KATERINA MANOFF, the Atlantic
Eager to attract students to new online graduate programs, selective universities have adopted surprisingly aggressive telemarketing practices. Many online graduate programs from the nation’s top universities promise an experience that’s nearly indistinguishable from studying on campus. They offer live seminars taught by tenured professors, close collaboration with talented classmates, and degrees identical to those granted by traditional programs. But in one area, even the best online programs differ drastically from their in-person counterparts: the intensity of the recruitment. Prospective students—many of whom are busy professionals unfamiliar with online education and apt to rely on brand names as heuristics—must often navigate slick, insistent marketing operations run by for-profit third-party companies.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/08/online-graduate-programs-recruitment/596077/