<p>Do the emails, brochures, flyers mean anything? from the colleges? Does that mean they are interested in you? or do they just want you to pay for a pricey summer program(like several had).. I got one from Columbia. I originally didn't think about applying to Ivy Leagues because I didn't think I could get in... but if I had a good chance, maybe.</p>
<p>May be beating a dead horse but they mean notta.</p>
<p>
So you DO understand why they send 'em. Drums up interest, gets more kids applying, lets them be more selective in the stats. Win-win!</p>
<p>They mean nothing.</p>
<p>Very well noticed, Mike.</p>
<p>neorobie, these ‘flyers’ are mostly general letters that colleges send to thousands of senior high school students every year. Anyway, you sound intimidated by admissions data. Don’t simply “don’t apply” just because you think you won’t get in somewhere. If you like a school, insert a coin to play. You might be surprised with the results.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>It means something. It means you took a standardized test (probably the PSAT), checked off the box to let colleges contact you, and your name ended up on a list of students a college bought to market to because it wants them to apply. These lists could be a “Give me every student with at least a 180 PSAT” or a “Give me every female student in the tri-state area” or a “Give me every Catholic student with at least a 200 PSAT that wants to major in Philosophy” or a “Give me every student in California with at least a 140 PSAT.”</p>
<p>It means they want you (and a lot of others) to apply.</p>
<p>On the PSAT, my first kid put somthing like legal studies instead of law- for two years, we were deluged by every school with some vaguely related major- criminology, police studies, fingerprint technology, court reporter, etc. Then, the phone calls started. </p>
<p>2nd kid…every school with sciences… This one makes it clear there is no sorting; she was getting mail from some tippy tops- well beyond any promise she had of getting into that league. I saved the most impressive for a while.</p>
<p>Funnily enough, I put that I was graduating a year early (making it too late for me to apply anywhere that got my PSAT) and that I was majoring in social work (a major that >95% of the schools that contacted me didn’t have).</p>
<p>Well, I decided to major in History, something I love, and at the last minute (before becoming a “senior” second semester) made a decision with my family not to graduate early. So I’m glad they didn’t pay attention to that information.</p>
<p>My daughter took the PSAT this past fall as a freshman (all 9-11 students take it each year at her school) and is already receiving mail and emails from several schools (I’m looking at you TCU and Rice!!) Her scores were “fine” but not unduly impressive (IMO), we’re not from anywhere near Texas, and did I mention she was a freshman? Her brother is a senior is the middle of “waiting for acceptances angst” – and I am so not ready for the college search to begin again so soon in this household! So, in our case, not only do the mailings mean nothing --they are not even appreciated at this point:)</p>
<p>They mean a little something. If you’re getting mailings from selective schools all around the country, it most likely means that your PSAT was above some cut-off point for the list they bought. That isn’t much, but it’s not quite nothing.</p>
<p>All it really means is that those colleges would like you to apply to them. More applicants means that their acceptance rate is lower, so they look more selective, so that their rankings will be better. </p>
<p>It means that your PSAT scores were above some minimum cut-off level. </p>
<p>When my son got a Harvard application in the mail, I told him that Harvard wanted him to apply so that they could reject him.</p>
<p>
I think this is too cynical. I think these schools really do want to cast a wide net, and they want to get students to consider going there who might otherwise not do so–they want geographical and other kinds of diversity.</p>
<p>^ Well, my son had a 3.5 UW GPA and no hooks, white male from NJ. So, I don’t think it was overly cynical. </p>
<p>He had some other things going for him, including a great ACT score, and is a happy student now at WashU in St. Louis. But Harvard? I would be shocked if he was accepted at Harvard, and he didn’t bother to apply. </p>
<p>I’m a graduate alum for a different Ivy, and perform alumni interviews for prospective undergrad students, and see first hand what it takes to get accepted from our area of NJ, and at first it was shocking to me the great students who didn’t get in.</p>
<p>Perhaps another way to put it is that these mailings are based on very limited information about you–most likely nothing more than your address, and the “band” of PSAT scores you fall in. That score is enough to indicate to these schools that you might have the other credentials needed to make you a reasonable applicant. That’s enough to justify a mailing (and especially an e-mail).</p>
<p>Thank you all! These were helpful responses!</p>
<p>Yeah, they mean nothing. ^^ I got mail from Harvard, Cornell, and NYU because my scores put me in the commended range. I test really, really well, but my GPA is so far below what you need that these schools were waaaaay beyond reach for me. But I saved all of the mail from the ‘impressive’ schools (Harvard, Cornell, NYU, etc.) to look at. </p>
<p>(Btw, my friend (who is incredibly smart, gets straight As in all honors/APs, works two part time jobs during the year, is musically talented, is in all of the plays, etc.) didn’t get mail from these schools even though her ‘target’ schools are my reach schools. So yeah, they mean nada.)</p>
<p>^I just got mail from Harvard today! Does that mean my PSAT is in the commended range?</p>