Letter from Columbia University

Applying to College
1

<p>I am a senior in high school now and I recently received a letter from Columbia University stating that they hope I consider attending their university next year ect...which I was really pleased to read because I really wanted to go to CU. Seeing as though I received this letter do you think i would have a better chance of getting accepted. </p>

<p>If anyone else who has received one of these letter not just from Columbia, but from any other top college, can tell me how your experience went, that would be helpful.</p>

2

<p>Sorry to disappoint you, but colleges send out hundreds of thousands of those letters to high school seniors. The reason is to increase the number of applicants, which is important (for no good reason) for USNews rankings. The fact that you got a letter only means that Columbia bought your name from the College Board (probably) - it means nothing about your chances.</p>

3

<p>But why Columbia University out of all the colleges? Do they just pick random people to send these letters to?</p>

4

<p>Someone else on this site told me that if you get a letter/brochure from the college it means that they send that letter to everyone with a certain PSAT score or higher, and you made the cutoff.</p>

5

<p>I’ve gotten several letters from Yale, as well as a 120 page book about why I should apply there.</p>

<p>I have no chance whatsoever of getting accepted into Yale.</p>

<p>I would ignore the letter.</p>

6

<p>Steve: you’ll probably get reams of similar materials from other Ivies and such as well. Congrats on whatever achievement you did to get on the correct mailing lists – but ultimately, this means absolutely nothing about your likelihood of being accepted beyond the fact that you’re in a general range of the typical applicant.</p>

7

<p>My daughter has received no fewer than FIVE mailings from UChicago. She has not the remotest chance of getting in there (nor any interest). I called and asked for her name to be removed from the mailing list, just to see what they would say. They told me there is no way to do that.</p>

8

<p>Did they tell you why you couldn’t remove her from the mailing list?</p>

9

<p>Just that they have no way to do it. I suspect that they could but would really just not bother.</p>

<p>It was also just the receptionist that I talked to. If I’d felt like pushing it, I might have been able to get somewhere with it.</p>