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Lupine
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 08:41 pm |
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D is a junior, and currently away in Italy on an exchange program from which she won't return until mid-July. (I miss her, but the empty nest isn't bad either.)
She took the PSAT in October, and the ACT in December. Starting about a month ago (soon after she left for Italy) we started getting a deluge of mail -- three to ten pieces a day from a really wide range of colleges, and the flow is not abating. I've already filled one box, and we're starting on a second.
Realistically, she's not going to have chance to personally look at any of this until she returns. The first dozen or so envelopes I opened (with her permission) all had "consider us" type letters with postcards or on-line logins to start the flow of more information.
A handful of these (maybe eight or ten at the moment) seem to be schools that might be ones she'll be interested in. Should I go ahead and return the cards for these schools? Not worry about any of it until she gets back? Trash it all? Open everything? Return every card?
Is there any substantive benefit from early contact with any of the schools she's interested in even if she won't be doing anything about it until summer or fall?
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 09:05 pm |
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Lupine:
Keeping everything that will come in the mail will cause you to
1. Have a great deal of junk type mail gathering dust
2. Overwhelm your D when she returns. 
If you have a limited number of colleges that spark an interest, I would send the postcard or return an email to those colleges. It does get recorded as an early interest and in some cases could become a positive for your D.
The rest of the junk type mail would be trashed upon receipt. 
Expressing early interest is a positive IMO and does not obligate your D in the least.
Good luck.
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WestrnMom
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 09:13 pm |
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I would sort through them and toss any that won't work for her or else email her the school names and see if she wants more info on any of them. If she's never heard of them and you aren't sure, you can ask here. If you have some idea what she is interested in, in terms of size, location, programs, you can weed them out. If any look like really strong prospects, mention scholarships or anything in more detail, I'd send them back for more info.
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mackinaw
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 10:20 pm |
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We had a large cardboard "filing box" in which we put everything. But the materials were separated into two large categories. Category A: colleges we definitely wanted to explore further, each college given its own subfile and ordered alphabetically (this category included colleges that S or D had written to requesting materials plus many that came unsolicited). Category F: colleges we were unlikely to be interested in, just dumped into the back of the file, but kept until there was time to start producing a final list of candidate colleges for further exploration/visits, etc.
As things moved much further along, the Category F materials were recycled, and the Category A files were culled.
Last edited on Tue Mar 4th, 2008 10:23 pm by mackinaw
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mominva
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Posted: Tue Mar 4th, 2008 10:43 pm |
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I was actually the first filter for my kids, and each had given me specific parameters for tossing, eg. nothing single sex, no latitude higher than where we live, within 2 hours of an ocean, larger than the high school, must have a pool, etc.
I kept one copy of the viewbook (many schools sent more than one and several hardstock brochures) from those that fit the acceptable criteria for that particular child and looked through the throw-aways for evidence of a program or feature which could prove attractive.
With each subsequent child, we relied less and less on the paper mailed to our address and more and more on the schools' webpages. In the end, we kept everything alphabetized by school in a milk crate sized drop file.
Last edited on Tue Mar 4th, 2008 10:44 pm by mominva
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outwest
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Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 04:13 am |
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We filled up a large book box. When that started to overflow we went through it and tossed every thing she didn't want. When it filled up again it was after she had picked her schools so we tossed everything that wasn't one of her schools. After a while we just started tossing things as they came in the mail. I think U of Arizona has sent her about ten postcards! Now the box is overflowing again. No file system, but a pile of stuff. She has been sifting through it looking at the stuff on and off. Lately (last couple weeks) she has been concentrating on the course catalogs of her schools. Some sent catalogs, some we got while visiting and some she has been looking at on line.
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Deja
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Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 09:55 pm |
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Our mailbox is filled, also, I suppose based on the October PSAT score. (Do colleges then also get the SAT scores automatically, too, or is the mailing list they buy only for the PSAT scores? I guess they only get PSAT scores?)
My hs jr son has NO time (at least in this extracurricular March Madness month) to sift through the college mail. I suppose there might be some wonderful LAC out there that would be perfect for him, but I don't have the time to investigate all of them (nor can we afford to take him all over the country to visit them. It's a bit overwhelming, because there are simply so many LACs.
He has a (tentative) list of where he's going to apply, and so far literature from other far-flung places doesn't seem to interest him.
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WestrnMom
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Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 10:15 pm |
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Be thankful you are getting these. Mine didn't check the box, so he got nothing at all.
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mackinaw
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Posted: Wed Mar 5th, 2008 11:53 pm |
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Deja, the colleges can and do get lists of scores for all kinds of exams: PSAT, SAT I, SAT II, ACT. This is one reason why so much mail gets sent out, often duplications of previous mailings. Some of this will be targeted toward specific populations, e.g., minorities or women (some engineering and science schools screen for high math scores among females and target them with special mailings).
Last edited on Wed Mar 5th, 2008 11:54 pm by mackinaw
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outwest
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 03:38 am |
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Yah, My D got stuff from Cal Tech and Harvey Mudd and MIT and a bunch of engineering schools, actually.
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Lupine
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 03:31 pm |
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outwest wrote: Yah, My D got stuff from Cal Tech and Harvey Mudd and MIT and a bunch of engineering schools, actually.
We're starting to see some of that too -- and nothing could make D run away faster. We've joked for years that the unsolicited "fat envelope" from Caltech would be a nightmare come true.
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Deja
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 04:11 pm |
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mackinaw wrote: Deja, the colleges can and do get lists of scores for all kinds of exams: PSAT, SAT I, SAT II, ACT. This is one reason why so much mail gets sent out, often duplications of previous mailings. Some of this will be targeted toward specific populations, e.g., minorities or women (some engineering and science schools screen for high math scores among females and target them with special mailings).
But scores would still have to be sent out to the colleges he actually applies to, right (he didn't list any colleges on his SAT).? And of course he's still have to pay to send scores to the colleges he applies to, even though his high school lists them on his transcript?
My son got an envelope from Caltech, too. He is not interested in math. We got a few chuckles over the envelope with all the mathematical equations!
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mackinaw
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 04:14 pm |
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Yeah, you still have to pay to send score reports to the colleges he applies to.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 07:42 pm |
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My personal piece of mismatched mail came for my son. Now, you have to understand that my son considers himself the rebel-bohemian-atheist-intellectual at his conservative Catholic high school. When he heard Reed's unofficial motto (atheism-communism-free love) for the first time, he immediately said, "that's the school for me."
So, when the large, suitable for framing, poster of a priest deep in contemplative prayer arrived from the University of Notre Dame's seminary school for my son, you can imagine his reaction. 
Of course, last night I ran into one of my son's favorite high school teachers, a nun who had him in her "Catholic Sacraments" class last spring. When she saw me, she rushed over and said, "The good Lord knows what he's doing sending your son to Reed. I said extra prayers that he'd get in there. I can't imagine a better place for him." Son and I had a good chuckle about her prayers getting the atheist into Reed. 
Last edited on Thu Mar 6th, 2008 07:43 pm by CarolynLawrence
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Northeastmom
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 08:50 pm |
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| Carolyn, Now that was funny!
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Chedva
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 09:18 pm |
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RPI kept sending their Priority Application e-mails to my d. Now, RPI is a wonderful school. But if my d never has to take another math class again, never mind physics, it'll be too soon. I wondered allowed once why she was getting them. She looked at me in that "Duh!" way teenagers have and said, "Because I have 2 X chromosomes."
She also got something with a priest and nun on it, touting the benefits of a Catholic education; I don't remember what school, but it wasn't Notre Dame. We're Jewish. (Of course, d always wanted Christmas and a tree; she said she could really get into it "if it weren't for all that Jesus stuff.") (And yes, I know a lot of Jewish kids who attend Catholic colleges, particularly Jesuit ones - but they generally tone down the priest stuff in their mailings!)
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leftcoast
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 6th, 2008 11:42 pm |
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Given the circumstances, I would say that you should sort & file. Toss anything from a school that you know will definitely be out of consideration, either because you absolutely know your d. would never consider it, or because it is something you as a parent would not consider or finance. Also toss letters & post cards that are non-informative or refer to events that will be past by the time your daughter returns -- such as a college fair in May. And toss duplicates -- some colleges persist in sending the same flyer or catalog out repeatedly.
Pay attention to what they are promoting -- you might also get a lot of mail for summer programs from various colleges-- since your d. won't be home until mid-July those probably fall in the category of "things with an expiration date".
You might file by genre or topic. When my son was in contention for National Merit & receiving lots of scholarship solicitations, I had a separate file for "schools that offer money to NM Finalists". And another one for "schools offering money" for whatever other reason. I also had regional files: "east coast" "midwest". My son was really interested in LAC's, so I probably had a file for "LACs we've never heard of". Probably a file for "Ivy League". Some colleges send so much mail they need their own files, like NYU or Tulane; others might need several, like Washington U.
My d. did her own "filing" and made very liberal use of the recycling bin -- she is definitely not the type to keep paper around, so she was even telling me to toss stuff coming from colleges that were at the top of her list.
But I think that if you keep things well-organized, it will be kind of fun for your daughter to come home and have stuff to look through. And even if she doesn't want to look through the 3 file boxes waiting for her, good organization will mean that it will be easy to find the pertinent stuff as she narrows her application search.
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Consolation
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Posted: Sun Mar 9th, 2008 08:41 pm |
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The more I think about how to sort the mail, the more I'm thinking that the OPPOSITE of the conventional wisdom might be the most useful: throw out mail from schools you and your child are already interested in, and keep the mail from places you have not considered or are inclined to reject out of hand. Those are the ones where you are most likely to learn something new and interesting from a mailing piece.
In my S's case, I doubt that he read anything from any of them.
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HImom
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Posted: Mon Mar 10th, 2008 03:11 am |
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Great story about your S, Carolyn! My kids are probably agnostic, with son leaning toward athiest. My niece is at Notre Dame!
We had two big piles--those S was DEFINITELY NOT interested in & those that were yes or maybe. All the definitely not interested in, we collected in a huge pile & donated to the local public HS (who was grateful to share with their students). All the others, he sifted thru & when he was done, I donated them as well.
It can be overwhelming to see how much "stuff" your child gets. One of the funny things is that it is totally irrelevant as to how much any school sends the student as to whether they really want and will accept the student and/or give merit funding.
Starion
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familyoutdoors
Member
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Posted: Thu Jul 3rd, 2008 01:28 am |
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We have a binder with plastic clear sheets. I put each school that is on the 'list' into it's own sheet. The rest I put together by school (cram cards and letters into the view books. Rubber band it together and invite S's friends to see if there are any schools that might interest them. None of his friends have their own PCC <grin>
Definately a ton of bookmarks online for those that didn't said any paper. -But I think for those that are visual, a paper view book on the floor next to another paper view book is easier to compare to.
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