I think a lot of people don’t understand the whole marketing angle. I don’t have any inside information but I remember reading an article from a few years ago that Tulane (among many other reputable institutions) outsource parts of their marketing/recruitment to companies that specialize in this. Those companies will then send out those “free” ( I always chuckle when someone says Tulane sent them a free app, it’s always free) and start the wooing. A particular SAT score will trigger the start of this process. So it;s not so much the person but the numbers they are recruiting. And, it’s NOT just Tulane, this is college marketing. I wish I could find the article. It was pretty interesting.