<p>I will be a junior in high school this year and today I got my first "recruitment" letter from a college (I don't know if that's what their called; that's just what I call them). Are these letters indicative that a specific college is interested in you personally, or is it more of a form letter sent to anyone who checked the "Yes, I Want to Recieve Information from Colleges" box on their AP tests? Does their importance vary from school to school? If I am interested in one of the colleges that sends me a letter, is it a good idea to subscribe to a newsletter that it advertises, or do those just end up as junk mail after a while? If it helps, I got a letter from Oberlin College in Ohio and University of Chicago. Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but I'm still new to all this!</p>
<p>They're all part of mass mailings targeted at students who checked off the box on standardized tests. Don't read too much into the fact that you got one.</p>
<p>It mostly has to do with checking boxes, but they only send you college letters if you fall into a category of scores in the standardized tests...so it's good to get them</p>
<p>I know many students who have received emails and letters expressing interest, and the vast majority were not admitted. Quite a few were motivated to apply, thinking they were somehow being recruited. </p>
<p>Some colleges market hard to increase the numbers of applications they receive to increase their rank and 'selectivity' ratings. From tokenadult in another thread
[quote]
Originally Posted by Business Week
The first phase begins in the spring, when Harvard mails letters to a staggering 70,000-or-so high school juniors
[/quote]
70,000 flattering recruiting letters; if 1 in 3 respond, thats 23,000 applications. With such marketing, more students are motivated to apply, thinking they are somehow being recruited. While flattering at first glance, the letters are part of a marketing plan to increase H's application numbers. More applications means more rejections, which increases the 'selectivity' percentage, increases the ranking, and makes people think H is the 'most' selective college. A tricky business . . .</p>
<p>Online</a> Extra: How Harvard Gets its Best and Brightest</p>
<p>I don't subscribe to integrity09's cynical view (that H WANTS more apps in order to reject more in order to "look" more selective). I'm an interviewer for one of H's competitors -- we fight over the same crowd. As an insider, I can say frankly we don't give much a darn (and neither does H) about how "selective" we are perceived by the public at large. Sure, we don't want to fail at our school's mission to educate but that's the real engine -- not gaming nervous HS students. </p>
<p>Our (and Harvard's) goal is to get the best applicant pool possible. If it's 10000, we'd be fine. My college's apps have doubled over the last ten years due to many factors. Is it a headache? Yes, sometimes. Are we getting (along w/Harvard) the Best and Brightest? I believe we're doing a better job than when I applied. Does this mean more rejections? Yes. But this also is driving several elite universities to expanding their undergrad populations in the future -- again, because their goal is to offer excellent educations to as many as possible. It's not to be mentioned next to a single digit in some lame magazine rankings list. </p>
<p>(and I know people won't believe me)</p>