<p>I'm a rising sophomore, but my school makes freshmen and sophomores take the PSAT along with all the juniors. During the test I checked the box for the student search service (or something like that?), and since then I've been getting all kinds of college brochures in the mail. Most of them are pretty random, but I've gotten a bunch of stuff from Rice and Bryn Mawr and even one thing from Vanderbilt. At first I was super flattered and thought that I personaly got these schools' attention, but now I'm thinking they just send that stuff out to everyone with a certain PSAT score. Is that true, or would I have a greater chance of admission at one of these schools that keeps sending me brochures? Bryn Mawr even sent me an envelope with a card inside that asked me to consider joining them in the fall of '14 and gave me a code to use on their website but they probably just send that out to everyone right?</p>
<p>“now I’m thinking they just send that stuff out to everyone with a certain PSAT score. Is that true?”
Yup
“would I have a greater chance of admission at one of these schools that keeps sending me brochures?”
Nope.
All these mailings are just advertisements, nothing more…
The colleges admissions offices are not sending out all the mailers- they hire “ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT” companies to do these mass mailings to students, in hopes of having you apply[ because they are paid based on how many applications are eventually received]</p>
<p>Nope, getting those brochures usually doesn’t mean much. It’s just to attract your attention, really, and has no bearing on your admissions decision. You basically answered your own question ;)</p>
<p>Sorry, I wish it were true, but it’s just business. No guarantee of admission.</p>
<p>Your PSAT score just happened to be in the range that those colleges selected when they bought names from College Board. I imagine that range is much wider than the range of students typically accepted to said colleges.</p>
<p>It’s a good sign to be getting them from good schools (the higher your PSAT, the better the schools that you’ll receive mail from), but it does not at all reflect your chance of admission.</p>
<p>Generally, you’re probably on track (or close) in terms of standardized tests, but since there’s so much more to admissions than that, there’s a huge gap between getting a brochure and getting admitted.</p>
<p>More importantly, getting brochures from certain schools means nothing (i.e. you won’t be more successful with their admissions program because of it). It’s the caliber of the school that matters.</p>
<p>“At first I was super flattered and thought that I personaly got these schools’ attention, but now I’m thinking they just send that stuff out to everyone with a certain PSAT score. Is that true?”</p>
<p>Yup - that’s true, but you should be super flattred that you scored above that number on your PSAT.</p>
<p>Recently got an email from Univ. Chicago - trust me, my test scores weren’t the reason why LOL!</p>
<p>Lol I wish. And some people need to learn that. My friend is always bragging how “MIT wants him and they are asking for him”.uhh</p>
<p>It annoyed me when this girl at my school who is NOWHERE (and I mean nowhere) near top-tier standards got ridiculously excited for an enrichment program’s flyer she received in the mail. I LOLed when I read her Facebook status about how “desired” she is.</p>
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Ugggggggghhhhhhh. Thank God I only know one person like that. And he’s the biggest tool I’ve ever met…</p>