College junk mail has a certain appeal

Anum Khan, a student at Whitney High School in Cerritos, writes:

I used to not hate junk mail. At least it meant someone was thinking about me, even if it was just the PennySaver, or the Limited Too catalog that I spent hours poring over in fifth grade.

But this mutual feeling of like soon went away when colleges started sending me mail. Every day, there is some new college mailing me a brochure, guide, pamphlet, postcard or other literature to make its campus as appealing as possible.

I have gotten the same brochure from one college three times, as well as from others that specialize in fields I could never study.

But what’s funny is how completely different these colleges are. On Monday, it’s a letter from Yale, on Thursday, it’s a viewbook from an all-girls school in the middle of a forest.

I do realize that I am to blame for this, though. I was, after all, the one who naively chose, time after time, to check the “yes” box on whether I wanted colleges to be able to contact me.

As far as I know, I will be applying to less than 5% of the colleges that send me mail, and as much paper as all of this junk mail is wasting, I still chose to check the “yes” box every time.

Why?

I’ve thought about this for a while, and I’ve concluded that it’s because we all want a college to “want” us.

Everyone knows how competitive admissions are, how many more people are applying every year, and the story of the amazing kid who got rejected from Harvard, etc., etc.

And by knowing that there’s some college that at least says it wants us to come, students get a little bit less stressed. That mail is like a reassuring pat on the back; a friend saying “Everything will be OK.”

So despite how much I may grumble about “useless” junk mail, lamenting over the wasted paper, wondering why XYZ college would even send me a guidebook, deep down, in a place that I rarely visit, I know that getting that mail is still a comforting experience.

Comments

[Angel]

I'm certainly late to this blog entry, I'm so sorry I missed it. My son just went through this (well, for 2 1/2 years), but don't throw that stuff away. If it's a college you're not remotely interested in, give them to your guidance counselor or your college counselor. If for some reason, they aren't interested call around. Plenty of schools would give their eye teeth for something tangible they can put in a student's hands.

My son and I mistakenly pruned the pile before his senior year, ruling out virtually anything we knew he wouldn't attend. A friend at a private school told us if our school wouldn't take it, she knew the college counselor on their campus would.

My son only applied to six schools, and got stuff from at least 100. Seriously. And now that he's graduating, I kind of miss those days when the mailbox was full of glossy brochures and invitations to visit.

Good luck on your college search.

[Anum]

Thanks for the info! I never thought of it that way.