<p>Hi all. My school isn't giving us our PSAT scores until January 11th at the earliest so I'm still uncertain about it. However, I recently just got junk mail from Harvard congratulating me on my PSAT score and encouraging me to look into their summer program. So my question is: is college junk mail an indicator of how well you did on the PSAT? Did any of you get involved in a similar situation? I'm just curious as to know whether I passed the PSAT curve (aka am in the top 1%) and am still in the running for one of those National Merit scholarships. Thanks.</p>
<p>Whoah, that's wierd. My school is also not giving back PSAT scores until the 11th, and I also got the mail about the Harvard PreCollege program. My score last year was 216 and I don't think I did any worse this year, and hopefully much better. So I'd say it means you did pretty well, maybe not great, but enough for them to pay for your name and address.</p>
<p>It's kind of wierd that you posted this. I was thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>I got a lot of college mail too, including from harvard, and I barely missed the nmsf cutoff. I'd say you're at least a commended student.</p>
<p>Harvard has no clue what you got on your PSAT - neither does any other school. Personally I loathe that style of spam particularly given they're trying to get your attention based on a random guess.</p>
<p>okrogius,</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure the College Board sells the information of students through their "Student Search Service" or some such thing. Maybe I'm completely offbase, but I think they know at least that you were above a certain cutoff they set, maybe not your actual score, but they may have asked for the info for every kid above 200. That type of thing.</p>
<p>Read collegeboard's privacy policy on that - it is not correct. They do sell your name, and what you indicated as your GPA and intended major (of course with the contact details). Your actual score is never sold or otherwise disclosed with the student search service.</p>
<p>I have a high score on the PSAT and I didn't get any good mail recently - I did get some pretty good mail last summer/year.</p>
<p>"I'm pretty sure the College Board sells the information of students through their "Student Search Service" or some such thing.... I think they know at least that you were above a certain cutoff they set..."</p>
<p>Yes. I once called College Board and asked about this. They sell colleges lists. The lists can be based on certain score ranges, proposed majors, genders, zip codes, race, and/or probably some other factors. </p>
<p>One can't quite figure out one's score by what college one gets mail from. It's possible, for instance, that elite colleges looking to recruit certain rare types of students may, for instance, buy lists that include such students who also students scored above 170 on the PSAT. The same college may also be sending out general mailings to all students in the country scoring at least 210 and higher.</p>
<p>I'm almost positive that range of scores is given out. Look at TASP, you only got an invite if you scored 99%.</p>
<p>As far as their privacy policy goes, I know you can choose to release your information, whether or not that includes scores, I don't know. But I think they do.</p>
<p>hmm u guys maybe did really well on ur psats..but dont think that cuz of that mail..because i did OKAY..like actually compared to the CC standards horribly on the PSATS..yet i got that mail about checking out their Summer Programs and that from all the schools like Harv, Yale, Stan..etc..</p>
<p>Harvard evidently sends those things out to a lot of people; I forgot to take the PSAT this year (oops, no shot at NMS for me, oh well), and I did fairly bad last year because I just didn't care, while I still got one of those mailings.</p>
<p>I think I did well. There are other ways to get on their mailing lists and I'm sure they don't make more than one letter. So there could be a few reasons you got it.</p>
<p>the national n.m. cutoff is usually around 200. you have to place in the top .5% of your school to be qualified for the semifinals.</p>