We have had an onslaught of mailings from the University of Chicago and Washington University in STL. U of C is definitely out of my son’s reach (3.77 GPA and 30 ACT) and Wash U would be a stretch school for sure. Where do they get our information because my son has not indicated to either school that he is interested in attending. He’s taken the PSAT twice and ACT 3 times but has never sent scores out to any school. He did participate in the Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program) in 7th grade and get State Recognition. I’m just curious.
Unless he checked the box saying not to send information to schools, then every school out there has access to his information (not exact scores typically but score bands). Certain schools that are reaches for just about everyone will send tremendous amounts of mail to lots of students who are not likely to be admitted. UChicago is one of the ones that sends out the most (for us, Columbia was a strong second).
There are various thoughts on the reasoning - the cynical thought is they want to get you to apply so that they get your application fee and also look more selective because they’re turning away more kids, the kinder thought is they want to reach out to kids who may be hidden gems and wouldn’t think to apply to such a school without prompting.
Just realize that these mailings are going to huge numbers of students - it’s not an indication the school has a specific interest in any individual student.
Thanks! I just throw them out, but it seems like a waste of paper and money to me. I really hope that they are looking for hidden gems and not just boosting their numbers and garnering application fees.
@sahmkc That’s exactly what they want you to think… colleges operate like businesses too.
UChicago has always been an elite academic school, but it lacked the name recognition of the other elite schools with which it competes. It’s Ivy League caliber, but its not in the Ivy League. It lacks high profile sports like Stanford and Duke, and it doesn’t have an interesting, memorable name like Johns Hopkins. Until a few years ago, the overwhelming majority of high schoolers never even heard of it, and never considered applying to it. It mostly was known in academia, and was the place where professors at other universities often sent their kids.
So UChicago decided to do some advertising to raise its profile among prospective applicants, and it has worked pretty well for them. They get thousands and thousands more highly qualified applicants than they used to get. It’s really not a scam - no one is forced to apply there.
It’s not a “scam”, they’re not trying to steal your money and no, no one is forced to apply - but they do send mailings to huge numbers of students who are highly unlikely to be admitted. Some students recognize this as a marketing ploy. Unfortunately some students are not as marketing savvy and think that, since the school reached out unsolicited, that means the school really wants them and their changes of admission are higher than in reality.
Nothing wrong with it, but it does raise some false hopes among those who don’t understand how the game is played.
U Chicago is not on my D18’s list, but I love their fun, creative mailings. D just got one today that talks about the new coffee shop at their Divinity school, and the types of conversations that happen there. Included is a diagram of a caffeine molecule with some science-y facts. I think these mailings do a great job of representing the school and what type of students fit in there. Fun…AND informative. I wish more colleges would do the same!