Get an edge

和以往单纯地凭借学术名气和课程设置来吸引新生不同了，现在很多美国大学在抢夺生源时花样百出，比如承诺向新生赠送生日卡片，组织周末滑雪运动等。外电报道如下：Forget course catalogs and colorful pamphlets. Think sex, skiing and rock 'n roll. When it comes to recruiting students for college, admissions officials are turning to increasingly outlandish stunts to get the attention of high schoolers. Birthday cards, ski weekends and even reality TV shows are being used by colleges and universities to get an edge. Personal contact with students is in. Indiscriminate mass mailings are out. "Everybody's trying to do something that isn't the mundane," said Dan Kunzman, vice president of admissions at Doane College in Crete in southeast Nebraska. The marketing efforts are being driven, in part, by the standard issues college rankings and involved parents. But schools in states including Nebraska also are struggling to fill seats and deal with declining enrollment. Get an edge是一个俚语，意为“获取优势，取胜”，词组get an edge on/over sb表示“胜过某人；[美]怀恨某人”。与edge相关的词组还有on edge（紧张不安）；set sb.'s teeth on edge（使生气）等。 （中国日报网站编）