1. Colleges are using off the shelf email list management programs. (Those all track open rates and click throughs). Sounds like they have per-applicant tracking IDs setup for each email.
2. Colleges are using off the shelf analytics tools for their websites. Sounds like they are tying this to the email campaign IDs from above.
3. The author of this article doesn't mention how incredible fragile and prone to losing track of individual IDs such systems are. Use a different computer (school laptop VS home PC), different browser, or get an ID from visiting the website then click through an email and watch as some poorly configured system gets confused, etc.
And finally, an investigation of if these numbers correlate to student success in any way shape or form would've been a nice bit of reporting.
I work in higher ed admissions, using Slate, which is also used by at least 3 of the 4 schools mentioned. Fortunately or not admissions operations no longer rely on spreadsheets and mailchimp to collate data and score applicants (interest, merit or otherwise), and the software supporting them is getting pretty advanced.
While I agree this tidbit is newsworthy and icky, what's more disturbing to me is the lack of interest demonstrated by those responsible for educating students...faculty. Any university admin can attest to this. The people most qualified to judge an applicant's merits are surprisingly unwilling to do so in a fair, objective and consistent way. Anecdotal evidence, but I've gotten requests from professors of engineering (including CS faculty) not only to print application PDFs but sort spreadsheets by GPA. As if they can't figure out how to do that themselves.
I believe part of this trend is actually a response to that: admin staff look for more tools/metrics to inform admissions decisions. Misguided or not it's a sign of the times.
1. Colleges are using off the shelf email list management programs. (Those all track open rates and click throughs). Sounds like they have per-applicant tracking IDs setup for each email.
2. Colleges are using off the shelf analytics tools for their websites. Sounds like they are tying this to the email campaign IDs from above.
3. The author of this article doesn't mention how incredible fragile and prone to losing track of individual IDs such systems are. Use a different computer (school laptop VS home PC), different browser, or get an ID from visiting the website then click through an email and watch as some poorly configured system gets confused, etc.
And finally, an investigation of if these numbers correlate to student success in any way shape or form would've been a nice bit of reporting.