Mail from Northwestern

Hi!
So, I am currently a junior and I received a mail from Northwestern University asking me to come visit and explore their campus. Does that mean anything? Is it something that they send to random juniors? If not, how do they know that I am academically strong and would be an asset to their school? They gave me the school brochure in order for me to learn more about their school as well. I am just curious if it is a legitimate invitation.

They will send out many thousands of those. Trust me. We filled many garbage bags over the past two years.

Total spam, means nothing, just information. You might have got because you took the ACT/SAT or something if you checked you’d like to receive emails from colleges, but there’s also other sources that could be the cause of the mail.

Plus, they want more people to apply so they can reject more people and improve their “selectivity.”

Those letters are based on test scores. They’re sent to you through the collegeboard student search service. However, they are no indication that NU has any actual interest in you and are just an indicator that you may potentially be qualified. They are pretty liberal with sending out letters since the more applicants they get the better their rankings and selectivity.

Ancient History Revisited - My son,currently a Jr attending NU, wanted to go to NU since Jr High, and got stacks of Please Attend Me Spam Letters from all the top schools because of PSAT scores - but NO mail from NU. Guess it goes to show that 3 years can be a lifetime in the Exciting World of College Recruiting!

Yeah, I got letters from dozens, probably hundreds of schools. It’s a tactic to get you to apply so that even if you don’t care one lick for their school there will be more applicants with the same amount of kids so a lower acceptance rate. It’s why UChicago seems to mail EVERYONE.