It could possibly be that we are from an extremely low income high school (Title1)?
They shouldn’t need to. They should have enough data to target within certain parameters. “More” mail doesn’t always equal “more applications” if you’ve done a good job targeting.
Interesting. My kid has a 34 ACT but got nothing from Yale. And tons from Reed and UChicago. He has gotten stuff from Princeton, Harvard, WUSTL, Rice, Vandy, etc. We are in the midwest, urban. The amount of e-mail and snail mail right now is crazy.
I personally think any school recieving funding from the government should have more accountability than they currently due. And note there are some that do not take money. Like Hillsdale.
elodyCOH, I think checking the box on the PSAT may carry forward, so the deluge would continue through the SAT’s.
Ditto on my D19 from U of Chicago. Weekly. Yesterday my daughter and I even received a local dinner invitation, and that was for an east coast public (we are in CA). They seem to be getting more and more personal with special student number and password access.
I’ve seen so many variations of my son’s first intital + last name + one or two numbers for the “special” invitation to apply its crazy. Ironically, these colleges many be oblivious, but their CRM systems are kicking out almost identical email (and snail mail) messages within minutes of each other!
Xavier sends me SO MANY emails. And they all come from different addresses, and there’s nothing in the subject, sender, or first line or so that tips me off that it’s them–so I have to open the email to see what it’s about before I delete it.
While UChicago has sent us far more material than anywhere else, I must admit I am impressed by the quality of their materials and their diversity. And once you are admitted, it becomes a flood. Did wonders for my daughter’s self-esteem. And both Chicago and Smith told her that even though she was declining their offers, they would keep her file active for one year in case she wanted to re-activate it.
@compmom But aren’t PSAT and ACT entirely different companies? He checked the PSAT in 10th grade, but not 11th. He didn’t check it for Sat or Act because by that time we already knew that he could not afford any private schools and had already narrowed down the list. He didn’t want to see anymore mail from fabulous schools sending him stuff when he couldn’t go even if he got in.
The big onslaught started just before he got his score report for the February test.
Ah…my son took the PSAT as a sophomore (the school had all sophomores take it in school) and didn’t retake as a junior because he already had hit his ACT score. So maybe he didn’t check the box…or maybe his low score made him super unattractive to schools. 
Both Vanderbilt and U of Chicago sent expensive, beautiful glossy, card stock mailings yet I knew my son didn’t have a snowball’s chance of being admitted there. IMO, it’s simply a fundraising drive…how many can we get to apply and pay the $85 fee or whatever the cost is.
For us the school that was relentless was Siena College. Every. Single. Day. Finally my son applied (for free with their voucher) and then the school didn’t even follow-up with the things they had promised (timeline etc.) Clearly just another school boosting it’s applicants so they can boast a lower acceptance rate to appear more selective than they are.
@empireapple: by your username, it appears you are from NY. If so then Siena marketing to you makes sense. The schools don’t have an unlimited budget, and want to carefully target their message to those who are most likely to be receptive. It would be foolish for a school like Siena to start spamming kids from rural areas of Wyoming – almost zero chance these kids would be interested.
Having more kids apply doesn’t necessarily translate to a bigger admissions staff budget. Hiring more admissions counselors costs money. So the schools don’t simply spam every 18 year old in the world, and they have to be somewhat selective about it. But I do agree with you that the schools are doing this to drive down admissions rates. More applications means more rejections.
I’ve heard that there is an entire industry has cropped up to micro-target students. Here is a good article in the Atlantic which describes: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/04/how-colleges-find-their-students/522516/
Every HYPSM college mailed glossy brochures with a letter asking our kid to apply early.
Just kidding. My kid never received any glossy brochure from a top college other than Stanford. He felt so grateful that Stanford was even looking for a non genius, non STEM student like him that he decided to apply early and got in somehow. My guess is he wasn’t enough of an awesome student for top East coast colleges to send out brochures. Or they already knew he doesn’t like cold weather.
And now the joint Stanford with QuestBridge emails have started. Their intel is just plain wrong.
Loyola of Maryland sent a crazy amount of mail.
For us last year it was WashU, UChicago, Johns Hopkins – in that order – that inundated D with mail Reed was up there too.
“The only colleges that “owe” financial accountability would be publics…much like the difference in publically traded businesses and privately held businesses.”
Really? I’ve found that most colleges spent outrageously on athletic department and pay big time football/basketball coaches are from the public universities. Our state flagship endowment onetime went down to a little about $300M. That’s was very low for a major public university. Fortunately, last year some alumna donated $200M to the school, but yet the athletic department has another crisis now and likely will be sued very soon. Talk about financial accountability by the public schools. Wow.
SMU has been very annoying in Texas, I’m guessing any colleges listed as “The most expensive college in every state” are very aggressive with emails and direct mails. I believe this is one way to increase schools acceptance rate.
Colorado School of Mines was also relentless with my daughter.
@eb23282 I got our HPU book today! It’s a week after they called and my D19 told them she was not applying. I’m anxiously awaiting the DVD
My favorite mailing was two “personalized” letters from different departments at Stanford expounding on how DS18 was a perfect fit. They arrived on the same day and were identical except for the department description. Maybe they should coordinate those letters better! We didn’t waste our money applying.