Published by Leea Ivanel -- March issue -- OPINION
Your parents burst into your room, a fancy letter with a golden-plated seal and the words “Stanford” on it in their hands.
Before you even register the information properly, you've already grabbed the letter from their hands and ripped it open. Excitement rises; there's suspense in the air -- Stanford, the world's most prestigious university, has personally recognized your existence and invited you to their Intensive Law and Trial Program.
If you received a letter like this and felt special, then congratulations -- you fell for it.
These letters are designed to make students feel special. A combination of expensive papers filled with information, a cutout telling students they are on an alumni list; it’s all a way to create a sense of urgency and pride and get them to sign up for these summer programs.
This sort of advertising would be fine if it weren’t fake and misleading.
“Stanford's Intensive Law and Trail” program is not actually run by Stanford, despite having its name plastered on every piece of paper in the envelope students receive. The program is run in collaboration with Stanford by the for-profit, private education company Envision Career Forum.
The curriculum of the program, thus, is not Stanford's, as one might think, but one of a private education organization. Still, all Envision has to do to classify their program as being a “Stanford” program is rent some spaces on the college campus, gets the program approved, and drags along one or two Stanford teachers and voila, they can advertise their 10-day-long program and make it cost $3,595.
Envision does the same thing with their Advanced Emergency Medicine program, which they also advertise through letters sent to students nationwide.
Envision isn’t the only company doing this, however. For example, the Digital Media Academy runs a filmmaking and photography summer camp on Stanford's campus for the same purpose -- to be able to advertise the program as a Stanford program.
History teacher Jarrod Harrison said, “The reason why colleges do this, at least from what I understand, is because they can make a lot of money by renting out the campus over the summer when there are not many college students there.”
Still, it’s not as if the programs themselves are bad. If they were, they would never be approved by the university, and students would not continue paying thousands of dollars to attend them.
Harrison’s step-son went to Digital Media Academy's program over the summer and had a great time. Harrison said, “In a couple of days he learned what [at school] took two semesters to learn, and made several movies in the week he was there. I think it was a really good learning experience for him.”
Envision’s two programs also sound great, with their Intensive Law and Trial program being endorsed by the American Mock Trial Organization and their medicine course sounding like a fascinating and thrilling learning experience.
The problem here isn’t the programs themselves, it's the false advertising and the leaching of Stanford's name and status that these companies engage in so they can make their programs worth more. This strategy is clearly working, as Envision’s annual revenue since 2006 has been of over $75 million dollars, according to Big Goals and Clear Missions by Joe Polish. Regardless of how good the actual program is, it is still simply not a Stanford-run program and it is not worth the money it claims to be.
What these companies do -- using Stanford's name so they can advertise themselves to a bunch of high schoolers desperate to be recognized by colleges -- is not only unethical but it is also just a scam.
The companies which do this, regardless of how good their programs might be, are lying to us and falsely advertising what they are selling. They want us to feel special and wanted when we open those golden letters, when we see Stanford on them, when we see we are on an alumni list. So the next time you get one of those letter, just remember that you are not special -- you are just another student getting caught in their web of false advertising.