My younger son is only a high school freshman, who was able to take the actual PSAT at his school. He checked off the boxes to receive mail, but I didn’t think he’d get much since he’s only in 9th grade. Are colleges able to request information and see scores in a certain range? Do the colleges know he’s only a freshman? His score was a 1280, and now he has a lot of emails from well known colleges. But I thought they didn’t get information on students and scores until they are juniors.
Thanks.
I think everybody who checks it gets the mail regardless of age. Honestly… ignore it. It is all computer generated marketing material and means nothing about his eventual chances for admissions.
Agree with the above - my son’s school has everyone take the PSAT starting freshman year. If you check those boxes they will start with the mail. It’s good to a look and see if anything looks interesting, but it doesn’t mean he’ll get accepted when the time comes.
Ok, thanks. No, I was not implying that I think it means anything or would increase any chances for admission when the time comes. I know it’s just all mass marketing junk mail. It just seemed there was mail from more competitive colleges than my older son got, and I was curious if colleges were able to request a range of scores to send mail to.
Are colleges selective in who they send material to? I would venture to say no.
For example, if your son gets quite a few letters/emails from Dartmouth, he may be more inclined to apply to Dartmouth when the time comes. Even if he doesn’t meet Dartmouth’s standards (this is hypothetical, I’m not implying anything about your son) and is rejected, Dartmouth stands to gain. First, they get your $80 application fee. They have around 20,000 applicants, so they make about $1,600,000 in applications fees alone. Secondly, and more importantly, by seducing your son and other ‘future innovators’, or whatever other names they use to appeal to our ego’s, they can increase the number of applications they receive. They don’t really drastically change the class sizes, certainly not commensurate to the increased number of applicants. This makes their acceptance rate lower, and thus improves their matriculation rate, both improve their ranking in publications like US News and World Reports, and others that rank colleges. The higher ranking leads to more applicants, which leads to more money in applications fees, a lower acceptance rate, and continues the process. They can also charge more in tuition if they have more prestige, which can improve with lower acceptance rates.
Their return on investment is pretty good for a few emails and some paper.