<p>Just in the past week, my D, a junior, has started to get a large number of college e-mails. Is there some reason for the timing? The PSAT was a couple of months ago, and she didn't get her January SAT scores yet. What's the trigger?</p>
<p>PSAT scores have been released. Hunting season has begun for 2nd semester juniors. (Colleges are doing the hunting. . .)</p>
<p>So did they just release the PSAT scores to the colleges? The students have had them for a month or more.</p>
<p>That’s what I hear. As D’s GC said-- they’re selling themselves to you now. Next semester you’ll be selling yourself to them. (It reminds me of the Hogwarts envelopes coming down the chimney in Harry Potter!)</p>
<p>I think so–either that, or it is the beginning of their “marketing cycle.” Probably both.</p>
<p>It certainly generates some interesting stuff. My daughter has received two e-mails and a letter from Bryn Athyn College in Pennsylvania, which is (apparently) affiliated with a Swedenborgian denomination.</p>
<p>My D is a junior, and except for a handful of schools where she’s asked to be put on the mailing list, she hasn’t received any college mail. She has friends in her class who are being deluged with it, though. At least at D’s school, whether they’re getting tons of college mail or not depends on whether they checked a particular box about releasing their information when they took the PLAN as sophomores and the PSAT last semester.</p>
<p>It’s the PSATs. DD has been deluged. Several of them specifically mention her PSAT. I think schoos can pay to get access to whatever universe they request (by score range, georgraphy, etc.) They just got what they paid for and not the marketing madness begins in earnest.</p>
<p>When my D took the PSAT as a sophomore, she checked “no” on the college mail box, and she received very little mail, although other kids received a lot. This time she checked “yes,” and the e-mails are pouring in. I just thought they’d start sooner, but I guess College Board holds back for a few weeks. There have been only a few “snail mail” brochures so far.</p>
<p>Interesting change in deliver mode. 5 years ago DD1 received almost all snail mail. 3 years ago DD2 got a mix. Looks like the schools are trying to deliver more quickly (and cheaply).</p>
<p>I would estimate that my D’12 has received about 300 emails from colleges (some schools have sent her over 20) and about 40 pieces of snail mail - over the past year. It does tend to come in surges after she takes an AP, SAT2, PLAN or PSAT.</p>
<p>University of Chicago was absolutely relentless in their contacts with a child of mine!
Seems like they would not give up!</p>
<p>I have a sophomore D. She has started getting e-mails (one per day, or more) and at the top of the e-mail, it states that it is as a result of taking the PLAN. They started about 3 weeks ago and it was like flicking a switch ON. She took the plan in April 2010, so they waited a long time.</p>
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<p>Apropos of nothing, I used to live right around the corner from there and while I can’t speak to the academics, the Bryn Athyn cathedral and grounds are just breathtaking. Last time I was there, I took a picture of the gardens which is now the backdrop on my computer, and when my computer boots up, clients ooh and aaaah at the sight and ask me where it is. It’s like a little piece of Europe in a Philadelphia suburb, if you can imagine that.</p>
<p>Bryn Athyn also has the second largest endowment per student, after Princeton:
[List</a> of colleges and universities in the United States by endowment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“List of colleges and universities in the United States by endowment - Wikipedia”>List of colleges and universities in the United States by endowment - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>You’ll be getting these emails for at least another year. Maybe you can make a collage with the colorful brochures you’ll soon start receiving in the mail. D was particularly annoyed by the WUSTL, U of Chicago and U of Alabama brochures and letters. They went a little overboard with their correspondence and she felt bad about the trees!</p>
<p>The best thing about the emails, however, is that you can click on the “unsubscribe” button with little effort. The brochures, however, will need to be *lifted *into the trash. ;)</p>
<p>Anyway, welcome to hunting season!</p>
<p>Emails are just the start! Wait till your mail box starts overflowing!!! :)</p>
<p>Here’s a thread from last year about this - </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/867744-i-am-baffled-mail-my-11th-grader-receiving-colleges.html?highlight=college+mail[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/867744-i-am-baffled-mail-my-11th-grader-receiving-colleges.html?highlight=college+mail</a></p>
<p>My sophomore D put my email address down on the PSAT form instead of hers, so I’m the one getting inundated with emails. :-(</p>
<p>For all the supposed scamming that WUSTL does, I have to say, if my kids received any mailings, it was maybe one or two – nothing out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>I would just like to clarify that my daughter *loves *getting these mailings.</p>