<p>I basically had a question about all of the college mail I've been getting for the past 6 months. I have gotten letters from many really fine institutions, including Rose-Hulman, Case Western, Washington University in St. Louis, Macalester, and even Yale. While the prestige of many schools on my letters may be questionable, none of them seem like terrible schools. But I've been doing some reading, and I've heard that many letters from colleges are sent out to applicants who really have no chance of getting in to boost the selectivity index of a college, and I'll admit that my scores are not on the high end of the spectrum for those schools (32 ACT, 1350 SAT).</p>
<p>Do these letters really not matter at all? Were my information packets sent from USC (California) and Dartmouth just encouragement for another well-rounded normal kid really just a way to make the college seem more prestigious?</p>
<p>The letters are no real indication of the recipient's chances. It's pure marketing. Personally, I like getting the letters, because I like to read about different colleges, but they don't mean anything, really...</p>
<p>Colleges aren't trying to trick underqualified kids into applying, they're just making sure everyone knows about them, basically the same way credit card companies send everyone mail in hopes to attract customers.</p>
<p>they send out these letters to every student that scores within a certain range on the SATs/ACTs. I think that they are simply used to raise awareness for the schools among students whose test scores show that they might be candidates for acceptance.</p>
<p>i guess a cynical person may choose to believe that the top institutions only send out these letters to boost the selectivity of the college,...</p>
<p>I guess that makes sense. Some schools seemed less of a reach than others. I know a girl who got a 21 on her ACT and spells magazine "magazene", August "Augest", and numerous other 2nd grade errors and she got a letter Princeton. It was bizarre.</p>
<p>Yeah even schools like HYPMSC regularly send out these letters through the Student Search Service or some other student database they have their hands on. </p>
<p>It's not an indication of favor, unfortunately.</p>