<p>I know they look for certain score ranges when releases them, and I've gotten a ton of mail from random schools because I always select the option to get info from colleges when taking the PSAT, SAT or ACT.</p>
<p>But I was curious is it really easy to get mail from big name schools, like Ivies? For instance, I've gotten mail from Princeton - is Princeton just practicing a huge program to recruit applicants? I mean, my scores were not amazing... Do they just good naturedly send out mail to anyone?</p>
<p>A lot of people get those. It's just so that more people will apply, and then they can reject more people. It doesn't necessarily mean that your scores are either good or bad... I'm guessing (like you did) that they just mail people within a certain score range. Of course if you want to go to princeton (or any other school you've gotten mail from) then by all means apply.</p>
<p>WashDad Jr is a NMSF and has been more-or-less buried from literature from schools like Yale, Princeton, Rice, WUStL, Chicago, Northwestern, &c. It's just part of their marketing program to keep the quality of their applicant pool up.</p>
<p>Yeah, I recieved a lot of mail like that from really amazing colleges after my PSAT, and was a little surprised at first. But all of my other classmates who were NMSFs too got the same mail, so I'm pretty sure it's a routine thing for anyone with good standardized test scores. :]</p>
<p>We have a nice box by our fireplace of unsolicited information accumulated throughout the past year from each Ivy League with the exception of Cornell and Columbia-the only 2 that did not send anything unsolicited-(nor did we request anything, either) as well as every other freaking college in the USA. I would say my son received the most unsolicted mail from NYU and Washingtin University of St Louis.</p>
<p>Every applicant generates an additional $70 in revenue for the college, pads college admissions stats and lets them choose from a larger pool, so they get better people and reject more people. Lower acceptance percentage spurs more applicants and increases prestige of school even if school itself does not improve. For the meager ~$10 it might take to print and mail a full-color brochure, it's super cost-efficient.</p>