<p>Since the beginning of Junior year, I have been receiving non-stop mail from colleges, which I realize is normal, but the caliber of these colleges is not. So far I have received a letter from every Ivy besides Harvard, countless letters from schools like UVA, Wash&Lee, Vassar, Duke, etc. </p>
<p>But what the letters say is the most amusing part. This one from Princeton goes like this, </p>
<p>*"Dear Mark,</p>
<p>Your academic achievements suggest that you are looking at the nation's most outstanding universities. I invite you to consider Princeton University."*</p>
<p>One from Boston College,</p>
<p>"Based on your accomplishments to date and your future potential, I would like to invite you to explore Boston college as a place to realize your educational aspirations"</p>
<p>My academic accomplishments!? My GPA is a 3.4!!
I mean I know they're sending these letters out to everyone, but couldn't they bother to at least weed out the students who are truly unqualified? </p>
<p>So does anyone know the basis on which college mail is distributed? Would it have something to do with the fact that I indicate URM status on official test materials? Are they just shooting off mail to anyone?</p>
<p>“Hello from MIT in beautiful Cambridge, Massachusetts! If you’re wondering why MIT is writing to you, it’s because from what little we know about you from the PSAT, we think you’re the kind of student we’ll be looking for next year. In fact one of the reasons we’ve waited to send you this letter is because we spent some time to see which of the millions of students are most likely to be an academic match for MIT. I can assure you that you definitely fall into this group!”</p>
<p>And then some more stuff about how great MIT is and how much I should wish I was there. Considering I was hardly over the 200-mark on PSAT, and STEM courses are my weakest and least favorite…I wonder if sometimes they’re mocking me. I think they just go for people within a certain broad range of scores, GPAs, academic interests, and send out mail as such, encouraging you to apply, even if it’s a school that rejects 2400s and whatnot with a 7% acceptance rate. Colleges make income from those who apply, whether or not they get in, so the more applicants the merrier!
On the bright side though, numbers aren’t everything in admissions.</p>
<p>A lot of this mail is based on your ACT, SAT, or PSAT exam score. The colleges buy mailing lists from the testing companies for different regions of the country or type of high school or some other demographic factor. So if they hope to have a student from your zip code attend at some time in the next few years, you will get a letter even though your personal GPA would never get you in. They are casting a very wide net in the hope of catching a few very special fish.</p>
<p>The more applications a college receives the lower the percentage of students admitted. Some Ivies this year admitted 6-8 percent. While they turned away many qualified applicants, some of those who applied did not have the basic stats to get in. The percentage admitted is one of the factors used by US NEws to rank colleges. I think colleges are also reaching out to find special students and increase diversity, etc. But these institutions are bloated, and the admissions and financial aid offices need a lot of applicants to grow or maintain a large size. </p>
<p>Last year articles were published about students being recruited by prestigious universities, but the students never got in.</p>
<p>The facts that Copterguy says are true (increase in apps = lower accept rate). However, I reject his insinuation that this as part of a concerted plan to purposefully drive down admit rates in order to dance to the tune of USNWR rankings BS.</p>
<p>The presentations I’ve seen (and given on behalf of) my HYP alma mater are informative and even persuasive to the audience. However, they don’t shy away from discussing the real and miniscule chances of the normal applicant. My college is happy about having a larger pool in which to choose – but also are conscious of the toll on the tens of thousands of rejected applicants. We’ve seen an almost doubling of applications over the last ten years. Bleah!</p>
<p>I’m even more blunt. I tell students/families that to be a viable (i.e. even in the ball park) candidate, the student should be in the handful of top scholars in his/her senior class that is recognized by the faculty and the principal. Implicitly, if one isn’t then they shouldn’t bother applying.</p>
<p>Harvard 30,489 applicants X $75 = $2.29 Million. Accepted Students: 2,134
Princeton 26,247 X $65 = $1.71 M Accepted: 2,362
Stanford 32,022 X $90 = $2.88 M Accepted: 2,242</p>
<p>For that kind of money why wouldn’t you send out a few thousand $2-$5 out of pocket cost “take-a-chance-and-apply-we-think-you-might-be-one-of-the-lucky-ones” letters?</p>
<p>The colleges would like to
A. Collect your application fee
B. Increase their numbers of applicants, and therefore lower their admission rates- looks good for USNWR.</p>
<p>I’m probably the most cynical person on cc, but not that cynical. The super selective colleges are also truly looking for the diamond in the rough. A kid that scores high on standardized tests, so can do the work, but perhaps had a really difficult life. </p>
<p>One poor kid from our school received marketing materials from an Ivy, for example. This is a kid who lived with abusive uncles until they were arrested, making him independent. His parents had been deported. He still ended up top 10 in his class. An easy admit for the Ivy. But they never would have found him, nor he them, if they had not followed the rules for ‘Marketing 101’ (which they teach on campus).</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the attempt to get more applications and money, but what I meant was, they could send the mail to more qualified students who actually did well on their PSAT.</p>
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<p>164 PSAT, suburban NJ hahaha
That’s what makes it so vexing</p>
<p>Cynical? Maybe so, but over the years I’ve sat through too many presentations where the message is “We take a holistic approach so you won’t know unless you try.” All that response does is plant a seed that sprouts into a voice that keeps whispering, “Who knows, maybe it’ll happen” It taps into that bit of human nature that ignores statistics but tells us “Someone has to win the lottery in might as well be me”. It’s the same random reward generator that drives little old ladies to relentlessly pump quarters into slot machines.</p>
<p>No executive whether at a business or a college is going to blithely ignore a million dollar cash flow. If colleges were altruistic they’d charge just enough to cover expenses. If the goal was to create the largest pool of applicants possible they wouldn’t charge a dime. The three schools I listed have multi-Billion dollar endowments, the revenue from application fees barely amount to a couple days worth of interest on those funds yet they keep charging the fee, raising the price and encouraging more and more hopefuls to “step right up and buy your ticket”.</p>
<p>As for helping find the deserving underprivileged candidate, you can buy income data by zip code down to nearly the street level. But there seem to be plenty of students from the wealthy suburbs West of Boston, North of Chicago and in southern Connecticut who seem to be getting these mailings.</p>
<p>Cynical? I’m not so sure. If I was cynical I might suggest that it’s in the best interests of the HYPMSs to occasionally let the word spread that they admitted the troubled but brilliant student from difficult circumstances if only keep the applications and checks coming from those students who then feel they have a “good” chance. It’s not personal, it’s business.</p>
<p>Not really. They only excite the hopes of students who don’t know their real chances at these schools. If you’re applying and paying $70 without a realistic idea of where you stand, then I don’t really care about your hopes.</p>
<p>They make it $70 or so as a barrier against frivolous applicants. Can you imagine if Harvard applications were $20? How many would they receive. They want people to have some “skin in the game”.</p>
<p>You should be aware that a lot of the mail you got following the PSAT/SAT was <em>not</em> based on your score at all. If you look carefully at the sheet you fill out, there is a box that you check that allows the College Board to release your information to other schools, but NOT your score. So when you put down your GPA, that gets released, but the schools don’t see your actual score - it’s a common myth (unless they’re lying on the form).</p>
<p>That being said, a lot of schools are trying to improve their selectivity by attracting more applicants, even if they’re underqualified for admissions. So part of it is that they want you to know about their school, and think you have a shot at getting in, so you help increase the number of applications they get.</p>
<p>I have to agree with vinceh. It seems like money and reputation acts like a greater priority than education.
I’ld rather go to a college which cares about giving the best education and bettering the future.</p>
<p>I don’t think any of these points about colleges trying to increase applicants, making $ from application fees, getting hopes up, etc. are cynical. A lot of money moves through these institutions, and that’s why some hire marketing companies to help with admissions and recruitment. At some universities the parking department is like a city trying to run up revenue. Isn’t Columbia one of the biggest property owners in Manhattan? And not to pick on Columbia, in a lot of college towns, the university is one of the (if not the) main employer in town. </p>
<p>My son got close to 30 lbs of mail - he looked only at about 1-2 lbs of it – and that’s environmentally irresponsible. Having said that, I’m sure that some of the colleges and universities have excellent environmental studies programs where they teach students the importance of looking out for the environment. Those two are not mutually exclusive. You can have institutions that care about providing a quality education as well as improving their reputations and moving up in the rankings. Admissions offices do not necessarily work with the academic side of the house.</p>