<p>Earlier this year I definitely wasn't planning on applying to Yale, but... they have been sending me a lot of information about their school through email and mail... and I don't understand why. My GPA is a 3.7, the school I go to is a public school.. Probably one of the best in my area academically but still, it's a private school. I'm involved in many things, but I'm not very good at any of them. The most awards I received from any activity I've done is choir... There was this one letter I got in the mail from them that was one of the longest letters explaining why I should go to their... longer than any other letter I received... at the end it said "We hope that you keep Yale as one of your top choices" or something like that... what should I be anticipating as a regular decision applicant? </p>
<p>Also... I always thought that maybe they keep on sending me stuff because I'm a Hispanic... I doubt that's why... but I really couldn't think of another reason why they would be interested in me..</p>
<p>Did you ever wonder why your parents get weekly mailings for new credit cards? Or new auto insurance? Or lawn service?</p>
<p>Their info is on a series of lists for potential buyers. Your name, due to meeting certain qualifications, is on lists that many schools or their sub contracted mailing companies have bought. </p>
<p>It really means nothing. Follow up if something catches your attention. If not, ignore it.</p>
<p>Certainly Yale isn’t the only college sending you material, are they?</p>
<p>No, a lot of colleges do send me information. Most of my friends have higher GPAs than I do and none of them have gotten any information about Yale… I’m probably just over thinking this… I know I should stop.</p>
<p>Colleges send thousands of these emails and letters to prospective students especially URMs. These emails and letters don’t have any significance. Colleges want to interest you in their colleges, so that you apply. Colleges will tell you that they do this “mass advertising campaign” to attract the best students, but I think they do this so they can increase the number of applications that they receive so they can be more selective. College admissions is a dirty game now, so you have to take caution in what schools you apply to.</p>
<p>I take a less cynical view of things hyp416. There’s value to top schools to have broad advertising. I’m not saying they should be over the top but why should they NOT do like the other schools? Why do their ad campaigns elicit suspicion but not a 25th ranked schools’ outreach?</p>
<p>Grizzman would ascribe an unseemly motivation: more apps = more rejections = lower admit rate = higher prestige.</p>
<p>I think it’s baloney. These schools, frankly, are above it. It’s the 2nd tier schools who wish to be 1st tier schools who have to be very creative.</p>
<p>Disagree. They are not above it at all, and they do it for the reason you mentioned (to lower their admit rates) and also to collect the thousands of app fees that they would not have gotten if they had not encouraged people to apply.</p>
<p>^really? Yale is known in every single country, it doesn’t need higher prestige, and having the third largest endowment in the world (out of EVERY nonprofit in existence) means the application fees, while nice, prolly don’t even cover the cost of the admissions office.</p>
<p>and as T26E4 said, this would raise no eyebrows if the mailings came from a second tier school, many of whom also do plenty of mass mailings…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily ascribe better motives to Yale, they want the best pool they can possibly get, in order to build the best possible class…and URMs def get diversity recruiting (does it mean much? depends on the applicant) but to say they’re doing it for fame or money…Yale has enough of that :P</p>
<p>T26E4, I respect your positive outlook, but I disagree. Every college, including Harvard and Yale, care about their public perception. As much as Yale likes to say they do not care about there rank in US News & World Report, Yale would start to worry if they fell out of the top 10. No college is above trying to make itself look better. I’m not against any college trying to advertise itself, but when they all do it to the point that they give students with no chance of admission false hope, they need to check themselves. That’s why I tell students to be cautious in choosing the colleges they apply to.</p>
<p>"I’m not against any college trying to advertise itself, but when they all do it to the point that they give students with no chance of admission false hope, they need to check themselves. That’s why I tell students to be cautious in choosing the colleges they apply to. "</p>
<p>I’m all for that. But I don’t understand how it’s Yale’s fault. Should they print in bold white lettering “We admit about 7% of applicants” on the front of the brochure? I don’t think they are crossing any lines from what I can tell.</p>
<p>A few years ago they spent beaucoup dollars sending students to rural and inner city high schools that traditionally did not have applicants. It was a sincere program to find diamonds in the rough.</p>
<p>For the cynics: would you propose that Yale did NOT send brochures and viewbooks and email and send solicitations to lists of high achieving candidates? Would this be your remedy? Ball up into a xenophobic cocoon so their apps drop in order to raise their admit rate? Cut their nose off despite the face, no?</p>
<p>I mean, for me, it was tough to hear the admissions officers/tour guides that I met on my visit say things like “there are no test score/gpa cutoffs” time and time again and then get deferred with a 34 on my ACT. Am I saying that sending out flyers/publicizing material is wrong? No, but it doesn’t change the fact that even top-tier schools such as Yale can be rather disingenuous.</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation as the OP. I am Hispanic and scored a 33 on my ACT, and also have a low GPA. I ended up applying and being deferred SCEA. I have no regrets and knew the odds were stacked against me. I am glad they sent me a lot of mail and a viewbook, it caused me to look into the school. The school is the reason I applied, not the mail. And who knows, I’d I had a better GPA I might have gotten admitted and would never have had much of an interest in Yale if not for the outreach.</p>
<p>Again, I’m not against the advertising. I just want students to know that the letters and emails have no significance. Many students are not aware that they are just one of the thousands of students across the country who receive mail “congratulating them on their academic acievements.” Students should know as much as possible about college admissions. My frustration comes when the colleges give half truths to students like “no gpa/test score cutoff”, “no quotas”, “we don’t care about yield”, and etc. These colleges may not have “official” guidelines or rules, but they certainly have “unspoken” guidelines and rules that they live by. I hate to sound so cynical, but I just hate when students who are new to the admissions process get trapped in the half truths that admissions offices like to spit out. Again, I hate to be cynical, but the admissions process frustrates me greatly that why everyone must be cautious.</p>
Most (if not all) schools have this. If not, how come the ratio of male students vs the female students at most schools tends to be close to 50:50 year after year, even when the gap in academic achievement between genders, outside of the standardized test, becomes wider and wider these days?</p>
<p>But when a top school does this just like other schools do, all of a sudden, it is perceived as a bigger “sin”.</p>
<p>Did you not see students on the results thread with 2400 SATs and 36 ACTs deferred? What makes you think that your 34 ACT was the only thing that kept you from an admissions spot and that it was disingenuous for Yale to tell you otherwise? Clearly it is obvious that admissions at Yale is not simply a numbers game. As was mentioned by another poster elsewhere, MIT’s website is very transparent about the admissions process and they say they receive thousands of applications with LORs that are damning with faint praise. Nearly every applicant thinks their essays represent them well but that is dubious as well. There is only so much one can ascertain from these results threads without those bits of information. Yes - many, many qualified applicants are rejected each year but the process may not be as random as believed based on the results threads. You are obviously a strong candidate and provided you applied to a broader range of schools you should have excellent options.</p>
<p>“Should they print in bold white lettering “We admit about 7% of applicants” on the front of the brochure?”
Maybe this wouldn’t be a bad idea. Companies that have lottery type promotions are typically required to include the odds winning along with the promotion. What would be wrong with requiring colleges to include the prior years admit rate on promotional materials?</p>
<p>mcat2, I was talking about ALL colleges. I never once singled out the “top schools.” I believe in fairness across the board, and it would be hypocritical of me to just to call out the top schools.</p>
<p>@CountMonteCristo, I don’t think that is a bad idea lol.</p>