Each year, thousands of high school students are surprised when college recruitment literature begins to arrive at their homes. Today high school juniors and seniors, sometimes sophomores, are barraged not only through “snail mail” but also over the Internet with emails magically arriving in their inboxes.  Surprised students often wonder, how did all of these schools get my name?

The answer is simple – colleges and universities purchase the names and addresses of high school students as a way of making contact with individuals who are in the college selection process.  Colleges buy names from a number of sources including the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the National Research Center for College & University Admission (NRCCUA), the American College Testing Program (ACT) and a variety of other sources.  You may recall that when you sat for the ACT, PSAT or SAT examination, you completed a section that included information about yourself – your academic interests, your address, your high school grade point average, etc.  You also answered a question about whether or not this information could be shared with interested colleges and universities.   If you responded - “YES”, then these companies made your information available to interested colleges.

So do colleges mail to all test takers?

With more than a million high school students seeking admission to college each year it is impossible for a college to mail to ALL prospective students.  Instead, colleges mail only to those students who appear to be academically qualified to gain admission to the institution and only those interested in the programs offered by the school.  Individual schools order the names and addresses of only those students who meet criteria defined by the college itself.  Often these include a minimum score on the ACT, PSAT or SAT test, a minimum grade point average, residence in a specified geographic area, or interest in a specific field of study.  Colleges consider the names they receive from the testing services as potential students.

So do all colleges buy the names of prospective students?

While many colleges will purchase the names of prospective students, many will not.  In general, private colleges and universities are more likely than state colleges and universities to use this technique for reaching prospective students.  Some colleges purchase only a few thousand names while others may purchase hundreds of thousands of names.  Whether or not you are contacted and when a particular college contacts you is a matter of that college’s own recruitment plan.

So what does it mean when a college sends me admission materials?

Mailing materials to prospective students is an expensive and time-consuming activity for colleges.  As a result, colleges send mail to only those students that look like they might be interested and qualified.  A mailing from a college is your first indication that the particular school is interested in starting a conversation with you about the possibility of your applying for admission.  Since many of these mailings go out early in your high school career, you should not assume that because you received mail from a particular college you will be admitted into that college.  The correct conclusion is that based on what the college knows about me to date, it is interested in talking more about the possibility of my attending.

So what does the college expect me to do when I get their mail?

Colleges understand that many of the students they contact will have little or no interest in attending that institution.  Because of that, most of the colleges will ask you to “respond” to their contact by sending back an interest card or an email saying that you would like to receive additional information.  If you do not indicate any interest, the college will most likely stop mailing materials to you. (Some institutions continue to mail even when the student does nothing.)

Colleges expect that you will read the materials they send to you, decide whether or not you are interested in receiving additional information and to follow the instructions included in the materials you receive.

So will I get a lot of mail?

Many high school students find that the amount of mail they receive to be staggering.  This is particularly true for those students who have both high scores on standardized tests and high grade point averages.  Highly qualified students typically report receiving mail from a hundred or more college and universities.  Given the volume, you may want to “keep on top” of the reading by reviewing the materials as you receive them.  If you are certain that you have no interest in a particular school, toss the materials after reviewing them.  Keeping them around simply confuses the process and makes it difficult to focus on those schools in which you have real interest.  (You may want to send an email to these schools to let them know that you are not interested.  The college will remove your name from their mailing list.)  One suggestion is to create three piles or boxes of varying priority: plan to apply, good possibility, would like to investigate further. Organization is always a plus in this process.

In the end, what do I need to remember?

One student described her approach as keeping the best – trashing the rest.  But simply keeping the materials doesn’t let the college know that you have continuing interest in that school.  To do that, you need to determine what they are asking you to do, and do it.  When you respond, the college concludes: hey – we have an interested person here – lets send them some additional information!