<p>This might be a sort of silly question, because I know tons of colleges send out mail to high school students, but if USC has sent me mail without me ever requesting it or even visiting the campus, are they at all interested in me? Or do they just mail random addresses? I'm pretty sure I have no chance of getting in. I just finished junior year with a 3.8 for both semesters, but i have a 3.6 overall after a rough sophomore year at my very rigorous private school and I got a 1620 on the March SAT (planning to retake and take the ACT in the fall). I could provide more details if anyone thinks is necessary, I just was so surprised that such an amazing school would even be interested in me. Thanks for any input!</p>
<p>Not trying to be mean, but I think that they send mail to everyone. If they really wanted to recruit you they would send you more than just a letter. One reason that they might have sent you a letter is if you took the PSAT and you marked USC as one of the colleges your interested in. If you didn’t take the PSAT you could have just been one of the random high school students they sent information too. HOWEVER I AM NOT A EXPERT SO I MIGHT BE WRONG.</p>
<p>They DO NOT send that mail to everyone. IMO, they think you’re a good match and that will increase your chances a lot, even if you don’t think you’re competitive. </p>
<p>When I applied to grad school last year, I received some flyers and even application fee waivers from some schools I had never considered (NYU, U Chicago, Baylor, U of Michigan, Wash U in St Louis, and Pitt). It shocked me, as I wasn’t such an outstanding applicant either; 1280 GRE score and 3.5 undergrad GPA. I ended up getting interviews from 2 of them and acceptance from one. At my interview at the school I was accepted to, the admissions chair asked me how I ended up applying to their school. I told them about the flyer and application fee waiver and she enthusiastically said “Oh good, I’m glad to see those are working!..Yeah, we’re trying to be more proactive with those.” </p>
<p>Hannah, not everybody gets them, and they are worth something. Trust me. The key is that after you receive them and apply, keep in contact with the school! Tell them you’re interested, you got their letter, etc. etc. It worked for me!</p>
<p>kids, the letters do NOT come from the admissions office at USC or from any college admissions offices for that matter. They are sent by Enrollment Management companies that the colleges hire to “up” their application numbers. They are ads for the colleges- nothing more, nothing less… Would you get all excited about buying a car you cant afford just because you got a letter from BMW?
The more students apply, the more the enrollment management companies are paid. The letters are paper “spam”. They mean NOTHING</p>
<p>'I told them about the flyer and application fee waiver and she enthusiastically said “Oh good, I’m glad to see those are working!..”</p>
<p>Grad school admissions are an entirely different kettle of fish than undergraduate admissions.</p>
<p>oh ok interesting. thanks for responding! I wasnt really planning on applying since I already have a pretty solid list of 10 schools I like and can get into (well except one is kinda 50/50).</p>
<p>You should apply to some reaches as well.</p>
<p>SeattleLove13, I can relate to you 100% because you are entering your senior year and I just graduated from high school one week ago. I know that you are starting the process of applying to colleges and every piece of college information seems important to you. I was actually dubbed the “college expert” by my friends because I was so obsessed with getting into USC/UCLA. I would read UC blogs endlessly and hoped and prayed that I would get into USC/UCLA every night. Due to the fact that I was so obsessed with college my senior year was super slow for me because you submit your application in November-December and you have to wait all till March to find out if you got in or not. SeattleLove13 RELAX!!! You will get into a college that you are meant to go to so just enjoy this stage of your life when you are applying to college and excitement/ uncertainty is a big part of your life. No other stage in your life will consist of you applying and waiting for a result. Don’t do what I did and in February try to search the internet for when college results will come out. 
Colleges will notify you when they are going to release their decisions. Don’t google search “Class of 2017 <em>college name</em> freshman notification release date” and until the college officially releases a date if you search the internet it will be a bunch of students guessing when they will come out.</p>
<p>I have 2 reaches, Loyola Marymount University and George Washington University (which is also my top choice), but depending on how my SAT/ACT goes they might be more of low reaches, I’m not sure. HannahKim12, thanks for the advice about not stressing out about it! I’ve been getting mail since freshmen year when we took the PSAT but ignored most of it but this past year I’ve gotten mail from some top schools so was just wondering if it really means anything. Sounds like it doesn’t!</p>