<p>Yesterday I sat down with my son and we looked over all the college mailings he received as a result of taking the PSAT in 10th grade. He goes to boarding school, so we were not able to do it until then. He did very well on the test, and many of the mailings referred to this. </p>
<p>I understand that these mailings are not indicators of strong interest from any of these schools. I guess they are just indicators that his PSAT scores and self-reported GPA and intended major were in the range of the types of applicants they want to attract. However, I have some questions for the seasoned parents on this board:</p>
<li><p>The majority of these mailings were offering what sounded like useful information on college search and selection. For those of you who followed-up, was the information they provided useful? I don’t have the mailings in front of me, but they were offering information on topics like "How do you determine a good college campus?’ “Selecting high schools courses to be on track for our college” “Tips for college interviews” and so on. </p></li>
<li><p>Some of the letters were encouraging my son to apply for their honors college or talking about special programs for scholars. Is there some general consensus on programs like these, or does it just depend on the college? In other words, are these special programs good, or just window dressing to attract higher stats applicants? </p></li>
<li><p>If he responds to some of the mailings to get the information offered, does the fact that he responded go to Admissions, or is it simply managed by a marketing firm? It looks like a way to get his email, phone #, etc. to establish a “relationship” with more emails & calls.</p></li>
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<p>Maybe another parent can give more info...but I know for a fact the PSAT-generated info was based purely on score. My son got a few 'perfects' in the 10th grade test but wasn't in the studying mode then (and the then-gpa reflected it). Still, he got repeat letters from Caltech, etc. </p>
<p>We chucked/recycled them (son refused to read)...but perhaps others had a more useful response... :-)</p>
<p>Buy a filing cabinet now if you plan to save everything he gets in the mail! D2 has taken the PSAT since freshman year, so she's been getting mail from then...however, now in the spring of her jr. year, there are many days that she gets more pieces of mail than we do. With our older daughter, she kept piles of no interest, maybe interest, and high interest....it wasn't long until she started pitching the "no interest" as soon as it came in!</p>
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<li><p>Many of the college planners and viewbooks that D1 got when she followed up DID contain useful information in general. There were things like checklists, planning/organization guides, and it was a way to figure out what factors were the most important to her. Also, some things mentioned in one school's information were a reminder of things to look at for other schools. Naturally, schools will emphasize their best "sides" in the information they send out. There will always be the pictures of smiling students sitting in a grassy area, obviously enjoying the beautiful scenery and people, and of course they all usually have their books open all around them. She learned that if a school barely mentioned their dorms, it frequently was because they were crappy; if a school highlights the dorms in their color brochures, they are probably bigger rooms, newer, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>The honors designation really depends on the college. Some include special programs, maybe with smaller classes, opportunities for research, seminars, and living/learning programs where they will start out by living in dorms with similar interests. Some, as you indicate, are name only. The most competitive schools don't have honors programs; almost everyone there would have the scores and grades to make them honors students at other schools. Honors applicants are usually identified primarily by GPA and SAT scores, but schools that have living/learning programs will also consider the students' interests.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't know the answer to this. I honestly don't think that response to mailings get any brownie points in the admissions game; others may have evidence otherwise. I always imagined the request going in to some little office where student employees create the mailing label, update the mailing list/database, and send the info out. It WILL mean that your son will get a lot more mail in the months to come from the schools he responds to.</p></li>
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<p>Good luck, and buckle up for the ride. From your post count, I assume you've been through this college thing with previous kids?</p>
<p>S#2 is in the same boat as your son. Our home mailbox and his email box are jammed everyday.</p>
<p>S#2 takes a quick look and pitches. He knows from Ds experience 3 years ago that he has plenty of time. The only good thing is that he is starting to think about his college future.</p>
<p>I think astrophysicsmom is on target. Your household will be flooded with mail for the next couple of years. I'm sure some kids look at these materials but most envelopes end up in the recycle bin. The only time my two daughters used the viewbooks was before campus visits, and even then it was just to get some idea of what the campus' looked like. </p>
<p>As for the Honors Colleges and interest-tracking, there have been a number of threads on these topics. But the bottom line is that your S will have to research these on his own, because as astrophysicsmom said, each college is different.</p>
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3. If he responds to some of the mailings to get the information offered, does the fact that he responded go to Admissions, or is it simply managed by a marketing firm? It looks like a way to get his email, phone #, etc. to establish a "relationship" with more emails & calls.
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<p>I'm afraid these marketing firms turn it into a relationship whether or not your son responds. My junior daughter bristles at the faux-familiarity of these follow-up form letters. Routinely they praise her for being amongst the smartest of the smart, as in those smart enough to send in the reply card, though she didn't. She just tells me to throw them right in the trash unless I think it would be a good school for her. I'm afraid of the effects of college mail burnout at this point.</p>
<p>My tenth grader has also been receiving a ton of stuff from colleges, but is actually glad of it because her search will be different from her older sister's and a couple of colleges have come to her attention and she plans to seek further information.</p>
<p>Welcome to the mass mailing club. After the xth mailing from UX you figure out who is desperate for top students and who politely sent one postcard. I'm waiting to recycle the bags of unread mail - maybe when son comes home for his second college spring break soon... or when we move. His senior year in HS it became a "There's another one from Arizona State" but he wouldn't throw the mailings in the recycling bin. Let your child look at them and save or throw (with any luck you can pitch most of them). It is a relief when they go off to college and the mailings stop.</p>
<p>A little off the OP, but my daughter is in 8th grade and already getting mail from several of those "Who's Who" -type outfits. Obviously she hasn't taken a PSAT yet, so we don't know where they got her name. Usually they'd go right into the trash, but we noticed something odd about them--
They all come addressed to: "<em>(her first name)</em>_ FishyFin."
Huh?? It's somewhat related to our last name, but still...</p>
<p>Interesting, lspf. We noticed a uniqueness in the name of addressee that allowed us to track from exactly where the list generated (PSAT registration, in son's case).</p>
<p>I'm putting piles of mailers in my son's room & occasionally say, "Why don't you look through a few?" but he has very little interest. </p>
<p>Just personally, I just can't seem to get anything from them -- all schools show beautiful shots of college campuses w/attractive, laughing students. Just can't see how to get a 'feel' for a school through these paper ads... Maybe others & their kids have greater success with that task?</p>
<p>PS I was on the cover of my college mailer when in college--I know those shots are all faked/posed...we were told what to wear & how to walk...! :-)</p>
<p>In the "olden days" before the Internet, mailings like these would have been useful, at least for schools your S/D might be interested in. Today I would have to say they're mostly a waste of trees. S didn't look at many of them. Instead, most if not all of the info you need is available on college web sites.</p>
<p>Admissions blogs such as those posted by MIT were very useful. S spent a lot of time reading them, socializing with other hopefuls, etc.</p>
<p>The brochures are good for kids like mine who do the search a little backward. She will seek out on the web colleges that have already caught her attention, but won't go to the web to find schools out of the air.</p>
<p>My S is like Zoosermom's D. He has given me certain criteria, and I pitch the info from schools that are too far off his criteria. He reads some of the info I keep (UChicago's letter was unique enough that he read it through). The stuff that isn't thrown away goes into a file, in case he decides to read it at some point. He isn't ready yet, to be honest. </p>
<p>I assume a lot of what comes through is from PSAT, but I think some may be from Plan, too. His scores from both are solid, but not phenomenal. I suspect his interest in computer science is a draw for schools. I know for a fact that the score reports are purchased by schools, and each school has its own criteria for choosing which students will be contacted.</p>
<p>We get a bunch of this stuff and I keep telling DD to look through it as I don't want to throw away her mail. </p>
<p>In my experience they start tracking you when you set up an account on the school website, or sign up for a tour. We recently signed up for a tour in late March and a student actually called about five times before finally catching DD at home! I was impressed with his persistence.</p>
<p>We're able to identify whether the mail is coming as a result of her sophomore PSAT or the one she took this year as a junior. The soph year mail has the last letter of her first name as a middle initial and then her middle initial. She evidently made a bubbling mistake. The mail from this year is correct.</p>
<p>I'm the designated filter in our house. Unfortunately, all this college mail arrives daily for the 10th grader, while the senior is actually hoping for real mail from a college or two!</p>
<p>rainmama we're in the same boat - what could be more disappointing than seeing that college name you waiting to hear from on an envelope addressed to your little brother!</p>
<p>My 9th grade daughter took the PSAT this past fall, just for the heck of it. So far she has received mailings from Ithaca, Mt. Holyoke, and Rice. Also brochures for a couple of summer programs. She's excited to receive this mail (so different from my son!). I think we'll just keep everything in a box for now.</p>