That is the question

I started my career in admissions in the world of higher education. Admissions at the university level is much more of a profession. There are standards and expectations and even rules. And consequences. And it is taken more seriously by their institutions. Maybe things have changed since then (it was almost two decades ago!) but nobody would be caught standing in front of their table at a fair, or have a bowl of candy on their table, or hand out gifts.

After all, this was about higher education, this was about each student’s own education. Admissions was admissions and not recruitment. It was about the serious business of a student’s future and figuring out where they would be best served. And it would be cheapened by stuffed animals on a table or cute give-aways.

Imagine my shock when I moved into independent school admissions!

All these years later, I’m essentially immune (or numb) to it although this week the topic came up among a group of colleagues, in part because we were at such a quiet programme and were lacking anything better to do or discuss. There were some who were anti-gift and some who were very pro-gift. The majority, however, thought there was a fuzzy, undefined line in there somewhere. Giving away a pen or maybe even a lanyard was okay. Hats were dancing near the line and shirts for many were clearly on the other side of that line.

For me, it raises a question of purpose and value to your recruitment efforts. If you’re a school 2,000 miles away that doesn’t offer a sport a student plays, do you care if your bowl of chocolates brought them to your table and they took a viewbook? Do you really think that giving away a pen or highlighter will make a student apply when they would not have done otherwise? And do you really believe that the free tshirt will confirm an enrollment when the student (and/or their parents!) feels there’s a better fit, albeit a gift-less better fit?

I don’t know. I have my doubts. I do wonder if any school who does such things has ever specifically tracked the success. Is the application rate higher among gift-getters than not? Is enrollment yield better for those sporting the school’s tshirt than those who are not? I’d genuinely like to know.

To gift or not to gift. That is the question.