<p>My son is 15 years old and in tenth grade. He took the PSAT and got 220. Now he's getting a steady stream of emails from top colleges.</p>
<p>The main question is: Does everyone who takes the PSAT get the same emails? Or do they have some cutoff point for who they contact? In other words, is the fact that Grinnell and WUSTL have contacted him in some ways a reward for doing well on the test?</p>
<p>In any event he's gettting a kick out of it and for the first time is showing some interest in this game.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your child's early success with the PSAT. This gives him a leg up for the SAT. If you are the parent of a good student, get ready for the deluge of mail. During his junior year, you will hear from WUSTL about every week! (I don't get it, because it is truly a very competitive school and they seem to do mass mailings.) Good luck.</p>
<p>Colleges can purchase student lists from College Board -if the student checked yes to be included in the Student Search Service. Colleges can also specify students with a range of scores, living in certain geographic areas, desiring specific majors, etc.</p>
<p>Just wait til next your when he's a junior - then you'll really see an avalanche of communications.</p>
<p>I think colleges may be starting to go more with email over paper mail this year. My junior daughter is getting about 10 college emails per day in the past week or two. She took the PSAT as a soph and got very little by email and a ton in the mailbox.</p>
<p>It may be worth replying to the login ones to show interest.</p>
<p>Yes, email seems to be trend here. D2 has been receiving a steady stream recruitment emails from colleges with an occasional snail mail, whereas after D1 took the PLAN test, it was predominately snail mail brochures.</p>
<p>I told my kids NOT to check the box asking to be included in the Student Search services. We got barely any mail, and not a single email. </p>
<p>And its not because my kids did not score highly. One of them is now enrolled in a top 10 national university. The second scored a 204 as a sophomore and now, as a senior, is a National Merit finalist, and has excellent SAT scores.</p>
<p>Once you take a test like PSAT, your identity goes to colleges for recruiting. In the next 1 1/2 years, you will receive so many college brochures that when lined up end to end they will never reach a conclusion. You have two options. You can try to keep them all for review when the time comes to really start thinking about which college, in which case you better start now building a room extension onto your house that is the size of your current house. Or you can start throwing them away but be prepared for several bouts of a sanity check because two months from now you will be looking at everything you have received since you threw any away, there will be all the ones you threw away, and you will start to wonder if you really are remembering correctly that you threw them away.</p>
<p>I'm noting some regionalization in these emails, in that my son is getting more from the Midwest than from elsewhere (even though he has no particular desire to stay in the Midwest for college). The emails are coming from most of the usual suspects.</p>
<p>no it doesnt come if u get cutoff scores i think if u get like 180 then u get it... its not just cutoff scores b/c i got ALOT for just getting a 192</p>
<p>You kinda have to select which ones are legit and which ones are just promotions. Same with when your child gets leadership conference mailings, which he/she will soon. I only replied to about 20% of the mail I received. Also, most of the "big" schools (eg UCs, Michigan, ND, etc.) don't send very many mailings, if at all. It's kinda the lesser-known but prestigious ones (i.e. WUSTL) that try and grab your attn., then some Ivys. Good luck!</p>
<p>Are these emails/letters for real? Because I got a few saying "Congratulations on your high school achievement and high ACT score, we think _______ is the right college for you!" Does that mean they want me to go there? I got several, but a noteworthy one was from Rice U, and it said on the bottom that it was "not unsolicited," meaning they looked at my grades....So, I e-mailed back, no response yet....is this a mass email? Or, are they truly looking for me to attend? If the email is for real, is there a better chance of me getting accepted since I received an e-mail?</p>
<p>My D, also a soph, got all the same emails - except for WUSTL. Many others came as well, some to really good schools. She also received many to all the local and Catholic schools (not Gtown or BC though). By the way, her PSAT scores were not that impressive compared to your son's - hers were only in the 180s. I expect that her score will go up significantly by next fall - she didn't get many wrong at all - she just left out a slew of questions because she was tired and didn't feel like thinking (she went out until very late the night before because she felt that this test was just for practice).</p>
<p>"Not unsolicited" means that you checked the box to be included in the Student Search Service on the PSAT. In other words, you agreed to receive communications from colleges. </p>
<p>It means that you have a PSAT score that is in line with their applicant pool. Your chances for acceptance will depend on grades, rigor of schedule, SAT or ACT scores, essays, recommendations, etc. It also means that the colleges want you to take a look at them and see if they offer the things you are looking for in a college.</p>