<p>When should the student begin doing all this? My daughter (now a HS junior) has been receiving emails from colleges since sophomore year, when she hadn’t even started thinking about the application process, and she had never heard of most of these colleges and had no interest, so she ignored the emails. She’s now getting “I haven’t heard back from you and I wanted to make sure this is your correct email” emails from some schools. Is this going to hurt her if, when she finally does narrow down a list of schools she wants to apply to, she’s been ignoring their emails for a year?</p>
<p>Is it only private schools that track level of interest? We’re in California and D would probably be perfectly happy at a UC. Half the time I just want to jump off this crazy train already.</p>