Question About Colleges in the My Colleges List

<p>Hi!
So far my son has two colleges listed and one of them e-mailed him, encouraging him to apply since they knew they were listed on his My Colleges Section of the Common Application. Why would they know this ahead? Did I miss something? Thanks!</p>

<p>Bump…Thanks!</p>

<p>I’ve not heard of anything like that. If anything, we are seeing a complete absence of communication between the CA, the admissions offices and the schools’ marketing. So, the kid still gets “consider applying here!” mail from schools where the application already has been submitted.</p>

<p>My son has not applied yet, and has not even finished his Common App yet (Wrapping up his essay and additional info section) so I was a little surprised the college e-mailed they knew they were on his list…</p>

<p>Has he registered for any of the many college search engines out there (Cappex, College *******, Parchment, many others)? If you enter your stats, some of those are used by colleges for marketing to students that fit their profile.</p>

<p>I’m pretty sure that the college marketing machine has very little to do with anything that goes on in the real world. My daughter continues to get postcards encouraging her to ‘come visit’ from schools we’ve already seen and ‘apply now’ from schools where she’s submitted her aps! Definitely a case of the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing…</p>

<p>Yes, I have definitely seen this in the emails that I look at. A couple schools clearly indicated finishing the commonapp or if you are struggling with the commonapp version, use our own version. </p>

<p>Also, on naviance S has northwestern listed as “schools I am thinking about” and they sent a free app waiver and called him to ask if he had questions.</p>

<p>Thanks, Everyone! I know there is all sorts of marketing and advertising going on at this time of year, but I just thought it was strange as it was so specific and the school is one of only two he has put on his list so far… It says…</p>

<p>"Dear (My son),</p>

<p>Thank you for placing (College name) in your “My Colleges” list in the Common Application. We are writing to encourage you to apply to (College name)."</p>

<p>He did list this school as his first choice when he filled out his National Merit Scholar Semifinalist paper work, so I thought they meant that at first but then I went back to read it carefully…</p>