Below are two responses to CESJDS’ social media marketing efforts. Style Editor Gaby Pilarsky believes that JDS’ marketing efforts are negatively impacting the students. Her opinion is located on the top of the page. In-Depth Editor Jonathan Foldi argues that JDS’ marketing strategies are beneficial to the school. His opinion is located on the bottom of the page.

Yes, JDS’ marketing is undermining a sense of community

I believe that it is JDS’ right and responsibility to try to sell themselves to prospective students and parents. We’re a small private school so naturally we want and need new students in order to ensure that the school can continue to exist. However, I start having problems with this marketing when it interferes with the students.

Until recently I hadn’t noticed any real problems with JDS marketing. I don’t mind people taking non-intrusive photos and I don’t mind the change in logo advertising the school’s 50th anniversary, but then social media got involved. A Facebook post announced to the school’s 1,721 followers the 12th grade’s average SAT and ACT scores. A twitter post bragged to their 488 followers about the school’s “3 for 3” acceptances to Princeton. I understand why they do this — to make the school look good. They’re saying, ”Look at how our kids get into Ivy League schools! Look at how our students’ standardized test scores are higher than public schools! You should send your kids here!” These are things that prospective parents care about, no matter the age of their kids. They are hard and fast facts and numbers. It makes the sense to advertise them.

However, the unforeseen consequence is how uncomfortable this makes students, particularly seniors, by causing them to feel lacking in comparison to their peers. Scoring under the grade’s average standardized test scores can already make students feel stupid by comparison and the school’s bragging only makes it worse. The way JDS takes pride in getting students into Princeton, but seemingly ignores students getting into other colleges kind of belittles the amazing achievement of getting into college. Students already beat themselves up over their test scores and getting into their dream school. The way the school broadcasts these posts to students, their families and friends can make students feel a lot worse.

The school cares a lot about trying to keep students happy and sane during the college process. If the school cares so much about not announcing class ranks or the highest GPAs, then maybe they should try to maintain this attitude in their social media posts. Even if it’s not on purpose, this social media marketing makes it look like the school cares more about scores than students, and in doing so, it adds unnecessary stress and discomfort to the students. The school should not be telling students that standardized tests don’t define them while simultaneously selling the image of the school to parents as those very statistics.

I’m not saying that the school should stop marketing. I mean, this marketing is probably helping. But it should not cause students to feel uncomfortable as a consequence.

No, JDS’ marketing is not undermining a sense of community

A few weeks ago, the JDS twitter account tweeted “We are ‘3 for 3’ on #collegeacceptances to @Princeton! Mazal Tov to our students!” I, for one, thought this was fantastic news. Little did I know that many students would see the tweet as the latest offense in an insensitive and harmful marketing campaign. I would like to disagree with this view for a few reasons.

First off, the school’s marketing department engages in several other forms of advertising other than those based on students’ academic achievements, including several holistic aspects of the whole school.

Secondly, the marketing department’s target audience is not students but rather prospective parents. Regardless of what any student may think of the marketing department’s strategies, we are not their target audience. Prospective parents want to see why they should make the large financial commitment to send their children to our school. Students doing very well on standardized tests and college applications is understandably a large incentive for parents to send their children to our school and is therefore an effective tool for the marketing department to utilize. There are many other intangible benefits of going to JDS, but there must be some sort of objective evaluation to aid prospective parents in assessing our school.

Lastly, students doing well in our school is something we should be proud of, not something which we should try to hide. This was an issue recently at Pomona College when it was ranked #1 on Forbes Magazine’s 2015 Best Colleges List. But instead of being proud that they attended an award-winning college, students at Pomona claimed that there were now unfair expectations placed upon them.

There is a strong parallel between this reaction and the one here at JDS. While I understand that some students feel extra pressure on themselves due to the advertised success of their peers on standardized tests or college admissions, this should not be something that we refrain from stating when such impressive achievements are reached. It is a misguided idea to sacrifice effective marketing in order to prevent a minimal increase in student stress.

The marketed statistics are not representative of each individual student, but they are representative of the student body and we cannot ignore that. The fact that the average SAT score at JDS is higher than that of nearby public schools is something which we should not shy away from stating. If our school is more high-achieving than other schools around us, this is not something that we should be ashamed of.

I believe that the problem with the Princeton tweet revolves around the fact that, at the time, this was the first time the school had acknowledged college acceptances, even though many others had occurred beforehand. As long as tweets are posted for every acceptance, as has now been done, no one should feel bad about how they are doing based on their peers. The idea of personal achievement is unfortunately lost at times at JDS, yet it is one of the messages which I find to be the most important.

Having not yet been through the college application process I know that I may not be in the best place to talk about this, but as a student body we should be there to celebrate with those of us who are accepted and comfort those of us who have not yet been. One of the core values at our school is kehillah, which involves the inclusion of every and all members of the school community. By not acknowledging the achievements of some students for the sake of creating a slightly less stressful environment, we are going against the very nature of our school.