Bad sign?

<p>Daughter gets a bagillion tons of mail and emails from a bagillion colleges, but never hears from the number one choice. Should that be a cause for concern?</p>

<p>Nope. How many times do you receive spam or junk mail for a product ... you really want?</p>

<p>Oh. D'oh. Thank you Xiggi. Ever the voice of reason.</p>

<p>Also, it is very early in "the game". Once your daughter has submitted an application, you are likely to hear more from number 1. And even if you didn't, it would not be a sign of anything. Except for a few active recruits with special attributes (and these are extremely rare at elite colleges, in spite of what you might read on these boards!), colleges treat all applicants evenly, at least until admit/reject packages go out.</p>

<p>I'm sorry it is so tough to read the tea leaves, but that's the way it is.</p>

<p>Thanks Newmass. It just struck her as weird because she's heard back in some fashion from every other school that she visited, but not this one at all. Oh well. You're right about the tea leaves, though.</p>

<p>I couldn't take the suspense for a couple of colleges, so I made DD sign up for info on the websites of her two or three most-likely colleges. I figured that came under the heading of "showing interest."</p>

<p>Zmom,</p>

<p>I agree that your daughter should sign up at the website of her #1 school. Our son's top 2 choices (both of which accepted him) sent little mail compared to other schools but each had an excellent website and sent several emails. I think more and more schools are using online contacts to promote interest and keep in touch.</p>

<p>And some schools do look at "interest" whatever that means, in their schools, going to info meetings, etc, so many probably track stuff on line a bit, depends on the size and yield of the school, I would guess</p>

<p>In line with CGM's comment: If she hasn't done so already, your daughter should schedule a visit and register at the freshman information center, department major, etc. One mistake we made was making unofficial visits where the college never knew we come by. Most colleges keep track of visits and take this into consideration in making admissions decisions. Many colleges and honors programs are reluctant to accept students that may not be serious about attending.</p>

<p>She's visited the school twice and signed up for their website over a year ago. Maybe it's just their way. She's not going to be an ED applicant, so perhaps the school's time and attention is taken up with those students and with traveling.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Most colleges keep track of visits and take this into consideration in making admissions decisions. Many colleges and honors programs are reluctant to accept students that may not be serious about attending.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is emphatically NOT true at the top colleges and universities. Some even state expressedly in their admissions materials or on their web sites that they don't pay attention to expressions of interest. Keep in mind that a school that has thousands of applicants probably can't invest the time and effort to track this stuff.</p>

<p>OTOH, some colleges, especially smaller LACs, are pretty clear in their materials that interest DOES count.</p>

<p>DRJ4, I would be careful about overgeneralizing and causing some newcomers to panic!</p>

<p>zoosermom - We are in the same boat! S's first choice school has been his favorite for more than a year now. After two campus visits, sitting in on a class, registering with their online admissions database (or whatever it is), and sending them his test scores, he still has yet to receive one single piece of mail or email from them. He had decent PSAT scores, so receives mail from lots of other places, even Yale, Penn, Brown, etc. We know these don't mean anything, but the lack of ANYTHING from dream school is worrisome, esp after reading another student's post re: how thoughtful they were about following up after she had expressed interest. Hope this isn't an indication of what lies ahead at admissions time :(</p>

<p>Ah - just read newmassdad's post--
somewhat comforting!</p>

<p>argghh...the TOP schools once again, I HATE that term....sorry, but TOP is meaningless except in terms of yield, acceptance rates </p>

<p>Its like sayng, if you are getting some attention from other schools, they are lower</p>

<p>Some schools send out tons of mail; others send out none. Some kids get a lot of mail from a particular school; others get none. My daughter gets endless mail from Carnegie Mellon, for example, while one of her friends gets mail from Caltech. Evidently, they are on different mailing lists. Who knows why?</p>

<p>I'm specifically mentioning Carnegie Mellon and Caltech here because I think they would be on many people's lists of "top schools," yet they certainly do send out mail.</p>

<p>If her top school is Harvard--no problem. They never send any mail ;)</p>

<p>
[quote]
If her top school is Harvard--no problem. They never send any mail

[/quote]
</p>

<p>My daughter got a recruiting letter from them, without ever indicating any interest in Harvard on any form or Web site. Long, wordy letter. Not very well written, actually.</p>

<p>Newmassdad,</p>

<p>You are right to remind me not to generalize. I certainly don't want to imply that I know as much about college admissions as many others here. On the other hand, this was our experience with the colleges our son applied to 3 years ago, including three top 20 colleges.</p>

<p>I think this abstract of a study clarifies the demonstrated issue question; short answer--it could help, and can't hurt. Worth a read. </p>

<p>As for catalog dumps, Harvard inundated my D with stuff until she relented and applied--then they rejected her. I wouldn't pay any attention to the volume of mail.
[quote]
National Association for College Admission Counseling
Assembly Directive Report:
“Demonstrated Interest” as a Factor in Admission Decisions
July 2004
Assembly Directive
As passed at NACAC’s 58 th annual conference in September 2002, Salt Lake City, UT:
The Admission Practices Committee shall examine the practices of colleges and
universities denying or wait listing applicants due to a perceived lack of interest
on the part of the applicant.
RESULTS IN BRIEF
Majority of Colleges Consider Demonstrated Interest
•More than half (55 percent) of colleges and universities consider demonstrated interest
as a factor in the admission decision.
Small, Private Colleges Most Likely to Consider Demonstrated Interest
•Private institutions and institutions with small enrollments are most likely to consider
demonstrated interest as a factor in the admission process. An institution’s selectivity
and the institution’s yield rate have almost no relation to whether the institution considers
demonstrated interest.
College Wait List Statistics Not Related to Consideration of Interest
•Analysis of colleges that maintain wait lists indicate that students are not likely to be
wait-listed, accepted from the wait list, or enrolled from the wait list at a higher or lower
rate at institutions based on the institution’s consideration of demonstrated interest.
While institutions that consider demonstrated interest maintain wait lists at a higher rate
than those that do not consider demonstrated interest, there is no statistical relationship
indicating that those institutions maintain a wait list because they consider demonstrated
interest.
Demonstrated Interest Likely Not Determining Factor for Rejection of Applicants
•To determine whether colleges use demonstrated interest to reject students, the
importance attributed to demonstrated interest must be compared to the importance
assigned to other factors in the admission process. Both before and after extensive
analysis, demonstrated interest is shown to be a “tip” factor in the admission process. Its
importance—even among institutions that openly state consideration of interest—is
limited to a second-tier factor. As such, it could play a part (though not likely be the
exclusive determining factor) in the decision to accept or reject students after other
factors are considered, including grades, admission test scores, class rank,
recommendations, and writing sample.

[/quote]

<a href="http://www.nacacnet.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.nacacnet.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I've noticed, too, that DS1 gets college snail mail from schools that have his intended major. I suspect that he also gets some based on the school he attends. The emails we get seem to be more generic and scattershot (i.e., less tied to his scores and interests). As another poster said, get on the school's website and get on the email list.</p>

<p>I will note that one school DS1 is considering asks for every contact the student has made with the school -- emails, traveling shows, campus visits, talking to students/professors, etc. This probably helps a student who comes from outside the school's usual applicant pool.</p>