When a college sends a personalized email...

I understand that some colleges send out emails to get more people to applypay application fees
And I know they get emails from collegeboard often
But what if I get an email from a school to which I haven’t applied before
Also I passed SAT a couple years ago and I haven’t recently sent scores anywhere
So the school sends out brochures
Emails from the dean of admission
And then a personalized email from him (with my name inside saying that they’re interested and they waive application fee already waived for international students but whatever)
It’s a pretty good school
Not very well known but highly regarded in academic circles

You answered your own question in the first line. Read nothing else into it.

Does it really mean anything?
Most likely no, but how do you determine whether it’s really personalized or not
Ps. I have contacted the school admissions office but it wasn’t on my list in common application so they couldn’t contact me from CA

It’s not.

If it makes you consider a school that was not previously on your radar, then the marketing folks did their job.

Computers make it easy for colleges to slot names and a few facts into a letter. I agree, it is purely marketing. I would not read anything into the letter.