<p>DD got tons of e-mails from colleges last year (sophomore year) when PSAT results started coming out. Then it gradually trickled down to nothing. No e-mails for a couple of months, hardly any for about the past six months. </p>
<p>Suddenly TODAY she's started getting them again. Is this a seasonal thing and a whole bunch of colleges just happened to start sending admissions e-mails on the same day? </p>
<p>Or could the College Board already have released a list of kids who scored over a certain number on the PSATs? Or did they just release lists of kids who took the PSATs (no info on scores)?</p>
<p>Colleges buy from the College Board lists of students with certain characteristics which can be: scores within certain ranges (The college board will not allow colleges to request lists of students with specific scores); zip codes; proposed majors; race; etc.</p>
<p>Colleges are particularly interested in reaching out to high school juniors because that's prime time for students to begin actively exploring college options.</p>
<p>Wackymom,
Did your child just take PSAT's again? Of course the increase in mail could mean nothing. However when my son took PLAN as a sophomore, he started getting mail from colleges before we got his scores. We guessed based on the types of schools that he must have done well.</p>
<p>Prefect, that's what I'm worried about! Yes, she just took PSATs again. She got a good score last year and we were hoping for NMSF-range scores this time. But the new e-mails are for second-tier and lower schools! </p>
<p>I wouldn't read anything into the types of schools. My daughter, who is an NMSF, got endless mail from lower-tier schools after the PSAT during her junior year.</p>
<p>One can get paranoid about these things. My daughter, now a senior, is still getting mail from all sorts of colleges, selective and otherwise. For a while this fall, she was being bombarded with mail from Arizona State, Carnegie Mellon, Mount Holyoke, and Frostburg State, for example. It's hard to imagine four less similar colleges. I can't imagine what sort of list she could be on that would include all four of those schools. At the same time, another girl in my daughter's year was receiving endless literature from Caltech, while my daughter, with similar SAT scores, received only one brochure. Who knows why?</p>
<p>I actually love getting the mail from the colleges. I keep thinking we're going to find some great place that we never knew about, perfect for her, great location, an academic match....</p>
<p>Realistically, of course, we've already got it down to the 8 or 10 usual suspects for her interests. I don't think there are any secret schools quietly lurking below the radar that are just right for her!</p>
<p>Those "second tier and lower schools" would LOVE to get a high stats kid. They <em>need</em> to do more marketing, so that's why those glossy pamphlets in your mailbox. It's not as if there was a gatekeeper on the mailing lists saying that you can only mail to certain score levels and you second tier schools can't have the top scoring lists -- the colleges get to buy the lists they want and mail to whom they wish.</p>
<p>
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I actually love getting the mail from the colleges. I keep thinking we're going to find some great place that we never knew about, perfect for her, great location, an academic match....
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<p>If there is a college that you and your husband think would be a perfect match for your daughter's interests and qualifications, you can rest assured that it will be the one college in the country that will never send your daughter a brochure, even if you go on the college's Web site and request one. This is one of the immutable laws of the universe. ;)</p>
<p>Wackymother, I got VERY, VERY freaked out summer following high school graduation, when my daughter was preparing to leave for college (a very nice college ranked somewhere between 70 and 30 on USNWR), and all the other college mailings pretty muched stopped completely, Bob Jones University sent package after package after package, each promising more and more in fluff and scholarships than the one prior, and some even using language along the lines of "change your mind" etc. </p>
<p>It was really creepy - especially since she had NO interest in them, had never been in communication with them, had not applied to any similar type schools, etc. Plus she's a graduate of a catholic high school (which led me to wonder if they were aggressively targeting catholics for some reason). </p>
<p>The Bob Jones mail continued into the fall, and, finally, with her permission, I wrote "no such person at this address" on one of the envelopes and returned it to sender, and the mail stopped. But it was really creepy and had me wondering what they were up to...</p>
<p>As to the more "normal" college mail, we carried out SEVEN Hefty garbage bags to the trash once she chose her college and we mailed the deposit. I have no idea why some of them mail so much, but, she enjoyed receiving all the cool stuff - CDs, hats, tshirts, etc. Tulane sent the most interesting, fun things (this would have been 2000 - 2001) - there's probably even more interesting stuff coming out now.</p>
<p>wackymom,
I think last time you posted about this everyone repsonded that you're reading too much into it, and I think you still are. Colleges are marketing machines. They flail pretty blindly about. Don't forget their goal - it's not to have your child attend. It's simply to get your child to APPLY. They boost their ratings by having LOTS of applications and then turning away a large percentage of them - it makes them look more selective.</p>
<p>Real recruiting (if it occurs at all) will most likely occur after she applies - especially after a good interview for instance.</p>
<p>My advice - if she's interested, she should glance at the brochures or emails or whatever. But I wouldn't really recommend she build her list that way.</p>
<p>Wackymom,
I agree with the others: we receive far more mail from colleges that my son isn't interested in than ones he is interested in (including "lower tiers" based on his scores)</p>
<p>Daughters are getting mail from schools because of their AP scores from sophomore year (I know because the letters specifically congratulate them on their AP scores). I suggested they check the box on the PSAT saying "don't send mail" in the interest of avoiding too much junk mail. Nothing my son ever got in all that mail made any difference or was any help whatsoever in the application or admissions process. Why add to the junk mail/debris/landfill crisis for the sake of, at best, a tiny ego boost?</p>
<p>The box of mailings still sits in my college freshman's closet, I'm waiting for permission to recycle it. Most of it he never read, some schools sent way too many and I laugh at some of the instate music dept letters- does never bringing your viola home to practice sound like a budding music major (pardon me, he did bring it home a few times but never opened the case)? I was specifically told to save all the junk mail even though I wonder how many years later he would notice their absence. I second all the above comments about schools and junk mail.</p>
<p>Strangely, the University of Portland was one of the "who are those guys" colleges who sent junior a bunch of literature. After looking into them, and doing a visit they seem to have answered several questions junior needed answered. They've gone from the "who are these guys" pile into the "strong interest" pile. Not the #1 choice, necessarily, but still in the running. All his other choices are the usual suspects...</p>
<p>For unwanted college materials, try to see if your local library or other HSs in your area might want them to share with others. That's what I've always done with ours (after removing all identifying info & name & address labels). I think the counselors really appreciate the materials--they always thank me for them.
My S got TONS of materials--some from top tier, bottom tier & everything in between. A few of them he actually wanted, but most were recycled at local public HS that doesn't get much material at all among its students or recruiters to its campus. Altogether, we've given them > 2 bankers boxes full of materials.</p>