Anyone else experiencing this phenomenon? As of this afternoon my S(sophomore in HS) started receiving a series of emails from colleges with links for him to fill out. They were from Carleton, Oberlin, Lawrence and Brandeis…all today within hours of each other. I’m a little confused why he is receiving the emails now all of a sudden(all LA schools as well) and considering he is wanting a degree in CS it seems an odd occurrence.
PSAT results?
Is that the reason or just a guess? If it was the reason what difference does it make since he is a sophomore? Why only LA colleges reaching out? Do all colleges have the practice of sending emails to top scoring sophomores?
Schools likely contract out to same direct marketing firm that handles the emailing for several schools would be my guess. Yes you start getting emails sophomore year for various reasons - high school, testing, etc.
Not necessarily “top” scoring only. Some colleges will stalk your kid now (email wise). it doesn’t mean anything.
Even good LACs in a tough market situation now. Must market broadly.
Mine was a pure guess, but based on a surmise about why your kid. If every kid in his class started getting these emails, then it’s meaningless – although where the schools/marketing firms get the emails might be troubling. Hence my guess about PSATs, because you/he probably gave an email and the hard-to-find privacy options (that no one bothers to look for) can be hard to find.
“considering he is wanting a degree in CS it seems an odd occurrence.”
Just for the record, many liberal arts colleges can be good options for computer science. 
^^^Absolutely true, just seemed odd vs SBU, RPI or CMU for example lol.
The random emails become mind-numbing. With your first to college you think they mean something. By the second you realize they have nothing to do with how much they really want your student. The ones that do are very different, very personal and very obvious.
^^^How so just to be clear?
Its definitely PSAT. Same thing happened to us. Attempted to unsubscribe from College Board mailings (son checked do not send marketing materials) but NO LUCK. College Board sells your email and inundates you for the next 2 YEARS!
For anyone just beginning the process, best to set up a separate email just for college stuff because, yes, you do get tons of unsolicited stuff.
What I find funny is that my kid fills out all of the info, with her preferences and proposed major, and checks the box for marketing material, because you never know, she might get a note from a good match school she hadn’t yet considered. Then, she gets inundated with material from colleges who don’t meet her stated criteria and/or don’t have her major. Why bother asking those questions (like on the college board website) if the answers are going to be ignored?
Oh and yes, D has received emails this afternoon from Oberlin, Carleton, and Kenyon.
Just guessing here - lots of things begin at the start of the year. It may be that some colleges’ recruiting programs just kicked in.
PSAT- my son started receiving tons of mail/ email after his sophomore year PSAT as well. I am surprised some posters indicated they would not want to be included on such mailing lists. I think they are a great way to learn about all sorts of schools and lots of fun! Your son can just discard the ones that do not interest him at all; it takes one second to do so.
"PSAT- my son started receiving tons of mail/ email after his sophomore year PSAT as well. I am surprised some posters indicated they would not want to be included on such mailing lists. I think they are a great way to learn about all sorts of schools and lots of fun! "
We didn’t with our 2 kids. Preferred a more targeted approach and didn’t want all the mailers to the house. (still got more than we needed!) Buy a Fiske guide. Get your kids to skim through it and build a list based on more factual info rather than glossy brochures. Worked fine for us and saved a few trees.
Old timer parent here.
Back on the Stone Age (ok…2000)…we got mail…tons of mail…unsolicited after the PSAT and SAT. I can tell you…we hated it…it was like getting junk mail for a long time. And the worst part…it was impossible to,get any college to,stop once they began. We had boxes of college mailings.
I can imagine that now with email…it seems like daily spam.
The reality is…you can request info from any college. I guess there are some people who love all,this college solicitiation…but we didn’t.
Just FYI, my son is a CS and Data Science major at a liberal arts school . Don’t discount them . Do a little research . My son also started receiving info from colleges after the PSAT, and was actually offered provisional acceptance to Clemson as a Jr based on his ACT scores and GPA without any solicitation other than listing the school on the ACT registration. Just wait. The onslaught is just beginning.
You can tell if they are all coming from the same source by looking at the mailing address. Same name like Matt nor Matthew or Maryann not Mary Ann? Same address with ‘way’ abbreviated as 'Wy or way or Way? Your school can be selling the names, or the boy scouts or the college fair you attended.
WUSTL loved my daughter. She got something every single day for almost 18 months. Big pamphlets, post cards, invitations to summer camps and tours. She got things about camps for medical school although she never indicated an interest in any kind of medicine, never indicated an interest in WU or St. Louis or an LAC.
I suggest you get a box and just dump the junk mail into it every day and recycle when full. Some of that mail will contain codes for free applications though, so you might want to look carefully before throwing it out should interest develop for a certain school late in the game.
I had two going to totally different types of schools in the same year, so we needed a BIG box.