass. So why did the writers
of these popular television shows choose such prestigious universities for their characters
attendance instead of picking state schools? What is the meaning of a universitys reputation and
the brand they have placed on them? In todays society, universities rely on their brand to

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attract students. Establishing credibility for a university in the 21st century relies on
commercialism, advertising, technology, and the selling of a lifestyle more than selling of an
education.
Children growing up in recent decades have been exposed to large amounts of
consumerist advertising for most of their lives. This could be indicative of why there are such
strong inclinations toward things that are well-marketed. With that in mind, universities across
America have begun to change the way they market their schools in order to fit the desires of
potential students. Many universities have even hired marketing professionals from the corporate
world, including CMOs, and have invested significant time and money to create a strong and
well-known brand (Hannover Research). In 1996, University of Florida professor James
Twitchell even coined a term for the American society as an area saturated with the lingering
influences of commercialism, called Adcult (Tokuhama 35). This term is a combination of
advertising and culture, and in making this comment, Twitchell hints at the ideology that
revolves around the importance placed on the concept of marketing. Nice term
With todays adcult, society pegged as an adcult, this leaves many universities
fighting and hungry for visibility from prospective students. And in order to do so, universities
must get their name out there in the market. In a survey conducted by the Chronicle of Higher
Education, Hoover who? reports that, on average, printed materials, such as viewbooks and
brochures, account for 24 percent of admissions budgets (Cooper 15). In other words,
universities spend a lot of time and money marketing their schools, having faith that the
pamphlets sent to students will ultimately encourage them to apply. In fact, at the same time most
students are taking their SATs, their mailboxes start to overflow with college propaganda
promising breathtaking campuses, multiple housing options, and an unlimited amount of

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recreational opportunities (Ceperley). Most modern day universities favor this target marketing
strategy (Lewison and Hawes 17), which has developed into a strategic sales mechanism,
designed to ensure a freshman class that is fit to their standards (Ceperley). Additionally,
universities do not only market through brochures and informational packets, but have also
turned to the digital world, appealing to students though social media and online sites as another
form of marketing. A recent survey by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth indicated that
nearly 100 percent of institutions polled use some form of social media as part of their marketing
and operations (Hannover Research). But research shows that the most important tool for social
and online marketing is an effective and intuitive website. The most prominent tool this online
marketing utilizes is the call to action button that encourages students to apply (Hannover
Research). Ultimately, advertising and marketing forms new types of culture in societies while
simultaneously widening and strengthening connections to the existing culture interesting
(Tokuhama 36). By sending personal brochures and integrating into the social media world, it is
more than apparent that universities do everything in their power to promote and recruit students
to their respective university.
Also within a universitys power is the ability to form and promote a certain lifestyle.
But the lifestyle of one university can be drastically different from another. For example, The
University of Texas at Austin markets the slogan: What Starts Here Changes the World
(utexas.edu), suggesting that students of the university cultivate such knowledge while attending
that they are then able to change the world. In their media advertising campaign, The University
of Texas features local television commercials highlighting various famous alumni and their
individual accomplishments, which have indeed changed the world. Differently, St. Edwards
University advertises the slogan: On the Rise (stedwards.edu), implying that although they are

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a small Catholic university, perhaps existing in the shadow of nearby University of Texas, big
and great things are happening at their school as they rise to compete with larger area
universities.
Each university has a different lifestyle they choose to market, depending on the type of
students they want to attract or the number of students they need for enrollment. A university in
need of boosting their enrollment might send brochures portraying elaborate dorms and lavish
athletic facilities, while schools looking to attract high preforming students will market their
internship opportunities and specialized degrees. Mark Edmundson disagrees with this
promotion of lifestyle in his article On the Uses of a Liberal Education when he writes, the
freshman-to-be sees photos of well-appointed dorm rooms; of elaborate phys-ed facilities; of fine
dining rooms; of expertly kept sports fields; of orchestras and drama troupesOccasionally
only occasionallytheres a professor teaching a class (Edmundson 44). His point is that
todays universities focus too much on the lifestyle in their advertisements rather than the
educational aspect of college. In other words, Edmundson believes that many admissions
departments depict what is most appealing to students, leaving the educational side of college out
of the brochures, and ultimately falling into the trap of our consumer based culture. But why is it
the case that some universities feel forced to market so much more than others?
The answer could be found with dependence on the brand that the school holds. For
most students, when it comes time to apply to colleges, hundreds of emails from that one small
college in Minnesota fill their inbox but the Ivy League schools only have to send one. It is most
likely due to the fact that students are already familiar with the Princetons and the Harvards of
the university world. Receiving an estimated 34,295 applications for the class of 2018
(Delwiche), these types of schools already have an esteemed brand. In fact, a more visible and

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established brand could mean more prestige and more applications for admission (Love 2).
Studies show that brands can provide an easy way for youth to compensate for their feelings of
anxiety by acting as a substitute for value (Tokuhama 34). Basically, having or being a part of a
brand gives people a sense of belonging and can even instill a certain sense of confidence. For
example, the right label for something can bring prestige and esteem upon teens, warding off
any self-doubt one might have (Tokuhama 34-5).
Just as having the right designer handbag, shoes or wristwatch can elevate a young
persons sense of self-worth, albeit false, to a whole new level, a designer university can have
the same effect. Much of the time, college applicants feel so much more accomplished when they
receive admission into a school with a 20 percent acceptance rate, as opposed to a 90 percent
acceptance rate. Apparently, universities with prestigious titles just so happen to be marketing to
the perfect crowd. As a matter of fact, for many students aspiring to go to elite schools, a college
acceptance to one can give them a particular type of status. But failure to achieve this goal,
especially at the fragile age of 18, can represent an extremely large disappointment (Tokuhama
35). Living in a culture dominated by labels, the idea of a brand has become an important
factor for decision-making, especially when it comes to picking a university to attendso much
so that studies show that the actual quality of something does not seem as important as the
perceived value (Tokuhama 35).
Stamping the title of good or bad on a university deals largely with rephrase the
schools credibility. For example, every year the US News and World Report releases a list of the
Best Colleges that many students and their parents hold to great importance when it comes to
searching for the perfect university. Every year, the top ten schools generally consist of some of
the Ivy Leagues followed by elite technological schools. There are rarely any surprises as to

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which colleges make the list. But how exactly do the rankings work? According to the website,
the formula uses quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable
indicators of academic quality, and it's based on our researched view of what matters in
education (usnews.com). The site goes on to explain that the indicators used to capture
academic quality fall into a number of categories including: assessment by administrators at peer
institutions, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources,
alumni giving, and graduation rate performance.
But in analyzing the breakdown of the ranking system, the survey holds the retention rate
of a university as the most important piece saying: the higher the proportion of first-year
students who return to campus for sophomore year and eventually graduate, the better a school is
apt to be at offering the classes and services that students need to succeed (usnews.com). In
other words, when a university is able to hold on to their students, they must be doing something
right, and therefore, are considered good. But putting such a large emphasis on a universitys
retention rate does not necessarily gauge good academics. Right A school with top-notch
academics could be located in an undesirable location, lack appropriate housing, or even cost too
much money. There are many factors that go into the retention rate besides offering classes and
services for success. Nonetheless, as a result of this carefully aggregated ranking system, many
elite universities have been touted as being educationally superior.
In their 2011 Journal of the Oxford Round Table, William Schmidt and Nathan
Burroughs completed a study testing the question: is the selectivity of a college necessarily an
indicator of the quality of education received? They proposed that
The success of those graduating from elite colleges could simply be an instance of
selection bias: where [universities] attract the best students in part through

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reputation and price signaling, so it should not be surprising that their alumni do
rather well. These postsecondary institutions provide superior social networking
advantages and peer effects, real benefits to be sure, but hardly indicators of a
strong curriculum (Schmidt and Burroughs).
The researchers hypothesized that these students from elite schools would have had equally good
outcomes after college had they gone somewhere else. The data for Schmidt and Burroughs
research was gathered from two main sources: the Barron's College Admissions Selector Rating
and the results of the U.S.-TEDS study. The researchers examined the relationship between
student academic achievement and content knowledge with college selectivity. They proposed
that if "selectivity" truly does connote a higher quality education, students who attend elite
schools should perform much better than students at other schools, controlling for the students'
prior academic achievement. Rather than just looking at the selectivity measures such as
admission rates and outcomes such as salary and career data, the study wanted to provide a
measure of value added by these schools. The researchers were able to make these comparisons
through data from the U.S. Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS), analyzing how
students performed on an achievement test of mathematics. The results showed that students at
low-quality institutions did about the same no matter how selective their institution, performing
40 to 50 points worse on the tests than those at high-selectivity schools, controlling for other
factors (Schmidt and Burroughs). The papers conclusion noted that individual factors of the
students background are strongly associated with performance on the test, not necessarily the
university they attended. Schmidt and Burroughs further noted that given the salaries for the
students, whom aspired to be teachers, it did not make financial sense for students pursuing this
career to attend a private expensive intuition.

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As a previous high school student who was once in the midst of finding the perfect
university, going to a good school was always at the top of my list. But even I found myself
consumed by University brand names in the college process. Would a potential employer choose
someone with a degree from Columbia University over myself with a degree from Regis
University solely because Columbia has a more prestigious and established brand?
Unfortunately, the answer is most likely yes. Those who know of Regis University are aware of
the rigorous academics and cultivated community the school has to offer. But it is doubtful that
you will see a popular sitcom character sporting a blue and gold Regis sweatshirt any time soon.
I wish! Regis University markets the slogan: Seek More, imploring students to never settle. In
fact, those are the first words you see when visiting the University website. Regis calls on
students to retest that experiment one more time, to rewrite the essay you got a B on, and to
pick your own brain (that slogan is not our best!). But when visiting Columbia Universitys
website, you see no slogans, no advertisements or marketing ploys, simply because the
University does not need to. Columbia already has their established brand and prestigious
demeanor, tied for the number four spot on the Best Colleges rankings (usnews.com). No
matter what Columbia advertises or markets, as long as the school is branded as an elite Ivy
League institution, the applications will pour in to their admissions office every fall.
But attending a brand name university is not the only way to become successful. Nancy
Gibbs, author of a Times Magazine published article, Who Needs Harvard?, argues that the
students who look beyond the brand name schools, may be the smartest applicants of them all.
Gibbs assessed a study from the Quarterly Journal of Economics published in 2002 that showed
that students who were accepted at top schools, but for various reasons went to less selective
ones, were earning just as much money twenty years later as their peers who attended more

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highly selective colleges. Likewise, a survey conducted showed only seven CEOs from the
current top 50 Fortune 500 companies were Ivy League undergraduates (Gibbs). Therefore, not
attending a distinguished, well-known university does not ensure the condemnation of your
professional career.
Today, many students, like myself, venture out to attend our generic, but promising
universities, where although not many would think so, we earn educations undoubtedly
comparable to those of Ivy Leagues. But in the shadow of the "designer brand-name"
universities, we remain resolute in our conviction of the equality of our education and
experiences. In my opinion, I do not foresee these exclusive universities hype ever dying down.
As long as the elite schools maintain their prestigious brands, they will continue to attract
countless students desire to be a part of that brand. Mark Edmundson argues that today, most
universities view their students as customers, marketing their facilities over the education they
provide. But what I believe Edmundson does not understand is that for some universities, they
have no choice. Because of the certain brand name some schools have maintained, the generic
universities cannot compare and are left to market their next best features. Brochures, flyers, and
all other ads are not to blame in our consumer culture, but rather, the perpetrators in this case are
the brands we as a society place on universities. Nice

Shelby, this is excellent work. The research format seems to come naturally to you and
that is definitely not the case for most students! You move between your sources with great
fluidity, and you evolve your argument in the ways we have been discussing all semester. Your
final paragraph, as a result, is a powerful one.

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I also think you have an important topic here. Mostly, I think you made the right choice
in choosing Regis!
See my notes for small edits, but I am so impressed with how your essays have improved
over the semester. You are going to do great things in college.
LN
A

Works Cited
Ceperley, Andrew. "Chasing Happiness: Is Consumerism in Conflict with Student Career

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Development?" N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Cooper, Dr. Jacqueline. "We Dont Speak Their Language: Radical Creativity with
Branding." Journal Of College Admission (n.d.): 15-17. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Delwiche, Theodore R. "Harvard Makes Admissions Offers to 5.9 Percent of Applicants
to the Class of 2018 | News | The Harvard Crimson." Harvard Makes Admissions
Offers to 5.9 Percent of Applicants to the Class of 2018 | News | The Harvard
Crimson. N.p., 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Edmundson, Mark. One the Uses of a Liberal Education: I. As Lite Entertainment for
Bored College Students. Harpers Sept. 1997: 39-49. Print.
Gibbs, Nancy. "Who Needs Harvard." TIME 13 Aug. 2006: n. pag. 13 Aug. 2006. Web.
10 Nov. 2015.
Hoover, Eric. "The Marketer and His Mission." The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p.,
01 Jan. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Lewison, Dale M. And Hawes, Jon M.. "Student Target Marketing Strategies for
Universities." Journal Of College Admissionu (n.d.): 15-19. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Love, Julia. "Despite Colleges' Efforts, Brands Can Escape Their Bounds." Chronicle of

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Higher Education 59.6 (2006): n. pag. 5 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
"New Strategies in Higher Education Marketing." (1991): n. pag. Trends in Higher
Education Marketing, Recruitment, and Technology. Hanover Research, 2014.
Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Schmidt, William, Nathan Burroughs, Lee Cogan, and Richard Houang. "Are College
Rankings an Indicator of Quality Education? Comparing Barrons and TEDS-M."
International Perspectives on Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs and Opportunities to
Learn Advances in Mathematics Education (2014): 503-14. Web.
"St. Edward's University." One of the Best Catholic Colleges & Universities.
N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
"The University of Texas at Austin." The University of Texas at Austin. N.p., n.d. Web.
Nov. 2015.
Tokuhama, Chris. "Consumption, a Modern Affliction: Branding Culture, Youth Identity
and College Admission." Journal Of College Admission (n.d.): 33-38. Web. 10
Nov. 2015.
US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

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