Why do colleges spam so much?

[thegathering]

The past two times I took the PSAT and the last time I took the SAT, I chose to select the "inform me about other colleges" box with my email on my information form. Ever since that day, for the past two years, I have been sent between 5-30 emails a day from various private colleges, many sending at least one email every few days.

My question is, why do they keep spamming my mailbox? Do they not realize that if I do not respond to their automated mail server the first three times, I probably won't respond for the next 20 times?

Why do they not just give up and put their resources to better use? VMI, at least, gives up after 6 months of spam. These other random colleges just don't stop.

I really wish these colleges would sent a singular email message to me about their college and leave it at that. I don't use that email account often, but every time I do I have 300+ college spam messages .

Anyone else have this problem? Anyone know of a way to keep these colleges from sending me mail? I made the mistake of selecting that little box, now is there a way to unselect it?

[Beth Sweet]

They send out the mass emails because it's easy. The way to get off of their lists? I've found the only way is to send one back saying "I've decided on another school, please remove me from your list."

Good luck!

[Greg Marra]

The real trick is to not give them your real e-mail in the first place. I set up an e-mail address that was separate just for college stuff, and then had it automatically forward to my regular e-mail account in a special folder. I turned off the flow of e-mail once I had made my choice, and that was that!

first.last.college@gmail.com is a wonderful thing.

[Cynette]

At the bottom of each of the e-mails is a link to unsubscribe. Unlike normal SPAM, these links really work. For the schools you know you have no interest in, tell them to stop. They will. Sort the e-mails by sender and pick one from each school you want to turn off.

Now if we could just turn off the snail mail faucet...

[Zero-Bee]

I wish I didn't use my real e-mail for my SATs. >.<

My gmail account could make a picnic out of spamburgers.

[KelliV]

I am happily enrolled in Art School but for some reason an Engineering School (which shall remain nameless) has decided to ignore my 5 e-mails asking them to stop and keep sending me info about how I can attend their Freshmen Orientation.

[LordTalps]

Start adding their names to your junk mail list?

[GRaduns340]

I won't say which college it is, but there is one college that sends me the SAME 2 e-mails on a 3-day cycle. The worst part is they haven't figured out I'm not a junior any more.

[Andrew Blair]

Haha, I don't have a problem with e-mails, but since I took the PSAT last year, I've gotten at least 2 pieces of college mail a day. They've burned way more than I could ever spend in application fees...

[GRaduns340]

The thing is, though. It hardly costs them anything to do it.

The people that write the e-mails are already on staff for other things, and the IT department gets the job of automating the sending process whenever the right people submit a request.

They already pay for the Internet service with the high bandwidth to do that, and creating the list of recipients is really easy when they get an electronic report from the College Board of all the kids that have taken the tests and entered an e-mail address.

There's really not a whole lot of additional money that goes into it, at least from my understanding. (My parents both work at a college, and that makes for a lot of dinner conversation)

[Daisy]

The reason that they sent you all the things (either by email, or mail) in the first place is because every school has one goal: to make themselves a more selective school. Hence, the more they bug you, the more likely you are to see all the positive points. The only real way to have it stop, is to not let it come in the first place. It's a lot less messy to do your own research according to what you want. You can do this just about anywhere, and the majority are pretty affective.

Save a tree, do a survey.

Good luck,
Daisy