Many high school students receive a lot of mail and emails from colleges. At first it seems cool, but it quickly gets annoying. 76.5% of Herriman students surveyed are contacted by colleges, even sophomores receiving contact. These colleges range from local schools like Utah and BYU to Yale and Harvard. 

Colleges love to use acceptance rates to show that they are a good school. Acceptance rate is used to show prestige. Many students received contact from colleges they felt they would never be accepted to. These colleges included Stanford, Harvard, Yale and MIT with an acceptance 7% or lower according to U.S. News.

This leaves many students wondering why they were contacted. Stanford has the lowest acceptance rate. According to Top Tier Admissions, Stanford received 42,487 applications and accepted only 2,144. You can safely assume that every student that applied felt they had a chance to be accepted. Are colleges making students feel like they will be accepted just to turn them down and improve their statistics? With numbers that low, it would only make sense.

On the other hand, students are also contacted by colleges they would never go to. Luke Rasmussen, a junior, said, “I have received several emails from colleges that I have never heard of such as Colorado School of Mines.” No-Name colleges contact a lot of students in hopes of improving numbers and academics. 

Most high school students are not big users of email and are annoyed by these college contacts. Emails are too lengthy and formal for teenagers, and email notifications are harder to clear than most other notifications.

Only 61% of Herriman students surveyed reported to have signed up for college contact. What many students do not realize is that the ACT is giving colleges their information. According to act.org, “You will be given the choice prior to having your personally identifying information shared with these other organizations for their marketing purposes.”  On the ACT you can select to receive these emails.

There is also a way to get out. The College Board also has a program called Student Search Service. If you want to stop receiving college emails, try opting out of their search at studentsearch.collegeboard.org You may have unintentionally signed up for their service. Also, all college emails have a small unsubscribe link at the bottom.

College contacts can easily become excessive. The best option is to avoid signing up for contact in the first place. Doing your own research and finding colleges that fit your needs is more beneficial. There is more valuable information online than in these emails. There are also programs to help you find college fits without contacting you.