As upperclassmen in high school, the majority of students are receiving dozens of letters from local colleges trying to recruit and familiarize highschoolers with their campus and programs. But these letters seem to all have similar features that are a turnoff to the average letter recipient. 

After coming home from the gym late, I was about to sit down and have dinner when my mom met me with 19 different letters from colleges, all varying in their location. They were all sitting on my kitchen table in one big pile as they had come all at once that day. The letters were sent from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, and even as far as Indiana. I have received letters from colleges before, but never any in this sudden flash of mass exportation. 

To be quite honest, as I went through all of them even before opening any, I was excited to see so many letters from colleges but did not realize that the excitement slowly came to disappointment after reading them. I could safely say that I’ve never heard of a single one of these colleges or universities. I opened the first one which was sent from Nazareth College in upstate New York. This was the only letter that from the outside had some sort of color to it and separated itself from the other letters which were in just standard white envelopes. 

The envelope contained two papers, one was a folded letter saying “Dear Ethan…” and talked about their college and what kinds of opportunities they offer. The second part was an online ticket to look at their website with a username and password they had provided to me. When I opened the second letter and was met with the same two pieces of paper with pretty much the same wording, and another online code with the same generated username I became skeptical. Frankly, the only thing between the two letters was the school logo in the top left corner of the letter simply because it was a different college. 

The format of the same letter format continued for the next 17 letters after the first two, and opening them became somewhat redundant because I already knew what it would say even before opening it. Even some of the people who signed the letters at the bottom of each college had the same name. I came across 3 people who happened to be named Katie that signed at the bottom. It also turns out I was not the only one getting these almost pointless letters in the mail. 

Receiving these college letters according to CollegeTransitions.com does not increase your chances of getting into the college if you apply, nor should you be flattered that you even received the letter. In the long run, it is all just a mass marketing tactic used by seemingly unpopular colleges and universities in order to get their names into the stirring pot of the many schools’ students will be exposed to before choosing the one they will attend.

The way schools will decide how many names they will send letters to all depends on the student. 

For Triton students, colleges will actually buy our information from Naviance, (The college website we use in guidance to help us find our careers) and market us based on that. If you at one point surveyed to be interested in Marine Biology or some type of Law, you are more likely to receive letters from schools that offer those studies.

 But some colleges are “known for sending out massive numbers of mailings each year to just about anyone with a physical address.” 

After taking in our new-found knowledge about colleges and their marketing tactics some clear takeaways that you should not get your hopes up if you receive these types of letters. It is never personal recruitment, although sometimes it can be “personalized” in the sense the college may offer a major that you showed to be interested in. 

But that also does not hide the fact they paid for your information just to send you the letter. It is better, in my opinion, to find schools on your own that you can decide for yourself whether or not they cater to your wants in the years following high school graduation.