Grad school mail

[The Pseudo grad student]

Recently I recieved a letter from the University of Oklahoma about applying to there grad school of chemistry/biochemistry (even though it's not even remotely close to my major). In the past I recieved other emails from schools based on my GRE score so what I'm wondering is whether or not these schools who take their time to contact you (even though you never knew they existed) means a guarnteed in. It's probably is wishful thinking on my part but because I feel that they seem to pursue you, that must indicate that they really want you as a graduate student meaning admission. Thoughts?

[prolixity]

Recently I recieved a letter from the University of Oklahoma about applying to there grad school of chemistry/biochemistry (even though it's not even remotely close to my major). In the past I recieved other emails from schools based on my GRE score so what I'm wondering is whether or not these schools who take their time to contact you (even though you never knew they existed) means a guarnteed in. It's probably is wishful thinking on my part but because I feel that they seem to pursue you, that must indicate that they really want you as a graduate student meaning admission. Thoughts?

I don't think this means you're guaranteed acceptance. I've also received (I'm not bragging, but several dozens) of mailers and emails from schools you've never heard of about their chemistry programs. I'm pretty sure they just send bulk mail to anyone who exceeds a certain trigger on GRE scores or has attended a graduate school fair. I'm pretty sure if you've been flagged that you're a strong candidate for the program, but.. admissions decisions are made by people, not algorithms.

[The Pseudo grad student]

Thanks for the insight. It was just something I was just wondering about but it's definitely good to know to not get a big head

Edited March 5, 2010 by The Pseudo grad student

[hogmommy]

I have received a number of these mailing, many times not related AT ALL to my actual field of study. One school I had never heard of actually did guarantee admission into their grad program. I suspect it was a pay-to-play institution, though.

[shaydlip]

Recently I recieved a letter from the University of Oklahoma about applying to there grad school of chemistry/biochemistry (even though it's not even remotely close to my major). In the past I recieved other emails from schools based on my GRE score so what I'm wondering is whether or not these schools who take their time to contact you (even though you never knew they existed) means a guarnteed in. It's probably is wishful thinking on my part but because I feel that they seem to pursue you, that must indicate that they really want you as a graduate student meaning admission. Thoughts?

No. They are not pursuing *you*; they are pursuing a wide field of applicants.

[herself the elf]

I agree that there is some ETS/GRE thing going on. I have actually really enjoyed getting them simply for humor's sake. One particularly memorable one, from a place where I had never thought about living, made me imagine myself in a re-enactment of Children of the Corn. Hilarious.

Of course none of them were anywhere close to my research interests or suggested that they would pay for me. Please, let me move to [insert your least likely to live place here], so I can uproot my family from our home and pay you tens of thousands of dollars! Perhaps I'm being unfairly judgmental, I suppose they must get some sort of response from it, otherwise they wouldn't do it.

[fadeindreams]

Grad recruitment and admissions isn't as mythical or magical as you guys might like to think. Often the recruitment of students is pretty disjointed and disorganized at best. Even more often, particularly at public institutions, recruitment is so removed from admissions that you'd think that they had paid an outside firm to solicit prospective students. It just seems that many posters on this forum think that these universities have their whole process down to some sort of refined art. Very few, if any, do.

I have seen potential purchase agreements (name buys) for ETS tests (GRE, TOEFL, etc). It costs more money to buy names with specific or multiple associated traits. The school that sent you a Chemistry mailer probably just bought the names of students with a quant score above a certain threshold. It would have cost them substantially more to also request that the students names that they bought were strictly interested in a given subject area (i.e. Chemistry).

Hopefully the mailer you received at least addressed Chemistry as a profession so as that to drum up interest from students who had never before considered the field.

[Lantern]

I keep getting them about forensic science programs, which cracks me up! That is miles away from what I want to do!

[The Pseudo grad student]

No. They are not pursuing *you*; they are pursuing a wide field of applicants.

I have seen potential purchase agreements (name buys) for ETS tests (GRE, TOEFL, etc). It costs more money to buy names with specific or multiple associated traits. The school that sent you a Chemistry mailer probably just bought the names of students with a quant score above a certain threshold. It would have cost them substantially more to also request that the students names that they bought were strictly interested in a given subject area (i.e. Chemistry).

Hopefully the mailer you received at least addressed Chemistry as a profession so as that to drum up interest from students who had never before considered the field.

@shaydlip: I totally agree with you now. I just found out that one of my friends who actually is applying to biochem for grad school got the same exact letter from the school. So I'm not as special as I thought.

@fadeindreams: Well at least it's good to know that all the money we spent on the GREs and gave to ETS to "send" scores were put to good use, sort of. Hooray, spam mail/emails from schools we don't know existed and/or don't care about.

The letter and insert they gave me was fairly appealing and but not enough to actually get me to apply to their school. Besides, I forgot to mention that it took 3 weeks for this letter to get to me and it was hilarious to read the first line of the letter that stated "Congratulations on your impending graduation and your decision to pursue graduate studies in chemistry or biochemistry!" when I had graduated over 3 months ago and that I had no interest in both of those majors of study.

Anyone else wanna share their spam mail from random grad schools?

[gsams]

I keep getting these for IR - which is about my LEAST favorite thing in the world to do. After two Int. Relations courses last year while abroad, I can say I have NO desire to do a PhD or Masters in it. Please and thank you. One school in particular sends me things once a week. They are definitely wasting their money and time. Not to mention that their program isn't even ranked and I have already been accepted into several better programs with FULL FUNDING.

[profound_g]

If I'm not mistaken, ETS actually asks for permission to sell your data (though, of course, they don't word it like that)? I'm generally careful about things like that and I think I clicked NO.

[The Pseudo grad student]

I don't remember that part but I think I'll be able to confirm that once I take the GRE all over again, yeah for me ...

Edited March 28, 2010 by The Pseudo grad student

[profound_g]

I don't remember that part but I think I'll be able to confirm that once I take the GRE all over again, yeah for me ...

Positive thinking - Good!

[newms]

I got some of those last year as well. My advice is to independently find schools that are best for you - consider the schools that send you mail if you hadn't before, but don't be swayed by them just because they sent you mail. Don't look at it as if they're pursuing you in particular - they're not. They're trying to get applications from as many qualified people as possible. Last year I got emails from a top 10 Ivy league school (based on my GRE scores I think) - needless to say, I didn't get in when I applied.

[psycholinguist]

I kept getting newsletters from Columbia's Teachers' College, which I always found amusingly off-target; I'm not interested in either living in New York City or studying education.

[rachaelski]

The positive side of me says that it's a way for them to create the best applicant pool possible (therefore not guaranteeing you anything), which is a good think in the big picture. The skeptic in me says it's an effort to collect additional application fees. Either way, if the program is not in your area of interest, throw it in the recycling pile.

[newms]

The positive side of me says that it's a way for them to create the best applicant pool possible (therefore not guaranteeing you anything), which is a good think in the big picture. The skeptic in me says it's an effort to collect additional application fees. Either way, if the program is not in your area of interest, throw it in the recycling pile.

I agree with this, just that the skeptic in me say its more a way of lowering their admission rates.

[rachaelski]

I agree with this, just that the skeptic in me say its more a way of lowering their admission rates.

That's a good point. I didn't even consider that!