Mail invitations from UPenn to apply?

Sherifnada
Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:33:09 +0000

Hi everyone,

So, I got a mail package from UPenn which has a brochure about the college and a letter, inviting me to apply there. Now, I got millions of these ads through my email and stuff, but this one in particular is somewhat unusual because:

1) Why did they send me mail to tell me to apply? I live all the way in Saudi Arabia, and I’m an international Egyptian student, so, why go through the hassle?
2) The letter doesn’t seem to be aimed at me “directly”, as in, yes, it has my name and it says “Dear Sherif and family” (sherif is my name) on top, but it seems like the kind of letter you’d send to a lot of students and just change the letters on top.

I personally think this is advertisement, but I find it weird that they’re doing it through mail rather than the very-conventional email. Has this happened to someone else?

Your thoughts please?