Point Loma Nazarene, Texas Lubbock, Wichita State, Loyola Marymount, Simpson. They keep coming even though D has been admitted ED1 to her top choice.
A preemptive denial… That’s a great idea. So the elites should start buying the names of students who score in the 1400 to 1500 SAT band and send them spam NOT to apply.
I haven’t gotten very much mail from colleges yet but I hope UChicago sends me a free t-shirt too! I really like free stuff.
My older son was recruited to play a sport and so he just didn’t complete a bunch of other applications he had started since he was going to attend his chosen school for his sport.
However, I guess he had already sent his scores to some of these other schools and the counselor had already sent the school’s information as well; plus common apps had been opened for them, but not finished or sent. Application fees were not paid for those schools.
Weirdly, TWO of those schools sent him acceptances letters months later with scholarships. We could never figure that one out.
WUSTL and SMU. D never visited, never went to a college rep presentation 
She DID apply to George Mason as it waived the essay and application fee
UPenn, UChicago, Olin, Swarthmore, and Smith. These have all stopped since the last application deadline.
UVM, Loyola, St. Olaf, and Swarthmore! It was the worst a week or so before the deadline…every day they would email me telling me how many days I had left to apply. None of those schools have the program I’m looking for, so I didn’t cave, even though I got some fee waivers. If anything, it makes a college look less attractive in my mind. Besides, as if Swarthmore needs more applicants!
FORDHAM. I visited once and ever since after that they kept sending me emails every week saying “We have a special application just for you. It’s a streamlined process and it’s free.” It was never one of my top choices, but eventually I caved because I was like, “Heck, why not? It’ll get them to stop emailing me.” That and Connecticut College, but they had an application fee, so I resisted
Drexel.
@Corinthian
You must live near Kansas if Wichita State is mailing stuff to you. That’s where I’m planning to go. They didn’t start mailing me until I contacted them, so I was happy to receive mail from them.
Add another one to U of Chicago! Of course Alabama, Arizona State and Univ of Arizona, Hampden Sydney of all places (I went to school nearby back in the 80s)…Olin was relentless…Iowa State, Creighton, Wake Forest, Univ of Nebraska, St Olaf, Kettering, Texas Tech (overkill), even Harvey Mudd, Clemson, Sanford and where in the heck is Coe College as they win the prize of the most snail mail mailings. Out of this entire list, my son briefly considered Olin til he realized how small and new the school was and he applied and was accepted to Alabama. The others he applied to only started writing us after we showed interest.
I thought this was actually a good thing. I had no idea where to start looking for colleges and I’m the oldest so my parents didn’t either so schools that sent a barrage of emails piqued my curiosity and got me to really jump-start the process. Plus, one school that I hadn’t necessarily thought of before that emailed frequently (Tulane) is now my top choice so I can see why they do this~*
D is a hs junior. The most persistent schools (and they are very persistent!) are U of Chicago, WUSTL, Bryn Mawr, and Mary Washington. I can’t imagine what these schools have for an advertising budget!
Tulane did email me once (on Jan.1) so the schools that will email you for undergrad will not necessarily email you for grad school apps…
For awhile I expressed interest in a science field, and that is probably how they got my information. The University of the Sciences is incessant. I probably get two emails a day and something at my address once a week, and this has been going on for months, even after I had requested to be taken off the mailing list.
To name a few others that send a lot (but nothing compared to University of the Sciences): Drexel, University of Maine, Syracuse, University of Tampa, Chicago, & Gettysburg with their music conservatory even though I do not play any instruments.
I applied to Gettysburg, just not to their music program.
Thank you for this post these stalker schools should be called out on their focus on getting more applicants just to get better on the crazy rankings so many parents now prioritize.
My son received many mailings from University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania and Rose Hulman…he had no expression or interest whatsoever in these schools. He received 2 heavy envelope mailings from Yale and Harvard…surely just to up their application numbers…ridiculous. We live in CA and he had no interest in going out of state to study Computer Science as the top jobs and schools are mostly here he applied to none of his stalkers…said “funny none of the schools I applied to have sent me much”. He was accepted EA . Agree the stalking should stop from the top schools mentioned above.
Hillsdale College has sent my D snail mailings on a daily basis, including a birthday card, Christmas card, etc. (sometimes more than one piece per day!) Why this conservative school is interested in my liberal daughter, I have no idea. And she indicated engineering in her profile, too, and Hillsdale does not have offer an engineering degree.
Wow…I’ve had so many places contact me. Too many to keep track of! I got into a (shortlived) habit where I would KEEP the mail. After accumulating three giant folders/packets of college mail, I realized I needed to cut the hoarding. So I went through the giant piles. I sat on the floor and sifted through it for about an hour. I must admit, I kept some of the mail I really liked (special books and envelopes that are clearly detailed) but ever since, I’ve thrown away what comes in.
The main offenders for me were UChicago, Tulane, Case Western, NYU, Columbia, W&L, UVM, Pitt, Quinnipiac, Hofstra, Mt Holyoke, Rennselaer, Stony Brook, Brown (like…honestly?), and UPenn, the list could go on forever. I caved into W&L and UVM and almost caved into Cornell and Pitt.
I don’t get personally affected by it because I know that it’s just marketing. At the end of the day, as cold as it sounds, the college world is just a business.
UChicago, Tulane, Allegheny, Thiel, Case Western, NYU, St. John’s, Marquette, Columbia, W&L, U of Kentucky, Franklin and Marshall, Fordham, Hofstra, Earlham, Stony Brook, Princeton (really?) and a couple of more pretty much on a daily basis extending the time to apply, streamlined apps, fee waivers, no essays, etc. Just ignored and deleted. Some stopped after EA and ED deadlines, but there are still a good number that have extended the time and are now working on RD dates. D did cave and applied to Fordham, Kentucky, Marquette, and Allegheny since they were on the Common App and didn’t require any essays. She got admitted to them all but haven’t added any of them to her final list. Allegheny did give her a pretty nice scholarship, though.
Creighton, Montana State, RIT, Reed, Williamette, Northern Arizona, Arizona State, University of the Pacific (applied there!), Hofstra, et cetera along with the usual suspects (Chicago, where I won’t even get in).