College Emails

Hi My son is getting emails from colleges regarding applying. But the colleges are all not the selective ones that he is interested in. They are from places we have never heard of ! Does that mean his PSAT score in october may be low? As colleges target students from their scores I heard.
for example university of kentucky /?? green mountain university, ? Anyone with any experience or opinions or ideas?

Means nothing at all. Somehow he got on amailing list. Ignore them.

^ Yes, he got on a mailing list, perhaps due to the PSAT, but not necessarily because of his scores but because some places cast a wide net in their advertising. If he is at all interested, fill out the card (or hang on to it and send it later). He may get a “coupon” waiving the application fee.

Agree, the letters mean nothing about his PSAT score – just that he got on their mailing list. He likely will also get some mailings from very selective schools (my D got a ton from UChicago even though she was not in their academic wheelhouse) and that doesn’t say anything about the chances of admission.

FWIW it never hurts to quickly look through the mailings. My S got one from a college we hadn’t considered (we thought it was too close to home and in a sketchy area) and it made us think about it – we decided to visit, he really liked the school, we felt fine about the neighborhood, he got great merit aid and ultimately attended and had a great expereince there.

Based on a number of the emails my D received, a lot of these colleges are also aiming at students who punch above the normal weight of the school and who wouldn’t normally look there. D has received a large number of invites to things like honors programs, priority admissions, guaranteed merit funding based on (for my D) quite low GPA/standardized scores, etc. Lots of different incentives.

We have had a few unsoliciteds from selective schools too - like @happy1 , a bunch of stuff from Chicago even though it’s a very stiff reach for my D - off the top of my head, the only unsolicited mailers she has responded to with an application is Tulane, although I think she’s unlikely to attend even if offered a place.

That mail is just junk mail just like any other unsolicited mail. It has nothing to do with your kid’s PSAT score.

I have to agree that they don’t likely even look at the scores for email. They get the contacts and just hit send to all.

My kid has gotten bags and bags of mail from podunk U to Princeton. Selective schools maybe more discriminating in who they send their mailings to but many schools are not.

I believe the timing is key though. If emails start happening all at once after a standardized test, it’s likely that they bought scores in a certain range.

It’s not likely at all that “they” bought scores in a certain range.

It’s more likely that the kid checked a box on either the registration or the sign in for the test that day that said they would be interested in receiving college info.

You know…there is nothing you can do about this junk mail. We found it’s almost impossible to get off a mailing list from a college.

At least with email…if you are SURE the kid isn’t interested, you can block the email address sending th college stuff.

One of our kids started getting college mail in 8th grade. She had never taken the SAT, PSAT or ACT tests. Her high school doesn’t hand out addresses. She had never attended a summer program except day camps at that point. We never figured out where it all came from. We just had a recycling box, and tossed it in.

A lot of the mail came from schools that came to our city to hold individual separate recruiting sessions, ones that we signed up for and attended. Carnegie Mellon, U Chicago, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Columbia, Georgia Tech come to mind. Then there were the unsolicited ones which probably came from signing up for the PSAT or AP classes like Colorado School of Mines, UTD and for some weird reason got a ton from Cal State Monterey.

I think many not-so-selective colleges try to entice good students with merit aid. The only correlation I’ve noticed so far is geographical (getting more mail from schools in nearby states).

My daughter got tons of mail from two year for profit schools all the way up to ivy league schools with everything in between. I think she was also on a religious school mailing list and got tons of Christian school mailings. Many schools sent way more than one mailing. My daughter somehow got onto a list by 9th grade so most were never looked at. I bet the mailman is glad that my oldest in now a college freshman and her 9th grade sister hasn’t started getting anything yet.

The email can also be tied to information the student provided about demographics or prospective major when completing the form with the PSAT.

I work at a college…they totally buy lists. We also received niche mailings (in addition to the ones that were obvious immediately after the release of say the PSAT and later the ACT) that came from unknown sources. For instance, somehow Yale thought my son was a potential QuestBridge candidate and he doesn’t fit that demo. He was pursued directly by QB and Yale with a focus on a QB match.