<p>Part of the problem is so many colleges use the same marketing firm, and all those letters sound exactly alike. The more interesting mail comes later, but by then students are pretty much turned off by all the mail. Both my children took notice of anything that looked original.</p>
<p>As for when it stops, that's hard to pinpoint. It slows down after February 1st of senior year, but there are still some that will send stuff until the fall semester begins. A couple will send info on summer programs for college students.</p>
<p>Mine is getting it now too, and got a baseball hat from one school. It is mostly just going into a bin to see how much, but mine looks at it a bit, without pressure from me.</p>
<p>Some of them send cool things like information about their schools and tips for the interview and whatnot. Most of them, however, are largely irrelevant and are as simple as check and delete for me.</p>
<p>I'm a sophomore and I've already recieved at the very least a few dozen. They really start to accumulate... on the bright side, I've found out about some really cool schools, like Swarthmore, UChicago, Wesleyan.</p>
<p>So colleges do get your PSAT scores when you sign up for the Student Search Service? I was under the impression they only got your mailing address. I'm a soph and I got a 208 and have been inundated with mail from a wide variety of places... I thought they were just the ones with more money for recruiting.</p>
<p>Colleges can obtain student mailing information that meet their criteria - scores above x, certain zip codes, certain majors, ethnicity, etc. From what I understand, they do not receive your actual score.</p>
<p>I think I'm glad our son made a typo in his e-mail address on the PSAT. The snail mail is more than enough.</p>
<p>When the mail started arriving, he immediately noticed the similarities of the ones that use the same marketing firm. He made the comment "if these schools are interested in us because we are bright, don't they think we'll get that all the letters say the same thing?" They all ask him to go online to fill out a survey to find his "best fit" or return a card for a brochure.</p>
<p>The ones that stand out go in a separate file: CalTech and Macalester have great letters. Vandderbilt has an awesome brochure.</p>
<p>Since our high school rarely sends graduates to selective schools, it's giving him a perspective on what else is out other than public schools in our state and the neighboring ones.</p>
<p>Coolest mail I've received so far was from Carleton and Reed. Carleton sent a quirky calendar highlighting lesser known holidays like National Hairball Awareness Day (April 27). Reed sent something slightly random - a periodic table and a booklet of useful websites. I thought it was kind of funny.</p>
<p>I've been getting the mail since FRESHMAN year, and since I have a pretty good idea of what colleges I want to apply to, it's starting to get annoying, although mail from colleges I do want to attend is always exciting. The college viewbooks are fun to look at, but other than that I've not received much "useful" stuff, apart from reply letters and applications.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I've been getting the mail since FRESHMAN year, and since I have a pretty good idea of what colleges I want to apply to, it's starting to get annoying, although mail from colleges I do want to attend is always exciting. The college viewbooks are fun to look at, but other than that I've not received much "useful" stuff, apart from reply letters and applications.
[/quote]
The only reason that's an anomaly is because hardly anyone takes the PSAT freshman year.</p>