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One possibility is that these colleges like your scores and are trying to get kids to enroll who are at the top range of the students they attract. There is another reason, though. Remember that colleges are businesses. Businesses that need to sell a product. While demand exceeds supply for the top schools and endowments are sizeable, at lower tiers there is a need to attract kids who can pay full freight. If you go to the CollegeBoard website and dig around, you’ll see that offer complete marketing campaigns for colleges. And one thing colleges can buy is lists of students sorted by zipcode, a good proxy for family income. So if you live in an upper-income area it wouldn’t be surprising if colleges that you’ve never heard of all of a sudden seem interested in having you attend.</p>