<p>I’m a Soph and got this from my Plan-ACT scores, although, I talked to a friend today who’s a senior and he said he had gotten letters from HYP for his ACT score, which was a 34 comp.</p>
<p>Is this what is called a “likely letter”? My son received one from Harvard and Yale, but not Princeton. He was accepted to Yale and Princeton and waitlisted at Harvard (where he is a legacy). Princeton did contact him by email and send him an application, but this was late in the game. A friend and Ivy League graduate believes that if you receive such a letter you have a better than 50/50 chance of being accepted and should be encouraged. However, if you have not received a letter, you can definitely still be accepted, so you shouldn’t give it too much weight.</p>
<p>I think they’re just talking about the recruitment letters that colleges send out to high PSAT/PLAN scorers. </p>
<p>But just wondering, what did you get on your PSAT/PLAN ali?</p>
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<p>No it is not. This is a letter to a prospective student. A “likely letter” predicts action on a submitted application that will result in admission, and is sent only to students who filed an application (and not many of those). Recruiting letters like this one are sent to tens of thousands of students, many of whom never file an application.</p>
<p>I got this too. I know it’s just information, but I love the fact that they didn’t send the same thing in the same generic format that xyz college uses. I actually went on their website and signed up for the newsletter because of this.</p>
<p>I was quite surprised to receive a recruitment letter from Yale (I haven’t gotten the Harvard one D= ). I didn’t think they even needed to increase awareness, though it does make sense that they could be reaching out to students who think that Yale is financially out of their reach.</p>
<p>It seems like Yale times its letters very late compared to other universities. Princeton also sent its letter quite late. I wonder if there’s a strategy here - the people in the admissions offices might be paying attention to the fact that memory best records events happening first and last in a sequence of events. So by advertising nearer to the end of junior year maybe they hope to make a bigger imprint. I have a suspicion this timing is actually quite intentional - U of C started advertising to me weeks and weeks before anywhere else did, and I remember their ads vividly (though that may be attributable to how wonderful and funny and quirky the ads were).</p>
<p>@ Vaeliant, my school gives out two pre-act tests, one plan test and one practice test (non plan), I was actually surprised I got a letter from Yale because I didn’t care what I got on the plan, had already gotten a 34 on the practice test and 35 on The Real ACT prep book practice test, and on the plan I got in the predicted 26-30 range (left 3/4 of my science section blank- went to bathroom, got something to drink). I’m guessing Yale sent me this based on my laughable plan score, doubt that my school sent my practice test. Hope that answers your question.</p>
<p>Ali- Junior daughter got similar letter from Princeton today but has not received anything from Yale.</p>
<p>Ah, this could either be due to differences in mailing dates and/or pool differences (taking PSAT/PACT or SAT/ACT) and/or score differences. My best guess is by the end of May people who have received one letter from either HYP will receive one from the other two, I’m sure Harvard, Yale, or Princeton would not want one school getting more face time than the other from potential students.</p>
<p>yeah I got my Princeton letter earlier last week and my Yale letter last friday so maaybe I’ll get a Harvard one? I doubt it… I don’t know what their cut off is for scores though bc mine weren’t outstanding in the least. A lot of people in my grade have done better than me, but they haven’t gotten any of these letters.</p>
<p>Yep, Princeton Forum confirms that Princeton has been mailing out letters for a while, but maybe not all letters go out on the same day. And, if so, maybe the same is true for other colleges. Let’s compare notes at the end of the month of May 2009.</p>
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<p>Seeing all these responses makes me appreciate why colleges send out such letters- they do seem to work, and in some cases they make a huge difference in encouraging applications from students who might otherwise think they don’t have a chance.</p>
<p>aniram518, quick question, if it’s not to intrusive what score did you get, or just say if it was about the blow-off plan score I posted ~ just curious, hoping to get the Princeton one as well.</p>
<p>i can’t remember exactly what my plan test score was because i took it last year (as a sophomore) but I think my range was the same as yours. So you’ll probably get a letter soon! that test really isn’t a good predictor for me though because my school didn’t even tell us that we were taking the plan test until the day of the test. they kept on calling it a career aptitude test. which it is, i guess, but i didn’t try to prepare for it at all because of that. And then my PSATs i didn’t even try on… I really just hate standardized tests</p>
<p>S2 received a Princeton letter last week and a Yale letter yesterday.</p>
<p>Princeton’s letter begins:
“Your academic achievements suggest that you are looking at the nation’s most outstanding universities.”</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just because we’re wired a little differently at my house, but we found this pretentious. S2 was particularly offended at the implication that the only value to his academic achievements are the ability to potentially gain entry to an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>I guess as admission decisions go out, a new recruiting season begins. S got a letter that is similar to the one described by op on this thread, yesterday.</p>
<p>Yup got mine today. Also one from Penn today, Columbia was a few weeks ago. I still doubt that these mean anything.</p>
<p>A year ago, Yale gave me one of these, but last week they rejected me. On the other hand, Columbia sent me mail too, and I was accepted last week as well. You never know about these things, but I’ll admit it was pretty exciting getting all that Ivy League mail</p>