<p>I wonder how much all this costs?</p>
<p>There are good things that can come from opening unsolicited mail from universities. Our D1 (Class of '11) allowed us to open some of her college mailings from schools she wasn’t currently interested in, and in opening a letter from Bama we learned of their large merit scholarship for National Merit Semi-Finalists and Finalists. Our local school was completely unaware of any potential NM scholarships other than the one-time $2500, so that letter led us to begin researching NM opportunities and ended with D1 accepting a near full-ride scholarship package to UMinn (including a sizeable NM scholarship). 
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<p>With D2 and S (HS juniors) going through the whole process now, we’ve learned that taking the 2 seconds to open a mailing can CERTAINLY be worth that minimal effort. We haven’t had the same luck with lottery tickets unfortunately ~X( but in the grand scheme of life we’re thrilled with the one unanticipated win!!</p>
<p>@intparent described exactly how we approached the college process. I highly recommend the Fiske book for the initial search, and a dedicated email address for all of the college communications. We absolutely hated the mailings. They were a real turn off for us, especially one school that started sending him almost daily mailings after his visit. The school had come off of his list during the visit and we hated the school even more with each mailing that arrived! All we could think of was the amount of money they were spending on these mailings and the trees that were being destroyed in the process.</p>
<p>In England, students are only permitted to apply to six universities, for one fixed cost (and cannot apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year). Maybe something like that is a solution… </p>
<p>There are only 161 universities and institutes of higher education in the UK. There are over 2,700 four-year degree-granting institutions in the US. Constraining applications would constrain choice more than most Americans would want. </p>
<p>That’s true, you’d probably want to increase the numbers. Maybe limit to ten or twenty applications? If the numbers were set right, we’d see acceptance rates go high up, and colleges wouldn’t feel the need to try to scam money out of people by implying they might get admitted when that is clearly not the case. The present system feels a lot like a market failure.</p>
<p>I’d like to see the college board provide a web page that lists every single college, with a checkbox system so students can opt in or out of mailings from each school. Also provide various screening options students could select (eg. small LAC, large research Univ, urban, semi-urban, rural, state school, state located in, guaranteed merit for X standardized test scores, middle standardized test score range, majors, college-sponsored National Merit awards, etc. Let the students tell the colleges who they want to hear from. Seems like a win-win to me, would save a lot of advertising money for the schools and ensure that students hear from the type of school they are looking at.</p>
<p>Not to mention that the school advertising money probably ultimately comes from the people, either via taxes, or through app fees and tuition.</p>
<p>It’s been awhile, but it seems to me some families would miss out on hearing abput schools they should know about. For families that don’t come here, which I would say is most families, perspective can be pretty narrow. We probably would have only thought of UC’s, because that is typically the highest aspiration around here. We are in California and had never heard kf the Claremont schools. Learning about them opened our eyes to a very different way of thinking about “college”. We NEVER would have asked for info from Scripps had they not “reached out”.</p>
<p>My D has a different problem. She is getting tons of college mail after taking the PSATs this year, but it is all for colleges that would be way way below even her safest safety. I’m wondering where they get the information to choose who gets which college’s e-mail?</p>
<p>Don’t be concerned. I have been getting this crap since 7th grade. I hate it all. I got it first when I took the ACT in 7th grade and my scores got sent throughout the NC universities. Then it spread…it is annoying. Some of it happened on my own accord because I signed up for mailing lists actually, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying. If this really is important to you then request information from colleges. </p>
<p>We’ve been getting mailings for about nine years between the two boys. The older son kept everything in boxes, and we delivered it to one of his AP teachers who did an awesome display in her classroom. The second son, he hardly opened anything. His parents did and we passed it on if we thought it would interest him. </p>
<p>That said, if your student is interested in playing college sports (my younger son was and will this fall), do not be afraid to send out those questionnaires. My son wanted little or no debt with college, so he and I researched schools where he could earn merit money for his SAT/GPA. He has received two full tuition offers. He selected one of those schools because he was given a spot on the cross country/track team. But his SAT/GPA opened that door for him. </p>