 Photo: Martin Leon Barreto ‘Act Now!’ Say Hello to the New Enrollment Playbook Eric Hoover, The Chronicle of Higher Education In mid-January, a college applicant in the suburbs of Chicago received an enticing offer. It came from an admissions counselor at Illinois Wesleyan University, who left him a voicemail message and followed up with a text. "You have been selected," the text said, "to receive an extra $2,000 per year in scholarship money!"
There was one stipulation. Because funds were limited, the university would hold the offer for just two weeks.
That snapshot from the heartland shows how the admissions realm is changing. It increasingly resembles the rest of the commercial world, in which come-ons relentlessly pelt consumers’ skulls, incentives drive decisions, and everyone expects to bargain. | 
