review essay
Selective Marketing on Ivy League School’s Undergraduate Websites
Every year between the months of October and March, thousands of students narrow down their top picks of schools from over 4000 Colleges and Universities located in the United States. Colleges and Universities use several methods, including images, to persuade and influence students to attend their schools. Using Aristotle’s three methods of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos, these images persuade students to want to attend a certain college. Although the function of college is primarily to study and enrich one’s mind, the majority of pictures on college’s prospective students website depict students socializing, having fun, participating in extracurricular activities, or just hanging out around campus. Even the most rigorous of schools, including the eight Ivy leagues, use non-academic pictures to persuade prospective students to attend. This is ironic because Ivy League schools located in major cities, such as Columbia and Brown, known for their rigorous academics, display only pictures of students participating in extracurricular activities. On the other hand, Harvard, also located in a major city, has no pictures on their prospective student’s website- academic or not. The images, if present, on the college’s prospective students website emphasizes different aspects about a school. Images of students socializing on campus sends a different message than those of students viewing fine arts performances or participating in off campus activities. While these images may promote a feeling of community and the ability for students to have a social life at Brown and Columbia, it is misleading because it doesn’t foreworn students that they will be spending the majority of their time doing school work. Controversially, Harvard’s prospective students website, although containing no images, makes its own statement. Their website makes no attempt to attract students, stating that if one needs an impressive prospective students website, this is not the correct school. This intimidating approach to college life is at the other end of the spectrum compared to Brown and Yale, who advertise only their student’s social lives. There are many similarities and differences between the images Ivy League schools Brown, Columbia, and Harvard choose to use, or not to use, on their prospective student’s website.
Many of the Ivy League colleges attempt to reassure their students that they can do well in school and have a social life by posting nonacademic images of students on their prospective students website. A common image is that of students socializing outside on campus. Both Brown, and Columbia’s prospective students webpage contain these images.
Brown University is located in Providence, Rhode Island, and was founded in 1764. Initially an all women’s college, Pembroke College, joined the male college in 1971 to become co-ed. Due to an intense academic coarse load, Brown tries to focus on social, extracurricular events on their prospective students webpage instead of academics. One of the main pictures on Brown’s prospective students website is one with students socializing outside on campus. This image, taking place outside of an academic building, shows students socializing and hanging out on the grass. One girl is sleeping, several are talking, a few are eating, there is a group having a meeting, and there are several couples walking or sitting on benches. Being one of the top Ivy League schools, the website’s ethos is strong. Students are prone to trust the school’s website and believe whatever images they see to be a representation of the school. One also will trust and easily relate to the students in the image. Attending Brown University, they are a representation of this Ivy League ideal and appear to be credible. Brown University uses pathos by getting the prospective students to relate to the image. It is easy to picture ones self lying on the lawn next to the students, creating a sense of community, friendships, and belonging. The University also reaches out to all types of students in this image by displaying males, females, and several ethnicities- showing they have a wide spectrum of students. There are several trees providing shade, implying that Brown University is a comfortable, fun place to attend. From viewing this image on Brown University’s undergraduate admission’s webpage, it is easy for perspective students to get the idea that here they will hang out with friends and lie out on the lawn and socialize all day. With all the students gathering in the same area, it is implied that there is a sense of community the student can take park of. All though this all may be true, the image is deceiving and only shows one aspect of the school to prospective students.
Similarly, Columbia University shows images of students outside spending time together. Located in Morningside heights in New York City, Columbia University was the first college established in New York and is ranked the 9th best university in the United States. Similarly to Brown University, Columbia uses images of students socializing throughout campus to market their school to prospective students. These images, located on their undergraduate admissions website, are the first thing students see when applying to Columbia University. One of the images on the school’s undergraduate website is taken in front of the library, showing two students juggling in front of a fountain. This picture also uses ethos through its location. Being on a nationally ranked campus in front of a library makes the picture appear very credible. This picture also appeals to the viewer’s pathos, or emotions. Shown outside on a clear, sunny day, the audience is given a sense of peace and serenity from Columbia’s campus. The fountain and trees seen in the distance emphasize this relaxed atmosphere. Seeing students juggling and socializing outside of the library reassures the viewer that this is a campus they will enjoy and be happy at. The combination of the ethos and pathos contributes to the logos in the sense that the students see the credibility of the school, the students enjoying themselves and having fun, and then use their logic to decide to attend the school. Columbia College uses these images, of students juggling, dancing, playing archery, and sailing to promote their school. This causes prospective students to get a misleading view on the school. The college feels it will be more successful to display pictures not of students in a classroom listening to a lecture or studying, but to show the fun activities. Using all three methods of Aristotle’s persuasion, Columbia College promotes a fun, community that is always together having fun. Although this is an appealing aspect of the school, it gives viewers a false impression of how students spend their time at Columbia College.
Brown and Columbia University also depict their colleges through scenic images featuring ivy. Being an Ivy League school, there is a certain amount of trust and respect a prospective student puts into the college. Brown University shows on their prospective students website a picture of an academic building covered in ivy. The angle of the picture has an artistic effect and touches the audience’s pathos, or emotions. The academic building covered in ivy represents the beauty of the campus, making the prospective students feel relaxed and welcomed. The ivy also acts as a reminder of the caliber of Brown-- an Ivy League college, the best of the best.
Columbia University has similar scenic pictures taken on campus. The flora and fauna affect the student’s pathos, causing them to become relaxed and appreciate the beauty of the campus. Again, the schools use ivy to influence the student’s logos, by causing them to think of the implication of an Ivy League school. In contrast, Harvard has no pictures of their campus because they are trying not to attract the type of students who attend a school based on the appearance of its campus. Instead, they hope that the reputation of the school will be enough to attract students looking for a academically strong school.
Both Brown and Columbia University market their schools through non-academic images. Brown University has over ten scenic pictures on their prospective students website while Columbia University has only five. This could be because Brown is trying to promote the idea that although they are in the city, the college is located in a rural setting. Columbia however is located in New York City, so spends more time emphasizing the students and their activities. The few scenic pictures they do have though show only the upper class end of New York City and the well-funded facilities on campus. This selective marketing leaves out the fact that the majority of New York City is lower class and impoverished, causing students to get the impression that they are in a wealthy, safe city. In addition, neither website contained any academic pictures; the closets either University came was Brown showing students laying outside on the grass reading. Although these images do do justice to the school by making the students feel at home and as if they can have a social life, they also are deceiving. The reality of college is that students will spend the majority of their time in class and studying. Because this is the case, one would think there would at least be an equal amount of academic pictures as non-academic pictures. In reality though, academic pictures are nearly impossible to find on Brown and Columbia’s prospective students websites. However, in an attempt to assure students that they will have a social life at Brown and Columbia, no academic images are shown but instead dozens of non-academic images are displayed.
While Brown and Columbia display non-academic images to imply a message to prospective students, Harvard University uses a lack of images to get their point across. Harvard University is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is the oldest University in the United States. With a prestigious reputation, Harvard has little to no advertising on their prospective students webpage. Unlike Brown and Columbia University, which try to persuade students to attend their school by marketing their extracurricular activities, Harvard just has emblems of the different divisions (undergraduate, law, business). So many students want to attend Harvard for its academic and reputation that they don’t need to push extracurricular activities. Harvard assumes that the students applying to Harvard want to attend for the academics, not the entertainment groups brought on campus. Harvard is also dissimilar to Brown and Columbia University in the fact that it doesn’t use its location to promote the school. Brown and Columbia both had pictures taken from off campus, hoping students would want to visit the cities. However, Harvard again is only concerned with the academic aspect of college and does not mention the role the city plays in the school.
Ivy League Colleges (Brown, Columbia, and Harvard) use different methods of attracting prospective students through their websites. Even though all three schools are fairly similar in the sense that they are Ivy Leagues and located in cities, the images they use to market themselves to potential students are very different. Brown displays no academic pictures on their website in order to persuade the students that they can have a social life in addition to academics. Brown also has multiple scenic images to make the campus appear appealing and relaxing to the audience’s pathos. In addition, Brown displays over a dozen images of students participating in non-academic activities, varying from laying outside to a dance performance. Columbia University is similar in that it too has no academic pictures on its prospective students website. Columbia however uses its prime location in New York City to attract students. These non-academic images the two schools use deceive students. The images do justice to the schools by promoting a sense of home and community, but the reality is that the students won’t be lying outside all day everyday with their friends. Harvard University varies greatly from the previous two schools in that it provides no images in its prospective students website. Ironically, by not using images to relay a message, Harvard implies the message that if a student needs images on their prospective students webpage, Harvard isn’t the right school. These three Ivy League schools use images on their prospective students websites to relay messages about the school. Whether reassuring students that it is possible to have a social life or misleading them by ignoring academics, the use of images plays an important role in representing a university. Images, or lack there of, play in an important role of how represent themselves and how prospective students see Harvard, Brown, and Columbia University.
do not capitalize colleges and universities unless you use their specific name.
I'll get back to you in about an hour with this one.
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Every year between the months of October and March, thousands of students narrow down their top picks<~~How formal or casual is this paper to be? Using “picks” is casual; more formal would be to use the word “choices” of schools from over 4000<~~comma needed after the 4 Colleges and Universities<~~no caps on “colleges and universities” located in the United States. Colleges and Universities<~~?? use several methods, including images, to persuade and influence students to attend their schools. Using Aristotle’s three methods of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos, these images persuade students to want to attend a certain college. <~~That sounds like a thesis statement to me, right? If so, you need to start a new paragraph with the next sentence.
Although the function of college is primarily to study and enrich one’s mind, the majority of pictures on college’s prospective students website depict students socializing, having fun, participating in extracurricular activities, or just hanging out around campus. Even the most rigorous of schools, including the eight Ivy leagues<~~Capital L on League (no –s; itns’ not plural); add the word “schools” after “League”, use non-academic pictures to persuade prospective students to attend. This is ironic because Ivy League schools located in major cities, such as Columbia and Brown<~~Columbia and Brown are not major cities. How can you correct this dangling modifier?, known for their rigorous academics, display only pictures of students participating in extracurricular activities. On the other hand, Harvard, also located in a major city, has no pictures on their prospective student’s website-<~~Use spaces and a dash, not a hyphen here.* academic or not. The images, if present, on the college’s prospective students website emphasizes<~~The subject is “images” so the verb needs to be plural, not singular. different aspects about a school. Images of students socializing on campus sends a different message than those of students viewing fine arts performances or participating in off campus<~~Use a hyphen between “off” and “campus”* activities. While these images may promote a feeling of community and the ability for students to have a social life at Brown and Columbia, it is misleading because it<~~What is “it”? doesn’t foreworn students that they will be spending the majority of their time doing school work. Controversially<~~??, Harvard’s prospective students website, although containing no images, makes its own statement. Their website makes no attempt to attract students, stating that if one needs an impressive prospective students website, this is not the correct school. This intimidating approach to college life is at the other end of the spectrum compared to Brown and Yale, who<~~Use “who” to refer to people, not things or places; “which” or “that” would work. advertise only their student’s<~~plural possessive needed – put the apostrophe AFTER the “s” social lives. There are many similarities and differences between the images Ivy League schools Brown, Columbia, and Harvard choose to use, or not to use, on their prospective student’s<~~You haven’t been consistent about this; each time you use this phrase (“prospective… website), you should use “students” – not “student’s” website.
Many of the Ivy League colleges attempt to reassure their students that they can do well in school and have a social life by posting nonacademic images of students on their prospective students website. A common image is that of students socializing outside on campus. Both Brown, and Columbia’s prospective students webpage contain these images. <~~All that is repetitive of what is in the second paragraph. Delete all this. It’s not a fully developed paragraph anyway.
Brown University is located in Providence, Rhode Island, and was founded in 1764. Initially an all women’s college, Pembroke College, joined the male<~~”men’s” not “male”!! college in 1971 to become co-ed. Due to<~~”Due to” is incorrectly used; use “Because of” instead an intense academic coarse<~~I think you mean “course” load, Brown tries to focus on social, extracurricular events on their prospective students webpage instead of academics. One of the main pictures on Brown’s prospective students website is one with students socializing outside on campus....
*Difference between hyphen (-) and dash (–): http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/hyphen.htm
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/dash.htm
There is FAR too much repetition of the same ideas, over and over. Also your organization seems fuzzy. I think you need to delete or combine almost all the ideas in the second paragraph above, and then go through the other paragraphs to make sure you're not repeating identical ideas three or four or more times.
Frankly, after the sentence in which you used the terms "ethos, pathos, and logos," I was expecting a paragraph on ethos, a paragraph on pathos, and a paragraph on logos. You could revise so that "ethos" is used to explain one college's website, "pathos" used to explain a second college's website, and "logos" to explain a third.
Please repost when you've revised.
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This essay analyzes the use of images on the prospective student websites of Ivy League schools, specifically Brown University, Columbia University, and Harvard University. The author examines how these images are used to persuade and influence students to attend these schools.
The essay starts by introducing the topic and mentioning that colleges and universities use various methods, including images, to attract students. It then introduces Aristotle's three methods of persuasion - ethos, pathos, and logos - which are used to analyze the images used on these websites.
The author first discusses the use of non-academic pictures on the prospective student websites of Brown and Columbia University. They point out that these images primarily depict students socializing, participating in extracurricular activities, or hanging out on campus, rather than focusing on academics. The author argues that this can be misleading, as these images create the impression that students spend most of their time socializing and having fun, rather than studying.
Next, the essay discusses the scenic images featuring ivy used by both Brown and Columbia University. The author explains how these images appeal to the emotions of prospective students and create a sense of beauty and prestige associated with Ivy League schools. They also mention that Harvard University takes a different approach by not using any images on their prospective student website, highlighting their focus on academics rather than campus appearance or extracurricular activities.
The author then discusses the differences in the number of images used by Brown and Columbia University. They speculate that Brown might emphasize non-academic images to promote the idea of a rural campus, whereas Columbia focuses more on student activities in a city setting. However, they argue that both schools neglect to include academic pictures, which may give prospective students a false impression of how they will spend their time at college.
Finally, the essay concludes by stating that the use of images on prospective student websites plays a crucial role in representing a university and attracting students. It emphasizes that these images, or the absence of them, can shape prospective students' perceptions of the schools.
To further analyze and review this essay, one could consider the effectiveness of the author's arguments, the clarity of their writing, and their overall critical analysis of the use of images on prospective student websites.