Mailings from Graduate Schools?

<p>I thought I was done with getting brochures from colleges, but yesterday in the mail one came from a highly ranked graduate school program addressed to my kid who is a Junior. I assumed he requested it, but when I talked to him he said he hadn't requested anything. Just wondering if this is common and if so, how do graduate schools get the names of these students (his major is a natural fit for this particular program) or do the colleges give the names of their students to graduate schools? He hasn't taken the GRE so I know that is not how the school got his name. </p>

<p>I don’t know, but my son started getting them his first year of college, high school is early. ; ) They still come and he never wrote to any of them and he’s been out of grad school for a year. NYU and some other NY colleges were the most prevalent. He also still gets summer programs so they don’t seem to have a cutoff after so many years.</p>

<p>He’s a junior in college not high school. This was from a NY school but upstate ,and coincidentally ( think) from the school both my H and I have grad degrees from. But they don’t know his name or field of study in undergrad from us. I am just curious how they got his name and know his field of study. This school specializes in certain professional degrees, not degrees in the humanities, for example.</p>

<p>In any case, never forget- this is <em>marketing</em> material, designed to take advantage of your confusion over whether it’s telling you your kid is a coveted asset when in reality he is a commodity. There is no educational program on earth that doesn’t want to attract more applications from everyone it can get. </p>

<p>I’m under no illusion he is a “coveted asset” after being inundated with material from colleges he had no chance of getting into even if **** froze over. I was quite surprised when he told me he didn’t solicit the info - and now very curious how grad schools get the name of students. It’s not like the SAT when your kid checks the box to give permission to colleges to send crap. </p>

<p>At this point he isn’t even sure about grad school and likely will choose to work a few years before going back.</p>