My DS wasn't interested in any of the literature he received...and there were bags of it. DH and I marveled at how much money these schools must spend on what becomes 'junk mail'. Washington University at St. Louis was the one school who sent something just about every week.

When your child takest the PSAT they enter valuable information - address, ZIP CODE ($$), intended major, interests, GPA, religion, race, etc. Once that info is entered then colleges purchase the list of students at XX a head for what they are seeking. If your child puts down "4.0" GPA, engineering, Christian and 22101 zip code and gets XX on the PSAT, those schools seeking that type of individual will send you materials both by mail and by email. DC has been inundated with mail (I've never looked at the email traffic) since taking the PSAT. It means absoluting NOTHING. All the schools want to do is increase the volume of applicants so they can reject your kid so as to appear more Selective for the reporting boards. Read Andy Ferguson's "Crazy U".

Anonymous wrote: Having just finished the process, I agree you get a lot of junk. On the other hand, I would say some of the unsolicited mail was useful to put a few schools on the radar screen or get them more attention that they would have otherwise. Univ of Chicago in particular has put a huge effort into changing their image from years past to make it more alluring, and it was sufficiently effective to get us to go out there and take a look and put it on the list. Skim what comes in before it hits the trash -- you will quickly figure it out.

Even at the highest levels there is competition for the best of the best - or the student with star power. Mailings that help shape or alter an elite universities image can be helpful.

Having just finished the process, I agree you get a lot of junk. On the other hand, I would say some of the unsolicited mail was useful to put a few schools on the radar screen or get them more attention that they would have otherwise. Univ of Chicago in particular has put a huge effort into changing their image from years past to make it more alluring, and it was sufficiently effective to get us to go out there and take a look and put it on the list. Skim what comes in before it hits the trash -- you will quickly figure it out.

Anonymous wrote:Retention is a strange criterion at least to count for that much. How does that affect quality of education and faculty? Kind of bogus.

I disagree. As a parent, I think retention rates and graduation rates are extremely important. If half the freshman class doesn't return for sophomore year, then I would have grave concerns about the college readiness of the enrolled freshmen, the support services offered to freshmen, and what kind of experience my own child will have--will half his friends disappear after freshman year? Is the experience so bad that my kid will want to transfer, or worse, drop out?

As for graduation rates, I want my kid to be amidst many other kids who are committed to a four year plan and to be able to get into the classes he needs to graduate on time. If only half the students (and in many cases it's less!!) are graduating in 4 years, I'd advise most to look elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:US News also has more focused rankings including one of the 10 colleges that receive the most applications. You'll see that there is little correlation between # of applications and US News ranking.

There is also information on affordability.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college

It's not the number of applications, but the acceptance rate--the number of acceptances divided by the number of applications. Of course a school like Arizona State, with almost 60,000 undergrads, is going to get more applications than, say, Haverford, which has only 1500 undergrads.

Retention is a strange criterion at least to count for that much. How does that affect quality of education and faculty? Kind of bogus.

US News also has more focused rankings including one of the 10 colleges that receive the most applications. You'll see that there is little correlation between # of applications and US News ranking.

There is also information on affordability.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college