Hi! I know the title sounds preposterous however I am a second semester sophomore in high school. I receive letters and emails from universities I never sign up to. I recently received a letter in the mail for an event called, “Coast to Coast college tour”. It includes colleges such as Princeton, Darrmouth, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and California-Berkley. I talked to other people and none of them got one but does just anybody get one of these or is it selective? Also, is it somewhat of an honor to be selected? It makes me feel bad though when I receive letters and emails like this because I have a cumulative GPA of 3.789 and I know they are going to slam dunk my application in the trash.
Don’t think anything of it - college tour companies to a lot of marketing and outreach to students. If you feel it is not relevant for you just toss it out - it should not make you feel bad. ignore it!!
It is certainly not selective, UChicago sent me at least 10 letters and over a 100 emails, but, I was never going to apply because they don’t have an engineering department. That is just how blindly they send these mass mails.
Between now and when you graduate from high school, you will receive a lot of junk mail from colleges and universities. Most of the time, you will have no idea how they got your name. If the mail is interesting to you, read it. If it isn’t, send it straight to the recycle bin.
But also is that GPA unweighted? Because an unweighted 3.789 is competitive anywhere.
Ignore all the mail. It is just marketing materials. (When you take the PSAT or SAT, do NOT mark the box about wanting colleges to contact you). Take ownership of your search, and YOU decide which colleges to pay attention to. When you are ready, get a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges to get an idea of what various colleges are like. Work with your parents on what you can afford, and run net price calculators to see what is affordable. Talk to your school guidance counselor about options, and come out here for help as well. Don’t let their marketing materials take you off your own game.