College Brochures and Hope

College Brochures and Hope March 1 Sorry to burst your bubble but just because you get a college brochure from Harvard doesnt mean Harvard is actually interested in admitting you (photo credit: Brocken Inaglory). Many colleges send out brochures. Maybe your child received college brochures  this week from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Penn, and even Kalamazoo College. And maybe your son or daughter jumped for joy. Lets be real. Maybe you did, too. Like really, really high. We hate to burst bubbles but one of the main purposes of our college admissions blog is to demystify highly selective college admissions and to debunk commonly held myths surrounding the process. So lets burst this bubble and bring you back to reality. Those brochures arent worth the paper theyre written on. Not one bit. These colleges are simply encouraging your child to think about applying to these schools. They want your child to apply. They want to boost their application numbers. These brochures are by no means an indication that this school has any intention of admitting your child. To believe such is nice, but you wouldnt be living in the real world. Youd be living in a fantasy world and we are not about fantasies at Ivy Coach. There are advantages of getting brochures. Perhaps the brochures can be used in fires to keep warm during a cold winter. Perhaps the brochures can be used to make paper glossy paper airplanes. Perhaps the brochures can be used to collect dust. Well, thatd be silly. But we ran out of ideas so just go with it. The point is, stay grounded. Just because your child receives a brochure from Harvard doesnt mean that Harvard thinks your child is incredible. It doesnt mean they know anything about your child. All they know is that they want your child to apply. The more students who apply to Harvard, the invariably lower the admission rate will be. Its quite simple in the end. Bubble bursted? Better to know now than later