{"id":1560,"date":"2017-10-30T07:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2017-10-27T08:23:04","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T12:23:04","slug":"putting-the-paw-sonalized-touch-on-college-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/10\/30\/putting-the-paw-sonalized-touch-on-college-admission\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the Paw-sonalized Touch on College Admission"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Instagram\/@butlerblue3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A fat envelope or an anxious refresh on a webpage are the most common ways students find out about their acceptance to college.<\/p>\n

But what if this life-changing news came in the form of a visit from a friendly English bulldog?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the strategy for a few lucky high school seniors accepted at Butler University (IN).<\/p>\n

Called \u201cThe Big Dawgs Tour,\u201d Butler\u2019s mascot, Butler Blue III also known as Trip, and his handler Michael Kaltenmark surprise 40 to 100 admitted students at their homes each year.<\/p>\n

Kaltenbach gets a list of admitted students in various regions from the admission office and sets up the visit with the student\u2019s family to ensure he or she will be home, The Indianapolis Star<\/em> reported. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The duo tries to go before acceptance letters are mailed out to add to the element of surprise, but sometimes students have already heard from Butler before they arrive.<\/p>\n

In those cases, Trip has an even more important role to play.<\/p>\n

“In those instances, we say ‘Congrats. Here’s our dog, and we really want you to come in the fall,'” Kaltenmark told the Star<\/em>.<\/a> “He\u2019s sort of a hard face to say ‘no’ to.”<\/p>\n

Kaltenmark said students who\u00a0get visited by Trip are three to four times more likely to choose Butler compared to students who are admitted but don\u2019t get the personal visit.<\/p>\n

This kind of paw-sonalized touch is especially important in today\u2019s climate.<\/p>\n

NACAC\u2019s 2017 State of College Admission<\/em><\/a> report found that the average selectivity rate\u2014percentage of applicants who are offered admission\u2014at four-year colleges and universities in the United States was 66.1 percent for Fall 2015. However, the average yield rate was 35.1 percent, down from 36.2 percent the previous year. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Ashley Dobson is NACAC\u2019s communications manager for content and social media. You can reach her at\u00a0<\/em>adobson@nacacnet.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fat envelope or an anxious refresh on a webpage are the most common ways students find out about their acceptance to college. But what if this life-changing news came in the form of a visit from a friendly English bulldog?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-admission"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ashley Dobson","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/ashley-dobson\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-pa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}