<p>Hello all, </p>
<p>I have been receiving a significant amount of college mail via email and postal. Some are repeats from the colleges. Do I have a better chance of getting into these colleges as opposed to those that I haven't heard from?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>No. My D has received at least 4 letters from the U of Chicago. She’s not remotely in their successful applicant range. All it means is that (a) the college has bought your name from a mailing list, most likely the College Board, and (b) the college wants to attract a lot of unqualified applicants so that it can reject them and raise its rating in the USNWR rankings. And if a few qualified applicants whop might otherwise not have heard about the college apply, so much the better.</p>
<p>It is all marketing & many students are swamped with this type of mail, which can go into the recycling bin. U of Chicago has not changed then, S was always getting snail mail from them in 2010, & emails, too. </p>
<p>To turn this off, you have to check some box when you take the PSAT. But a parent really has to remind their child to do this at PSAT time. Makes you wonder how much the Collegeboard takes in from selling names? A staggering amount, no doubt.</p>
<p>Having made the snarky first reply to the OP, I will say that of the hundreds of pieces of college spam that have crossed our threshhold, one was worthwhile, because it alerted my D to a place she thinks she might fit (and from my standpoint, that we can probably afford if she gets in), the University of Evansville. It’s even overcome her “I’m not going to college in Indiana” attitude (because “I looked at the map and it’s just barely in Indiana”). One of the things that distinguished this mailing is that it was more substance than empty headed marketing (although it was glossy and no doubt very expensive to produce). At any rate, we’re including it on our college visit tour later this month.</p>
<p>My favorite piece of unsolicited mail D got was from a school that trains flight attendants. We also got the begs from U Chi- which is beyond even a long shot.</p>