<p>Kudos to geek mom for the removal tip in post #22. I left a voice message with College Board to have my S, a HS junior, removed from the list and got a call back today confirming it. Hopefully there's at least one tree, and countless e-mails, saved over the course of the next year.</p>
<p>D got 5 letters today. 3 from different colleges were the EXACT same letter - EXACT same wording, but on different letterhead and in different return envelopes. All offering her a chance to take an online quiz to "Discover Your Interests.... Find Your Major."</p>
<p>Really, how stupid do they think she is? I'm tempted to automatically rule out any school that sends this letter. DS got the same thing 3 years ago in email, offering him a book on how to tour colleges.</p>
<p>Today's laugh from my 16 year old - she looks at one envelope and says, "Hofstra... I've heard of that. But I thought it was a disease."</p>
<p>Today's additions are Mercer, Colorado School of Mines, Washington College, UDel, and Wake Forest. S hasn't opened these yet, nor the mail he got over the weekend from WUSTL, Williams, and American.</p>
<p>Laf, identical letters? Exactly the same?! Which schools, which schools? Tell! Tell!! :D</p>
<p>^^^ OK, I took her word that they were identical letters. Now that I look at them, they are very similar letters. They are for online quizzes she can take - one to Discover Your Major, one to Discover Which University is Right For You and one to get a brochure "Critical Factors When Comparing Colleges." They all have the university logos at the top, and a section at the top right with her username and password, and very similar wording to get her to respond and get whatever they're handing out. Then they all have a P.S. section with info/marketing stuff about that particular college. The three that I have now are Hofstra, Lesley and Drexel. I think there were more the other day but she threw them out.</p>
<p>Lafalum, my S2 has been just as annoyed by the "identical" offerings and wordings. I remember for S1 there were certain universities that really stood out--UChicago was one whose materials were really clever. Of course, S1 didn't apply there, either, but his mom (the only one who ever reads these mailings) enjoyed them.</p>
<p>Yes, S has gotten a lot of those 'identical' mailings. Clearly that group of colleges uses the same marketing firm, which tweaks the details and sends them out.</p>
<p>In addition to waste, the cost of sending all these mailings must be tremendous! Do schools in this economy really have such big marketing budgets? I can understand sending tons of email, but the cost of the the snail mail must be astronomical. While many are just letters with return cards, we have also received nice glossy brochures that definately cost some $$.</p>
<p>All are addressed to my S2 in exactly the same way, so I am pretty sure all of this is from the PSATs (he's a sophomore). S2 indicated an interested in engineering, and has received mail from a wide variety of schools, both techie and LAC. </p>
<p>All of the emails have links at the bottom to remove yourself from their mailing list, so we have done that with the ones we know S2 will not consider. I think that is working.</p>
<p>You'd think they'd target things, wouldn't you. My history loving son got mail from RPI. Good fit for S1, not so much for S2. I wish we'd get something from U. of Chicago - it's a real reach for him, but I think it would be a good fit if he didn't decide it was too urban.</p>
<p>Meanwhile S1 aka mathson, never got promotional material from Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>Nine more letters/brochures today, from a wide variety of schools. The letters seem to focus on his high PSAT score & the likelihood of being NMF.</p>
<p>At least some of them are amusing. And the one from Reed is printed on paper that is made with "process-chlorine-free 100% post-consumer waste fiber, certified by Green Seal and the Forest Stewardship Council....The paper was manufactured using non-polluting, wind-generated energy." :)</p>
<p>No doubt made by properly-compensated workers, who toil not in a grimy factory, but in a green, sustainable work environment where they are fed only organic produce and given frequent yoga breaks. ;)</p>
<p>Wash U is notorious for sending mail to anyone and everyone in order to increase applicants and decrease acceptance rate</p>
<p>I hate to admit it, but one of my kids ruled out Wash U based on all their mail! I remember when I graduated school (back in the 80s), I filled several huge dresser drawers with all the mail I received. I think I got something daily from BU. I actually think my kids got less mail than I did.</p>
<p>Three years ago we were getting college solicitations for someone named "Burt Reynolds" at our address. We assumed it was someone S1 knew who signed him up to some service as a joke. Three years later we still get sporadic college junk mail for Burt Reynolds. It's become a family joke - "Where's Burt he got a flyer today!"</p>
<p>I have to admit that I got rather attached to some of the schools that emailed every day last fall about applying and I felt sad for them when my D didn't want to apply to them. I am feeling bad today for Rose-Hulman. They emailed yesterday saying it wasn't too late to apply and no applicaton fee or essay. It sounded like they didn't get any applicants. Fortunately I'm not the student as I would have applied to a lot of them just out of sympathy.</p>
<p>Baylor has sent my son emails extending their application deadline 3 times. Weird, because I've seen news reports that they had a huge increase in applicants. Hmmm.....</p>
<p>My soph son is getting all the mail too, but not opening it. Just counting how many letters he gets to see if it beats the record (now at 12 letters on one day). He has looked at a few links on the emails though. From the ones he has shown me they all seem to have a quiz of some sort, like other posters have reported.</p>
<p>My junior son has not received any mail -- not a single snail-mail or email from even one college. He did not take the PSAT soph year, but he did take it this year, and scored in the 99th percentile. </p>
<p>He said he thought he checked something saying that he did want to receive mail, but he may be mistaken about that.</p>
<p>The thing is, I was actually hoping that he would receive mail. He has not really started to focus on the college selection process. He does have one school he would love to go to, but although I don't want to discourage him, the truth is, it is probably an unattainable reach. (I know his scores are great, but his school performance is very uneven -- e.g., his highest grade first semester this year was an A+, but he failed AP Spanish, which was his only AP class. This particular college, although not an HYPS, is NOT for the student with an F -- even if it's only one F -- on his transcript.) So, he needs to come up with at least several more colleges, as matches and safeties.</p>
<p>I was hoping that a steady stream of brochures might pique his interest. Even if he just glanced at the brochures and made a few piles of likelies, possibilities, and no-ways, it might help focus him on what schools he would like to apply to this fall.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I do know from experience (I also have a son who is a current college freshman, who DID get a TON of mail), that the brochures do tend to make all the schools look alike, and therefore have limited usefulness. My older S never even glanced at the brochures. He did look at the mailing from Harvey Mudd because I asked him to, and became interested in that school because of the mailing, but that was the only one that I thought stood out.</p>
<p>So, I'm trying to decide whether to contact the College Board Search Service and ask to have my junior son put on the list so that he can start getting mail, which I am hoping might get him a bit more interested in the college search process.</p>
<p>Does that sound like a crazy idea?</p>
<p>NaFree, your son can go into his College Board account and change his preference for receiving mailings, to change it to "yes" if it is currently "no."</p>
<p>And he can also make sure his email address is correct; my S has gotten tons of email, far more email than snail mail.</p>