<p>Thanks. Some of our dream colleges are on that list. I’ve bookmarked it for this fall.</p>
<p>^ some of the links have already been updated for 2010. Usually applications are due between Aug and October. Good luck!</p>
<p>Like cltdad, I have a non-urm D who got a trip to WUSTL in September. I believe it was because she returned a form that asked about her interest in scholarships. She was very impressed (but wound up applying ED elsewhere.)</p>
<p>All this “wooing” is based on statistics. The schools select a target SAT/ACT score, a gender, they select a certain zip code, a selected major, etc. All that information is from the standardized tests, as well as from a HS. Even those free flights that are offered are generally based on scores and zip codes, since the schools don’t know the actual individual income data. Return rates are also based on statistics, and the whole business is just like any other market research on any consumer goods product.</p>
<p>Well then they should expand their programs to woo the moms!</p>
<p>We got a mailer the other day from Northwestern commenting on son’s ACT score and the email he got today from U of Chicago has the following note across the bottom (we have not been in contact with them) :</p>
<p>I received your contact information from the College Bound Selection Service, another national student testing or research organization, or a previous contact with you</p>
<p>It is fine and good to feel like you are being wooed (is that the right word?) by the colleges with all the mailings and contacts. But be careful because another way of looking at it is that the schools may just want your application and then you are just another candidate that is stacked against other candidates. More application means much smaller acceptance rate which in turns upping their prestige and ranking. While you say it is wooing, the college might just be luring you so that they can get more of what they want.</p>
<p>I agree. We pay no attention to it. We created our “list” over the past 18 months, researched and visited schools, pruned the list, and at this point we know the half-dozen or so she’ll be applying to.</p>
<p>This still puzzles me. D took PSAT’s (3x), just missed the cut for NMSF, took SAT’s 3x (good but not perfect scores) and ACT once (high scores). She says she checked the boxes, but we got relatively little mail from colleges. The only competitive school she heard from was MIT (letter referenced her high math test scores).</p>
<p>The school she attends is well known for sending lots of stuff. She received nothing from them.</p>
<p>I have no clue.</p>
<p>I generally got a ton of mail from schools that were either a match or a safety, not from schools that were reaches for me. I did work though. I applied to one school because they sent a pamphlet on their “Semester in Washington” program. I applied to several DC schools but this was just another way for me to get there. It was a safety for me and I did receive merit aid in my acceptance letter than arrive about three weeks after I sent the application. </p>
<p>In general, public schools send less snailmail though (more expensive). I got a ton of emails from the public I attend now but no snailmail except for the acceptance letter.</p>
<p>The information sent is not automatic. Colleges can buy lists of students. The colleges get to specify a range of SAT scores. The college never is told the student’s exact SAT scores.</p>
<p>The college also can ask for students with certain zip codes, URM status, religions, prospective majors and probably a variety of other things based on the information students fill out when they take the tests.</p>
<p>I am sure these solicitation campaigns are often run by professional marketers with expertise in direct mail. They seem to have complicated and often myterious means of targetting “customers”. I guess if they have a big budget they may just carpet bomb. Other’s may target more carefully.</p>
<p>It reminds me of charitable groups. I am a member of a religion, and generally make my contributions through my church, or to a couple of groups that promised not to sell our information. </p>
<p>One time my wife sent $10 to an affiliated group. Not $10,000, ten dollars. Almost immediately we were beseiged with daily solicitations from similar groups, often including little gifts. Since then, we’ve given money by mail on a few occasions. I’d say over the past three years we’ve given maybe $100 tops by mail to various groups that have solicited us through direct mail. But my wife now has religious medallions for almost every day of the year, and I could wallpaper the house with little return address stickers.</p>
<p>^bovertine, I stopped giving to the vast majority of those places for two reasons. 1) Many of them have such huge solicitation costs that less than 20% of what you give actually goes to the charity itself, and 2) I feel like $5-$10 here and there is spread too thin to do more than lip service to my support for a cause. Now we confine the giving to the church and a few others with good reputations. I still get too many stickers, greeting cards, and little medallians, though.</p>
<p>S scored 2290, didn’t check the box and received heaps of mail. D scored 2190 and checked the box and hasn’t received much at all. The wooing mail list must have a cut off of 2200+.</p>
<p>^ Well, if your D just took the exam, you have to consider the economic climate. Glossy mailers are ex*****ve, and they have a fuzzy relationship with increased applications (they might be the reason, they might not be). A lot of colleges are choosing to either cut mailings all together or at least scale them back significantly.</p>