If you’re a junior who recently took the PSAT and you checked the box indicating that you were interested in receiving information from colleges based on your scores, get ready. Over the next 6-8 months, you’re likely to receive a mailbox full of glowing letters of interest encouraging you to apply.
For PSAT takers who opt in to this communication, colleges purchase the names and addresses based on your scores and a variety of other factors like your classes and grades as you indicated them in the questionnaire, your intended major, where you live, your ethnicity, etc.
Frustratingly, some schools that routinely reject the vast majority of their applicants send out warm and fuzzy letters like these encouraging students to apply. It’s important to remember that these “search letters” as they are called, no matter how glowing and complimentary, are based on this limited information and don’t necessarily mean you will be admitted. It’s like reaching out to somebody over Facebook that you’ve never actually met based solely on their profile. You have some basic information, but you don’t necessarily know for sure that you want to hang out with this person.
It’s never a bad thing to get information from colleges who tell you they’re interested in you. But it’s still important to talk to your high school counselor and get a real sense of your chances of admission before you actually apply.