Well I think all schools want to be in a position to select their best class (however they define that). Reaching out via mailers to a wide net of students helps them to connect to more potential students. At this point, they don’t have all the information that you do about your students, they just have some test scores and very basic demographics. You may know your kid has very low chances, that their high test score will not be matched with a very rigorous academic schedule and fantastic GPA, stellar ECs and recommendations, phenomenal essays, etc, but they have no way of knowing that at this point, so why shouldn’t they try to inform your student about their offerings? Your kid could be a great match for them, for all they know. Or conversely, with students with lower test scores but still in the (lower) realm of what they accept, they can’t at this point differentiate between lower test scores with an incredible package (the grades, recs, ECs, essays, and ability to overcome adversity) and lower test scores without that, so the only way to reach those gems is to mail to all of those kids. I don’t think it’s necessary to be quite so cynical as to think they are literally only mailing to get kids with no shot to apply to collect fees and increase the denominator, I believe they do think they’ll find some potential admitees through their marketing efforts. It’s up to the students/families to protect their mindsets by either not checking the box to get excessive mailings, or just have realistic expectations of where the students should be applying.
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