I got the Stanford letter and also an email about RSI
My son opted out (per my direction), so we got nothing. I don’t read too much into these lists, I know how they work in general (other industries) and it’s not to scientific or accurate.
I called Stanford myself today and the lady told me that they send the summer letter to those testing in the top 5% and/or those scoring a 4 or 5 on an AP test. I have only taken the October PSAT so…
This whole mail thing is making me nervous…
That’s weird because I got a 5 on the AP Bio exam and got no Stanford mail.
@Chew97083 lol the confusion @_@
Colleges don’t receive your AP scores until you submit them in your college app.
They purely base who they send emails to by your PSAT score.
@bsdsj22 You sure about that? Last year I got mails from Columbia and UChicago when I got only a 189 on the PSAT. I’m pretty sure they look into extra factors, like GPA for instance
I get emails from Northwestern, UChicago, and some other schools with a 186 PSAT last year.
So much speculation … if only we all had the patience to wait until January 7th :))
I’m very curious about this, as I am interested in attending a summer program this year. Did anyone get the emails who didn’t take the PSAT last year? This was my first time, and I am historically a pretty confident test taker, but I got no emails. I could have done poorly on the test, or I might not have checked the box (I really can’t remember), but is there anyone else who is taking it for the first time that got an email?
Weird. I got an email from TASP even though I’m about 99% sure that I opted out of CB’s search or whatever it’s called. I scored <200 last year and <210 the year before that, which I don’t think are good enough. I have one email from Brown and one from UMiami otherwise, which I find pretty strange. Anyone know the %ile that TASP targets?
And I changed the email attached to my CB account a couple months ago (I’m also pretty sure that I didn’t write an email on the PSAT answer sheet) and all of the emails EXCEPT TASP, which I got this morning, were sent to my old email address.
I could just have a bad memory though.
I said earlier in this thread that I was one of the people who got the TASP email but no others. Well, I got an email about the Stanford thing earlier today and the Colby College one. Didn’t get anything from Brown or RSI but I got stuff from Brown last year.
I put down International Relations and Affairs as my major.
@loquatical as of right now no one knows. Basically everything is pure speculation so far haha.
I put down Computer Science.
I was planning on applying anyways. Now I can use the email in the “How did you find out about TASP?” section instead of “I’m a neurotic student with crushed self-esteem that spends way too much time on College Confidential”
I am pretty sure that the Collegeboard does not send your scores out to colleges, they are only allowed to send your contact information.
Just an FYI as I follow this thread for my junior: TASP is a very highly regarded program and free for those who are invited. If you haven’t received an invite check out their website at: http://www.tellurideassociation.org/programs/high_school_students.html They now receive funding from Jack Kent Cooke so they seem to be reaching out more than in the past…
@USPanther Yeah, the colleges might not know exactly what score you got, but they buy the scores in a certain range, so they know how well you did relative to others. In this case, they know it before we do which is irritating to me.
@jjlundy - I love the speculation! Waiting for the score release and the gosh knows how many days/weeks it will take our school to distribute the results is certainly anxiety inducing. I now have a bet with D18 on her score. Hope I am right and the letters for summer programs from Stanford and U of Chicago are just random fishing and not based on her PSAT score from Oct or I owe her a new iPhone.
@USPanther - you are right likely CB does not send scores to colleges (unless of course you asked them to) but they do release your contact information to schools/third party mailers based on some sort of schematic. Ie. Stanford might say only send us the contact info for those kids that score in the top 5% on the PSAT or send us the contact info on kids who score “x” and marked an interest in a STEM major or contact info for kids that live in “x” geographic region.
I am not sure anyone should put too much stock in the college and summer marketing packages they receive. I have read that schools and programs try to get as many applications as possible so that their overall acceptance rates look as low as possible. That way, it appears they are more competitive to get into and thus, more desirable. These schools are not sending out information in hopes that they can recruit top students–we all know they have Plenty of top students who apply. They are going after a high number of applicants so that their acceptance rates seem ultra-exclusive.