<p>How many of the e-quiz emails have the word “go” in the e-mail address? (Quite a few at our house.)</p>
<p>This is a new marketing tool…wasn’t being used 4 years ago. First started receiving 2 years ago when a child in my house took the SATII. I wonder if the company (or companies) doing it pay for the mailing…and the schools only pay if there’s a “hit” (someone actually takes the “test”, “quiz”, “survey”)???</p>
<p>The glossy brochures, with some information about the school, are a completely different marketing tool.</p>
<p>My older brother got a lot of college mail sent to our house…It usually dies down around the holidays and then picks up until April or May. For some reason he was still getting brochures from one particular community college until June or July.</p>
<p>We’re saving all the mailings S2 is getting. If it wasn’t for the postage, part of me wants to send it all back after he decides where he’s going.</p>
<p>My son took the PSAT as a sophmore, performed well, and we are inundated. I understand the marketing value, particularly for non-brand name schools, but I am surprized that Ivy league schools join the fray. </p>
<p>It seems to me that almost all qualified applicants will be fully informed about Ivy league programs by application time. Further, the letter my son received from Columia informs him that their information indicates that he may be a “competitive candidate for admission”. Obviously, Columbia knows that they don’t have enough information to make any sort of meaningful assessment of his competitiveness. Fortunately, I know, and have told my son, that the letter is nonsense; but what about the parents and students who don’t know. Does Columbia really need to resort to the these practices to maintain its elite status or financial viability? I think not.</p>
<p>Stats21: The more applications a college gets, the more competitive they look when they only admit x% come April. WUSTL is often slammed for that practice. It’s all about the numbers. </p>
<p>You’d be surprised about schools parents/students do and don’t know about, especially outside of the NE, and outside of the top socioeconomic level. And you’re right about parents & students that “don’t know.” I had a neighbor tell me proudly last summer that his D was being recruited by Harvard before her junior year. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that, while it was a nicely written, very complimentary letter (which my D had received the previous year) it was a mass mailing. Most parents & students don’t come here to CC; when they get letters like that from top level schools & don’t understand the process, it makes acceptance at that schools seem more likely than it actually is.</p>
<p>I just get completely surprised that anyone would ever see any of these things as anything other than anonymous mass mailings. It really surprises me that adults would think that “Harvard sent my kid a letter” means anything other than “Harvard purchased a mailing list that my kid happened to be on.”</p>
<p>And stats21 - plenty of places in this country where the Ivies and simliar schools simply aren’t top of mind or discussed, and in which a student of that caliber might well be headed to the flagship state U and not think twice about it unless prompted.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl: when a letter arrives on nice stationery with the Harvard letterhead and talks about what a great student your kid is and how they are the type of student that fits the Harvard profile, that sends a message that parents might take the wrong way, especially if they’re not experienced. And especially if their kid is a strong student in their small geographic/ economic area and if well-meaning K-12 teachers have said along the way “Susie could do well at any college!, she’s one of the best students I’ve ever had!” </p>
<p>I still have to tell my mom that most of the mail she gets isn’t really directed to her on a personal level; that it’s “junk mail.” I can tell without opening a letter what it is. My mom opens & reads everything & can be fooled if it’s a mail merge doc with her name in a few places & with what passes as a “real” signature. She thought the birthday card from QVC was really signed by all the hosts. </p>
<p>Just trying to say that a lot of people don’t understand that you can even buy a tailored mass mailing list…and what that means.</p>
<p>I thought if this thread last night. I have 2 daughters-one a senior with completed apps and auditions awaiting the letters-still getting the random mass mailing-“there’s still time!!”. D2 is a sophomore and the onslaught has recently started. She saw her sister go through it, so knows it is merely marketing and does throw out the vast majority. </p>
<p>Last night I was cleaning up the kitchen counter, asked D2 if she wanted to look at any of the mail, she declined. I was curious about the location of one college that I wasn’t familiar with (it wasn’t in the return address line) so I opened it. Had D2’s name (including her middle initial) in the inside address and in the salutation. Then further down, in the offer to request more information via email the instructions were to “enter name” and they had listed D1’s name (along with a “password”).</p>
<p>I showed D2 and she replied that yeah a few letters had that mistake. D1 then piped up that she had begun getting random email to her email address, but addressed to D2. I am positive D2 would never have put D1’s email on anything so I do not know how this mix up occurred. They even go to different HS! It did sour her on a few schools that “couldn’t even tell her apart from her sister!”</p>
<p>I hope the mix up doesn’t follow us, although D2 said she wouldn’t mind getting credit for D1 SAT scores, but her own GPA!</p>
<p>I am really confused about this mailing strategy. IMHO, schools are just wasting money and time. Do they profile kids group that in their reach? Apparently not! My sophomore S with PSAT of 230 has received tier 3 schools from out state. Anyway, he is not opening any of those mails. Interestingly, one engineering school offered 50% of the 40K tuition.</p>
<p>dragonboy–you never know. Those lowly “tier 3” schools may have an excellent program that a NMF may be interested in. And many of them give full or near full rides to NMFs. Very attractive.</p>
<p>I am totally confused on what lists my older dd got on. Plenty of the colleges are appropriate- VA schools, various liberal art colleges, etc. But RPI for a kid who did worse than average on the math PSAT score and is now only taking the ACT. Other engineering schools are sending her info andI have to be wondering if they got her mixed up with her younger sister whose first test was only last weekend (talent search, not for college). Other weird mail includes yesterday’s big fat brochure about multicultural opportunities. Now my dd is a third culture kid but not a multi-cultural kid as this brochure defines it.</p>
<p>After my daughter, now a senior, completed all her applications, I threw away all the mail we’d saved. It was just thrown haphazardly into a file cabinet. One FULL drawer full and another drawer started. ALL types of mail. (But I don’t recall any “come on line and play games”…maybe we just didn’t read those). If they weren’t from colleges in which she was interested, she didn’t even open them, so…who knows? She did very well on her PSAT and new floodgates opened. Long after most application deadlines, she’s STILL getting mailings from schools who court National Merit Finalists. Her high school’s “college room” has filing cabinets and you can bring in and donate your material, so others who might NOT have received a mailing from “anycollege usa” can come in and look at a brochure. </p>
<p>Oddest so far:</p>
<p>University of Kentucky sent a singing “ball” (like a crazy 8 ball)
yale? I think…sent just a dry book of classes/courses/curriculum.
NYU sends glossy, pretty, more visual than content.
…
and Carnegie Mellon sent something that looked like a kilt, so much so that my daughter thought it WAS a kilt, she was SO excited. Alas, had it been a real kilt she might have been coerced to apply.</p>
<p>So, MY D got mail 5 years ago from her PSAT results , and it was a lot of the 4-color brochures - expensive mailings. My Son is gettting mail from PLAN & PSAT results, and it is what everybody has described, the “you’re our kind of kid”, go to website and enter PW and get stuff. </p>
<p>It doesn’t bother us, we have a file, and Son remembers D getting mail like this, so it’s almost a rite of passage for him, letting him know His Time Has Arrived- even though it is a year early - he’s only a Soph.</p>
<p>The sad part is the wasted expense of the LAC mail, when he clearly stated his interest is in engineering, and most LAC’s don’t have engineering majors, or they farm it out. The PSAT and PLAN people should have a box to check for kids that KNOW where they want to go, so colleges don’t waste dollars trying to fit a sq peg in a round hole. My Free Tip O’ The Day - and worth every penny.</p>
<p>And what sophomore “knows” where they want to go, unless it’s for stupid reasons? (a boyfriend is there, it has a good football team, etc.) Why shouldn’t colleges try to change people’s minds?</p>
<p>Man, I remember getting college mail. It was all the same sort of “COME TO US BECAUSE WE’RE AWESOME AND HAY LOOK PRETTY COLORS” spam, and I’d get around 20 e-mails a day and 5 letters. Geez.</p>
<p>Missypie - I think I know what you’re talking about, I got a lot of those types of letters and e-mails, that didn’t talk about the school itself and just advertised online quizzes and were all the same. I remember when I was a freshman, before taking any PSATs or other standardized tests that colleges could get information from, my English teacher gave us a form to fill out to get college mail. And then after that, I started getting this type of mail, but once I got mail because of the PSAT instead of this form I filled out (which I think is usually January or February), the mail started to be more standard, not as many online quizzes. So I’m guessing that it’s just an outside marketing company that distributes these forums and writes the letters, and not the actual colleges themselves.</p>