Colleges spam students with emails

Arguably one of, if not the, biggest part of junior year is beginning the college search. Juniors meet with their counselor throughout the year to discuss possible majors and careers, and then hopefully start narrowing down their selection of colleges to just a handful of specific schools. Some students go on college tours, some students prepare for the SAT or ACT, and almost all juniors begin receiving a massive influx of emails and mail from all sorts of different colleges around the country.

Colleges spam students with emails

Juniors will start receiving college emails after either taking the PSAT or the SAT, as the emails begin after the colleges get their names. This is done through the College Board who at the end of their standardized tests, specifically the PSAT and SAT, have an option that students can fill out called the Student Search Service. College Board describes this service as something that “helps colleges and scholarship programs send you more relevant communications so you can find the school that’s right for you.”

College emails sound great when you say it like that, but junior Joshua Bartholomai has a different way of describing them.

“College emails are just a scam to get more people to apply so they can reject more people and lower their acceptance rates,” Bartholomai said.

Students who fill in the bubble for the Student Search Service are hoping that by doing so they will be contacted by schools that are genuinely interested in them and that they are genuinely interested in as well. Unfortunately, as College Board charges colleges a licensing fee to access that student’s information, they are inclined to sell them out to as many colleges as possible.

When junior Ana Pichanik first started getting college emails she was understandably excited to see that some different schools were interested in her, but when the tidal wave of emails eventually rolled in she was also understandably disappointed.

Junior Will Montello has had a similar experience.

“Because there’s no way to specify what you want or what colleges you want to hear from, it’s just a never-ending flow. I’m getting ones from medical colleges and I’m like I’m not going into medical,” Montello said.

Interestingly, it looks like the same group of colleges and universities are the ones who send the most emails.

“Tulane definitely sends a lot, but I did end up unsubscribing successfully from those,” Montello said.

“Tulane, Rochester, I got some from Harvard, but I’m like, Harvard is not looking, just sending them out,” Bartholomai said.

“I get a lot from Wofford. I used to get a lot from Tulane, some from Xavier, yeah so many from Tulane,” Pichanik said.

If nothing else is clear, it seems safe to assume that Tulane University is a big fan of St. Pius X students. Read More On..