<p>Hey all. I took the PSAT back in September but I didn't check my scores because I figured I did really bad and didn't want to feel stupid. Also, I figured I wouldn't be a National Merit Scholar and that was really the only reason why I took it since everyone takes the ACT where I live. Stupid reasons, I know. You don't have to tell me twice. </p>
<p>Recently I've been getting piles of letter from colleges. I know this isn't unusual, but these have been really selective schools. Like NYU, Washington University, Carnegie Mellon, Mount Holyoke, etc. I figured this happened to everyone but a lot of my friends who took the PSATs have been getting letters from okay to good schools. So I was just wondering: Is the selectivity of the colleges you receive letters from a correlation to your PSAT scores or should I just shut up and realize I'm not that special?</p>
<p>I used to get piles of stuff from Yale, Washington University St. Louis, and NYU. I would just throw it away since I never had any interest in going to any of them.</p>
<p>at the same time, it's not as bad as ppl are making it sound. not everyone who takes the PSAT will get mail from these colleges, only ppl that score pretty well. what this does not mean, tho, is that they actually want you.. they just send out to everyone above a certain score.</p>
<p>Everybody gets tons of stuff, most of it from WUSTL. There is a bit of a connection between how you scored and what schools are mailing to you. Each college makes a decision of how much mail to send out and what criteria to use in selecting addresses. The selection criteria could be based on race and other factors too. Some colleges may decide to mail a bunch one year when they don't usually mail anything. </p>
<p>If you drive a BMW, you may get junk mail from the Mercedes dealership. If you have a bad credit rating, you may get junk mail from bill consolidation deals. Bums still get the Mercedes junk mail sometimes. Getting the mail is not an indication that you necessarily have a chance of being admitted there. Some of it can't really get misleading as if they are offering you a slot right there.</p>
<p>depends on your standard for being "a dumbass"</p>
<p>I scored 181 on PSAT (which is one of the reason why I switched to ACT)
and I got mails from WUSTL, NYU, Harvard , Vandy, Chicago, Northwestern, etc...</p>
<p>I hope you guys realize, that Student Search doesn't actually give out your scores... The Colleges buy information about students who scored above a certain point (i.e 200) and marked down a certain "interest" on the coding sheet. That's all it is. They want people to apply because that's how colleges compete amongst themselves. Plus, the $60/applicant doesn't hurt either...</p>
<p>haha I got mail from every Ivy...it is not a BAD sign but it doesn't confirm anything either</p>
<p>if you have high GPA and high test scores with decent EC's you should be happy with yourself regardless of the mail you get</p>
<p>and if you have a lower GPA with lower test scores and never do any EC's you need to "get crackin" - even if you get mail from harvard yard, oxford, umich, stanford, and MIT</p>
<p>it is good to glance at all of it though - Carnegie Mellon sent me a fee waiver in one mailing and Tulane will give out "personal application packages" (fee waiver + no essay + no recs besides counselor rec) in email (and maybe mailings also). Also another school offered to reimburse travel costs up to some amount if I went to visit them. Some send out scholarship guarantees for national merit/achievement/etc which can help sway your decision. So don't automatically toss everything out - just the WUSTL mail (think i'm kidding? I could keep my fireplace burning for months)</p>
<p>if you are interested and think you will apply respond - many schools like it if you show interest</p>
<p>I made a 204 on my PSAT, which is fairly low by the standards of most people on this forum. I have, in the past three months, recieved mail/e-mail/packets from the following colleges:</p>
<p>Brown
Columbia
Yale
Cornell
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
Rice
Swarthmore
Reed
Tufts
New York University
University of Chicago
Washington University (St. Louis)</p>
<p>These are the prestigious ones I know of, anywayz, I get a myriad of them. My point is not to brag, I'm just acting as an example. I've done well in school and the PSAT, but relatively speaking if I'm compared to people on this forum I'm not all that impressive. My theory on college mail consists of the following parts:</p>
<p>1) Colleges want to keep interest, enthusiasm, and optimism in applications to their school
2) People feel better if they get a letter from the school
3) More people apply, so . . .
a) They end up being more selective and . . . .
b) They have more quality applicants to choose from</p>
<p>For instance, I have good stats in my opinion, but my chances of getting into Yale or Brown are like most people's, very low. However, seeing and reading about their colleges make application a lot more attractive.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, it isn't necessarily 'false hope' if you get a letter from a selective school, but it isn't a guarantee. Just know that most selective schools, if they send you letters, let you know that you're on the right track.</p>
<p>I got a bunch of mail from really selective colleges early this year and in my sophomore year....now I get a lot from state universities. lol my psat went down two points.....funny.</p>
<p>Just be careful with your safeties. Using the 50% SAT ranges, being at the 75% mark and above is a safety, being at the 50-60% mark is a match, and being at the 25-40% mark is a reach. This is true for all colleges except for the top 15 or 20 colleges where it is a reach for everybody since they have 4/5 outstanding applicants for every niche that they have open. Applying out-of-state to public schools knocks you down too.</p>
<p>I think it also has to do with what race you are. My friend scored a whole 20 points lower than me but she is hispanic and i marked asian. so i think there is a cutoff, but it differs from race to race.</p>
<p>Which works for me. Yay, racism! But seriously, I suppose it's to target minorities who had less opportunities, which is worthy, just counterproductive in some cases.</p>
<p>Stop... these... emails! They keep coming and coming and coming. It's like weeds are spreading throughout my inbox grass... That was the best analogy I could think of.</p>