Is it strange if a univeristy contacts you?

[BillyPilgrim]

I got an email today from the French Department at Vanderbilt University which is strange since I have never contacted them myself nor am I interested in going into a French PhD (well....maybe I am now!). Even stranger, they contacted me based on information they received from the GRE Services and my GRE scores aren't even that great (V620, Q580, A4.5). I remember after I completed my GRE I was able to send my scores to a few universities, but Vanderbilt was not one of them and I listed my area of study as comp lit.

Is this as strange as I think it is? Should I be flattered? Has this happened to anyone else?

[joro]

No, it isn't strange at all. I was contacted by CMU last year for a PhD program. So what happens is that after the GRE, they'll send some information about you to Universities if you meet a certain criteria of some sort I think (you need to opt in for them to do this and you probably did). It doesn't matter who you sent your scores to, some random schools will contact you. You should be receiving information packets from these schools too. I'm not sure if you should be flattered by it, but I would think it would be to your advantage if a school and program you're interested in contacts you.

[BillyPilgrim]

Were you accepted into CMU?

[joro]

I did not apply for that particular program, but I had a friend who was accepted into that same program at CMU.

I just received an email from the University of Michigan this morning asking me to consider their school.