<p>My daughter took the PSAT and the SAT as a sophomore and as a junior and got good scores. She always checked the box for “do not send me mail” or unchecked the box for “send me mail” every time she took a college board test. She gets almost NO unsolicited mail from colleges. Those boxes do work!</p>
<p>Same here-a wheelbarrow full as a sophomore. She took the SAT in 7th grade for Duke TIP and the PSAT 9th/10th for practice.</p>
<p>I’m shocked that you actually read them. My son wants a D1 school, so these small Liberal Arts colleges are wasting SO much money sending him junk mail that goes straight into the recycle box. We did get a kick out of one called “Kalamazoo” and the other favorite “New College” :-). The Ohio State Univ gets the prize for quantity. They send something at least once a month. We live in Texas and with our top10% admissions rule apparently they are having a lot of recruiting success here.</p>
<p>I don’t really know if your scores affect the amount you get though. The kid down the street gets a ton too and he scored 50 points lower than my son. I think it’s just a list of names/addresses.</p>
<p>^ Heh. Here it was Gonzaga. Practically every week our mailbox would contain another large, beautiful, glossy mailer from Gonzaga. Once a month, a viewbook. Endless email (this was before we believed in the “opt-out” links, which really do work). geek_son started calling them “Gonnastalkya.” They must have marketing budget coming out their ears, or maybe just a warehouse full of old slickware they’re trying to keep out of the landfills. Whatever – Gonzaga won the prize for sheer volume.
Pro: Home of [Barats</a> & Bereta](<a href=“http://baratsandbereta.com/]Barats”>http://baratsandbereta.com/)
Con: He’s just not that into you, ok?</p>
<p>It seems to us like my son gets the most mailings from places that are the most geographically distant.</p>
<p>S’s school takes the PSAT for practice as sophomores, “for real” as juniors. </p>
<p>He’s been getting mail, (e and snail), ever since. A few are from schools he’s vaguely interested in, a couple from places he’s gotten interested in and the vast majority from places he’ll never even consider. In truth, I probably spend more time reading the stuff than he does, which I think is the real point of the practice.</p>
<p>These mailings plant a seed in the student’s and parent’s head. College is not like buying a car with multiple purchases over a lifetime, in most cases, you have a one time buying decision. The less famous and/or smaller schools are worried about being overlooked, mailings are a relatively cheap way to get in front of those potential buyers.</p>
<p>Thinking back, S got a tremendous amount of mail from NYU - big and glossy. He got mail from other schools, too, but was unexcitedly resigned to attending one of our two instate flagships. We’d advised him early that he’d need an extremely compelling reason to go OOS. Days before starting his senior year he got an obscure postcard from what quickly became his “dream school” motivating him to change his senior year schedule, adding another year of dreaded Spanish, in order to be competitive for admission. We soon caught on to his new college excitement and supported his decision to apply ED. Amazingly, he got in!</p>
<p>D is and always has been determined to attend our state’s flagship university. The mail she’s getting is being discarded (recycled) unopened and we hate the waste. I guess colleges know what they’re doing, though, as evident in the case of my son. We’ll see what happens with D - HS class of 2011 - there’s lots of time left.</p>
<p>Here are some links for context: </p>
<p>[PSAT/NMSQT:</a> Student Search Service](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools) </p>
<p>[SSS[/url</a>] </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg]Online</a> Extra: How Harvard Gets its Best and Brightest](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/higher-ed/recruitment/sss]SSS[/url”>Recruitment & Admissions – Higher Ed | College Board)</p>
<p>My ds has always indicated on his PSAT and ACT tests that he plans to major in engineering, yet he seems to get more junk mail from small LACs that don’t offer engineering than he gets from schools with engineering programs. Go figure.</p>
<p>If they really wanted to make it easy for themselves, colleges would send “pre-approved” offers- kind of like pre-approved credit card offers. </p>
<p>Why make everyone go through the same long application process? Identify ‘highly desirable’ students based on demographic, geographic and SAT criteria, and then send them a short one page application form, and “pre-approve” them subject to acceptable transcripts and maybe one counselor letter. Waive the requirement for an essay and teacher recommendations, and sign these students up on a ‘rolling admissions’ basis.</p>
<p>^ Some colleges do this. geek_son received several “streamlined application” offers. No essays, no recs, just a one-page form (often partially completed) and official transcript and test scores. That’s how he picked one of his safeties in September.</p>
<p>Edit: But don’t expect the “top X” schools to do this.</p>
<p>My daughter took the SAT in 8th grade and has since been receiving info from a few schools. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in a year or so.</p>