<p>After taking the battery of College Board exams, I (like doubtless every other student who allowed colleges to send mail) have received a huge amount of college advertisements. Do you think that the quantity and/or quality of mail a person receives from a specific college indicates anything about their chances at acceptance? Do some colleges just send more stuff, or are they trying to get the attention of a certain subset of students?</p>
<p>I think they do it by PSAT score ranges, as in a school will pay to get the names of students who have scored in a certain range so that they can later send mails to these potential applicants. </p>
<p>Do you think that the quantity and/or quality of mail a person receives from a specific college indicates anything about their chances at acceptance?</p>
<p>Acceptance in general, or acceptance at that particular school? Some schools send out more mail overall than others in order to recruit applicants, so it’s not necessarily an indication of your chance of acceptance at that particular school. But I would assume that the higher you scored on the PSAT, you more you’re going to be bombarded with random useless mailings.</p>
<p>Well, I’m receiving tons of mail from one particular university and I was wondering if it would be foolish to read into it. Today I received what is basically a softcover book. I haven’t opened it yet, but I figure if they are going to send me something so expensive to produce and mail, it must mean something.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call them useless mailings. Back in the day (before the internet), I got that bombardment of mail. One of the brochures was from an awesome-looking school that I had never heard of. I ended up touring and knew right away it was the place for me. Long story short, my Bryant diploma hangs on the wall of my corner office.</p>
<p>^^Well, they’re obviously interested in you 
(although it’s debatable to what degree is that interest). Some colleges spend more money and effort on mailings than other others, so the amount and quality of those brochures and everything else do not necessarily directly correlate to your chance of admissions. I was waitlisted at this one school last year that sent tons of mails, whereas I was accepted at many that rarely sent anything.</p>
<p>A lot of schools want to drive up their applications rate so that they have to be more “selective” so that could be a factor (a lot of schools will offer you free applications).</p>
<p>I got a mail the other day from the University Of Mississippi reminding me that high school seniors could apply for the 2011-2012 academic year starting in July. Jeez, if I remembered right I just finished my freshman year of college! Also, one of the things they had on their pamphlet was “Take a vacation on the gulf coast!” - probably not a good time to do that right now.</p>
<p>My DD accepted enrollment at one of the colleges that accepted her and has graduated HS. She is STILL getting mail from colleges. We think its cause she took the AP Lang test, and thats usually taken by HS juniors. </p>
<p>Ironically she got a card for an info session from the school that she is enrolling in.</p>
<p>I think the brochures were helpful because they introduced some schools I had never even heard of before. I don’t its worth it to pour over every single one of them, but glance over them to see if any catch your eye, you never know! If not: to the recycling they go!</p>
<p>Also, the “soft cover book” mentioned, was that from U of Chicago? I got something similar from them…</p>
<p>My daughter received a soft cover book from Yale within the past week. She has high PSAT scores and will almost definitely be a NMSF as a result. I don’t think her chance of acceptance is particularly high just because she received a soft cover book; I think Yale wants good students to apply (and would be happy to accept an application fee from us).</p>
<p>We also just received the dark blue Yale book. The kids who receive the book most likely will have the stats to get accepted, but then so will 20,000 other kids.</p>
<p>I got mail from Harvard, Princeton and Washington In St. Louis. </p>
<p>Not bad for someone with a 3.1 high school GPA huh?</p>
<p>On the Yale blue book and the Harvard application :p:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/942038-received-invitaztion-harvard-apply.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/942038-received-invitaztion-harvard-apply.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/947755-who-else-got-blue-book-yale.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/947755-who-else-got-blue-book-yale.html</a></p>
<p>GymnastKaori, I was referring to the book from Chicago. I read through it and it’s actually pretty impressive. They’ve been bombarding me with mail and that book was even more surprising. Has anyone else been receiving lots of stuff from Chicago?</p>
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<p>No. Don’t read anything into it other than the college purchased a mailing list of kids with scores over a certain point. That’s all it means. End of subject.</p>
<p>It’s like thinking that BMW really must want me, me, me to own a BMW when they send me a flyer announcing their new line-up. No, I’m simply on a mailing list because of certain demographic characteristics I might possess.</p>
<p>And I wish they would quit boasting how “green” they are, while they are still sending out this c—load of ground up trees to everyone!</p>
<p>Well, I actually have quite a bit of experience with this since my three children were all so different… My oldest went to community college and didn’t receive much of anything. My daughter graduated with a 3.9 and received quite a bit of stuff but nothing from the really top schools. My youngest son graduated #1 in his class with a 4.8 and I literally could fill boxes with the mailings he received. He received multiple mailings from all of the top schools. So short answer, yes the mailings you receive have something to do with the type of student you are… Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I don’t think you understand what I mean. I’m not asking if a letter from State U will guarantee acceptance. I’m asking if the mail a person receives is any indication of the type of schools they might expect to be good matches or reaches. Replies on this thread have indicated that higher tier schools will buy the correlating higher scoring addresses that they may be interested in. Therefore, my conclusion is that the colleges you receive information from is indicative of your standing as a student.</p>
<p>momfirst3, thank you for your perspective… that helps me understand how I relate to other high school students.</p>
<p>Also your BMW analogy is faulty… anyone can buy a BMW, even people that can’t afford them and must borrow. BMW does not discriminate amongst who are allowed to purchase their vehicles.</p>
<p>It is always fun to see the mailings come in (both snail mail and literally hundreds of emails) from the top schools. As you progress in time, you will start getting emails waiving application fees and essays. You will get guaranteed merit aid from different schools. It’s just unbelievable. It’s pretty fun to get stuff from MIT, Cal Tech, the Ivy League, Stanford, Harvey Mudd, Vassar, etc. I think my son received stuff from just about every top school in the nation and abroad. But this by no means guarantees acceptance. Just read the literature because there may be a school out there that you don’t know about that may be a good fit. Have fun with it and do your best come application time. I put all the stuff in a box to save. I figure it might be kind of fun for him to have someday. :-)</p>
<p>I’ve gotten mail from almost every place you’ve listed, so it is kinda neat to get a letter from Stanford. Even though it is a mass-mailing, it does make me smile!</p>
<p>I liked how Ball State University sent me a letter one time that had alum David Letterman on the front. The caption below said, “We’ve got balls!”</p>