@calmom are you saying Princeton knows my kid’s PSAT scores?
How? I’m pretty sure the share box does not include scores.
@VickiSoCal Colleges can order from the College Board a list of kids (with addresses) who scored within a designated band of scores. So for instance U Chicago can order the list of all kids who scored 1300 and up on the PSAT. I don’t know how thick each band is (every 50 points?).
@ninakatarina FWIW I noticed that my D in AL received a lot fewer flyers from some of the top schools than kids in the greater metro NY area, even though she was in the same band of scores. I thought that was interesting because I would have thought they would have wanted to market at least as much to our area since schools are interested in geographic diversity.
@melvin123 – when the colleges buy the lists they can do zip code sort and target specific areas. On the one hand they can target mail in search of geographic diversity – but they can also target toward more affluent zip codes, or whatever other factor they think can be relevant to their marketing goals.
@melvi123 Its the zip code targeting that makes me think they are just after application fees and not sincerely seeking applicants. Princeton is aggressively mailing and emailing my D. As one poster pointed out, her ACT of 33 puts her “technically” within range, but if you look at the Naviance results from our school, NO ONE gets in. Its a sea of red x’s. Year after year, they reject kids with near perfect scores and grades. They know that people in our area have heard of princeton. They are not sincerely reaching out in the hopes of finding some kid who has never considered the Ivies. If they were really looking for possible admits, they would target the kids from Al who could provide some diversity and might have a chance of getting in.
I could see if being zip code biased on whether they are really targeting an applicant or just hoping for more applications. In all cases they are looking for more applications, of course, to keep those acceptance rates down, but I suspect those giving in to the lure with similar high stats from certain zip codes have higher odds than others.
@gallentjill – I think you are selling both your daugher and Princeton short. While I still think it’s more likely that the mailngs are based on PSAT score lists than ACT – your daughter’s ACT score puts her in the 98th percentile and if PSAT is at the same level then that is obviously the target demographic for top schools. You may be very right that your daughter doesn’t have the stuff needed to be competitive for an Ivy – but within that top 2% of test scorers there are going to be some kids who do --kids who are class valedictorians and who have excelled in other ways that make them good candidates for admission. And while it may be true that kids from your daughter’s high school don’t get into Princeton, there may be kids in your zip code who attend other schools who do – perhaps private schools that also draw from your area.
And the messaging isn’t meant for kids who havenever heard of Princeton – Princeton isn’t competing against your state U, Princeton is competing against the other Ivies. They want some kids who have their hearts set on Harvard to think about Princeton. They want kids who are applying to Yale or Columbia to apply to Princeton as well, or instead. If they can convince some Harvard wannabee to apply SCEA to Princeton instead, then they are ahead of the game if that kid is admissions-worthy.
The zip code thing can be a lot of things, but if it is affluent thing it often is in the hopes of bringing in more full pay applicants – and full pay applicants only add value if they are accepted.
Marketing is always about casting a wide net toward the target marget, in the expectation that only a very small percentage of end-recipients will take the next step to becoming customers. Lots of email & paper from Princeton keeps the school “top of mind” for students who are now developing their college lists, planning summer college visits, and will be making decisions as to where to apply next fall. It’s not your daughter they are marketng to-- your daughter just happens to be swimming in a pool of top 2% test scorers, which is where Princeton’s marketing department knows it is most likely to find the students it does want.
Is it also helpful for them to keep their application numbers up? sure. But it is a lot more beneficial to them to attract more very high quality applicants.