<p>Ever since I took the PSAT as a sophomore I've been getting a lot of mail from colleges. I'm a junior now, and recently I've been getting mail from higher tier colleges such as Yale and Princeton. My parents think this means that they know my grades and are recruiting me, but I was under the impression that colleges can't see my PSAT score nor my GPA and that all they knew about me was the demographic information I filled out on the test. Do colleges actually have any idea of my grades right now? For the record, I got a 217.</p>
<p>No, they don’t know your grades and they’re only recruiting you in the sense that they want lots of people to apply.</p>
<p>They send mass marketing information based on a relatively low threshold of PSAT scores.</p>
<p>That’s what I thought.</p>
<p>I had the same thing happen, they don’t know your grades. It’s just the PSAT scores and they send to a lot of people.</p>
<p>I’m an old foggy parent … however when I took the SAT and PSAT I think I self reported my GPA … so when schools got my PSAT scores I assume the also got me demographic data and any academic info I had provided including my self-reported GPA</p>
<p>PS - I haven’t seen the mail/email you have received but, in general, I wouldn’t call these initial contacts “recruiting” … they go to a ton of people … I’d call them “fishing for interest”.</p>
<p>Very simple explanation. Higher number of apps = lower acceptance rates. All competitive colleges want the lowest possible acceptance rates. So they convince the greatest number of seniors to apply only to respond with a rejection letter in most cases. But they got the app and thats all that counts!</p>
<p>Our daughter’s(junior-will graduate 2014) score last October was 9 points above last year’s cutoff. One of the colleges she’s looking at has a generous National Merit program(provides for all in state NMF who choose them) We requested some info. Is it typical for the school to request the specific PSAT score? How and when are the colleges notified that students make National Merit Finalists?</p>