It is no coincidence that you received mailings about Iowa State during your high school years, because the university has programs in place that target some children from birth.

The ISU Legacy Program is for children who have at least one parent who is an alumnus of Iowa State and also a member of the ISU Alumni Association. The program begins at birth and continues through the time a child goes to college.

“We realize the importance of beginning to promote Iowa State University to people from the time they are born until they are ready to go to college, and even afterwards certainly,” said Scott Dahl, director of membership and marketing for the ISU Alumni Association, “The Legacy Program was really designed to do just that.”

Dahl said children of alumni are a good place to start recruiting. At birth, Legacy Program children receive a book titled “My Friends All Call Me Cy.”

“One of the really good markets for the university to go after for new students is those of parents who hopefully had a really good experience while they were here at Iowa State,” Dahl said.

Dahl said alumni are constantly updating their information and when the association hears about a new birth, the child is enrolled in the program and receives a series of four gifts from the time they are born until age 16.

“It’s a spiral-bound picture book, it is written for children of alumni and the book takes children through a tour of the Iowa State campus that’s lead by Cy,” said Jeffery Johnson, vice president of alumni relations.

Johnson said the book encourages parents to read to their children, provides reminiscence for the parents, and when the child can read by themselves hopefully reintroduces them to Iowa State.

Children receive a Cyclone bank when they turn 5, a gym bag with an ISU logo on their 10th birthday, and a Cyclone key ring when they turn 16, Dahl said.

Johnson said when children in the program enter the ninth grade, their names are given to the admissions office.

“They then receive a letter from President Gregory Geoffroy that basically talks about the importance of thinking about a curriculum that’s necessary for them to go to college,” Johnson said.

The admissions office also uses a database of names to put together a Legacy Migration, which is a program for all children of alumni to come to campus for a visit.

Phillip Caffrey, associate director of admissions, said a Legacy Migration is similar to a regular campus visit.

“It includes all of the same things, but it’s done just a little bit differently because these are children of alumni,” Caffrey said.

Caffrey said one difference is that Cy, the mascot, is at the Legacy Migration and students have an opportunity to have their picture taken with Cy.

Children and grandchildren of alumni from out of state can also receive a scholarship thanks to a program started by Geoffroy. The Return to Iowa-Generation Scholarship awards $1,500 annually to newly admitted, undergraduate, nonresident children or grandchildren of ISU graduates.

“The number of Iowa high school graduates is falling. This program was designed to put an emphasis on recruiting to Iowa State legacies who had a family member that attended the university,” Johnson said.

Even if you are not a legacy child, the university still has ways of targeting you before you even begin looking at colleges. The Recommend a Future Cyclone program is one that identifies high-potential new students.

“The program is done through our board of directors and works in conjunction with the admission office. We try to get as many alumni to take this card as well as high school counselors and when our alumni are doing college site programs for us,” Johnson said.

Alumni ambassadors are a group of individuals that come in for training through the admissions office and then are responsible for helping identify prospects, Johnson said.

“A lot of times these will be students they read about in their local paper or that they know about and want to recommend and really get them turned on to Iowa State,” Johnson said. “Many will bring them in when they come in for visits to [the ISU] campus, whether it be an athletic or arts related event.”

Johnson said the ambassadors go out of their way to help with potential new students.

“We have a number of ambassadors that make a special visit because they want that student to see the campus,” Johnson said.

Caffrey said there are a number of pre-collegiate programs that Iowa State offers.

Maura Flaschner, assistant director of admissions, said “pre-collegiate programs” is a term that’s being used nationally to describe programs for students who are not yet being formally recruited by colleges at the elementary and middle school levels.

“These programs are seen as recruitment tools in the way that we’re getting students on campus at a very early age. Hopefully they’re becoming comfortable with the university and hopefully they have a great experience,” Flaschner said.

Flaschner said the goal is that children remember the time they spent at Iowa State and that it influences their decision about where to attend college.

“Hopefully they remember that great experience and maybe tell some people about that great experience and their family remembers they had a great experience and hopefully that stays with them through the time they are looking at a college or university,” Flaschner said.

Flaschner said parents can log on the university’s Iowa State Programs for Youth Web site to match their child’s age and interests up with programs Iowa State has to offer.

Johnson said programs such as Women in Science and Engineering and Iowa State Engineering Kids help get children on campus.

“There are a number of early, what we like to call ‘showcase programs,’ that really try to get kids and their parents to really start thinking about what their kids are good at and what they think they might want to do,” Johnson said.

Caffrey said that traditionally recruitment through the admissions office begins during a student’s sophomore year of high school. Admissions purchases names of high school students from a variety of vendors.

“Whenever a student takes the PLAN exam or a student takes the PSAT exam, the college board collects those names and they sell those names to colleges and universities and so we purchase those names and we send those students letters to see if they might have an interest in Iowa State,” Caffrey said.

Caffrey said the names of students who indicate an interest in Iowa State go into a prospective student file and they are then contacted by letter or telephone to encourage them to visit the campus and to eventually apply for admissions.

Johnson said he’s seeing recruitment begin as early as the eighth grade.

“You have a lot of students who are doing a lot of pre-testing now and are showing high aptitude and so then the market is more competitive and more fierce, especially with shrinking high school enrollment in the Midwest,” Johnson said.