Can someone Explain the Deal Behind College Mail?

lollobrigida
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:12:28 +0000

Here’s what MIT told me:

“Hello from MIT in beautiful Cambridge, Massachusetts! If you’re wondering why MIT is writing to you, it’s because from what little we know about you from the PSAT, we think you’re the kind of student we’ll be looking for next year. In fact one of the reasons we’ve waited to send you this letter is because we spent some time to see which of the millions of students are most likely to be an academic match for MIT. I can assure you that you definitely fall into this group!”

And then some more stuff about how great MIT is and how much I should wish I was there. Considering I was hardly over the 200-mark on PSAT, and STEM courses are my weakest and least favorite…I wonder if sometimes they’re mocking me. I think they just go for people within a certain broad range of scores, GPAs, academic interests, and send out mail as such, encouraging you to apply, even if it’s a school that rejects 2400s and whatnot with a 7% acceptance rate. Colleges make income from those who apply, whether or not they get in, so the more applicants the merrier!
On the bright side though, numbers aren’t everything in admissions.