How to Stop College Mail and Brochures
Turn off the student recruitment service that supplied your information, then contact colleges that already have it. One opt-out may prevent new sharing without recalling lists already sent.
If college brochures started after the SAT, PSAT, an AP exam, or the ACT, begin with the student's testing account. Recruitment programs can connect a student with many colleges at once. Turning off the original program limits future sharing, while school-specific requests handle organizations that already received the student's contact information.
1. Opt out of College Board Student Search Service
College Board's Student Search Service FAQ says students can opt out at any time through their College Board account. Once the opt-out is complete, College Board removes the student from Student Search. Colleges and scholarship programs that already made contact may still send mail, so this step prevents new matches rather than recalling every list already distributed.
- Sign in to the student's own College Board account.
- Open Student Search Service and choose the opt-out option.
- Confirm that the participation setting is off. Save the date or confirmation screen.
- Do not close the entire College Board account merely to stop brochures. Account closure can remove access to scores, saved college lists, and other account resources.
College Board also publishes a privacy request and Search opt-out form. Use the Student Search choice for this purpose. Broader account deletion or closure requests have different consequences.
2. Check BigFuture School Connections preferences
Connections is separate from Student Search. College Board's official Connections instructions say students can opt out of the program or control individual communication channels, including hardcopy mail. Open the BigFuture School app settings and review the print-communications preference if the student uses that program.
Changing an email preference does not necessarily change a print preference. Read the labels carefully and turn off the channel that matches the unwanted physical mail.
3. Opt out of ACT Recruit Me
ACT Recruit Me, formerly called the Educational Opportunity Service, is another voluntary recruitment program. ACT provides an official Recruit Me opt-out form. ACT asks for the student information needed to match the enrollment, and its page says to submit each physical or email address separately when more than one was registered.
Use ACT's form directly. Do not send a date of birth, testing password, score report, or other identity document to Junk Mail Magic.
4. Contact colleges that already have the address
An upstream opt-out cannot erase a list a college already licensed or a request the student made directly. For each school that continues mailing:
- Keep one recent brochure and locate the student name, full mailing address, and any source code near the label.
- Use the college's official admissions contact page. Ask to remove that exact name and address from prospective-student postal recruitment.
- State that the request covers paper mail. An email unsubscribe may change only the email channel.
- Save the request date and any confirmation. Repeat the request if a different name or address variation appears later.
Do not use this instruction for a school the student attends, has applied to, or may attend without first separating promotional brochures from application, enrollment, housing, tuition, scholarship, and financial-aid communications. Those records may be important and may not be marketing.
Parents and guardians should coordinate with the student
Student Search and ACT recruitment preferences belong to the student account. A parent or guardian should make changes with the student or through an official route that allows an authorized parent request. Do not guess a password or impersonate the student. College Board's privacy form distinguishes the account holder from a parent, educator, or other requester.
If the student never lived at your address, treat the brochure as mail for a previous resident. If the student does live there but no longer wants recruitment mail, use the program and sender opt-outs above.
Where a photo-based request helps
A photo is useful for a brochure from one identifiable college because the label preserves the recipient spelling, address, and source code. Junk Mail Magic can use that evidence to prepare a sender-specific postal removal request.
A photo-based request does not replace the College Board or ACT opt-out because those programs can keep matching the student with new organizations. Start upstream, then use individual requests for schools that already have the address. Mail already printed can continue for several mailing cycles after either step.
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