As if the College mail spam to DS was not enough

Parents Forum
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<p>At long last the flow of college mail to DS has started to dribble off (he is a senior). BUT--the other day we received mail to "Parents of DS". It was an offer for a time share extolling all of their exotic locations. The attractive brochure (with plenty of pictures of palm trees and golf courses) started with "now that your child is off to college it is time to take the vacations you have dreamed of." Apparently they have not seen the tuition bill now that child is off to college.</p>

<p>JEEZ!</p>

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<p>Really? I find this quite funny...</p>

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<p>One has to wonder which school(s) sold your contact information to the spammer. Probably ETS. :-)</p>

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<p>Just curious, where do the colleges get your addresses to send spam? My daughter has received lots of spam both through the mail and to her email address? She does not give out her email address oftern. I was thinking maybe college board sent her email and address information to them. Also, how can they offer her free application filing fees and scholarship money when they don't have access to her grades or sat information. We keep getting an offer for an $18K scholarship from a college in NY and an $11K for one in PA. Of course we've never heard of the schools. Just curious about where these schools are getting her information from?</p>

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<p>I've always assumed that they buy addresses from CollegeBoard. However, my 9th-grader got a letter from WashU a couple months ago. He hasn't taken the SAT or PSAT in HS, but did take it as a 7th-grader as part of the Duke TIP program, so maybe that's a source.</p>

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<p>Yes, College Board does sell information. Refer to [url=<a href="http://professionals.collegeboard.com/higher-ed/recruitment/sss%5DSSS%5B/url"&gt;http://professionals.collegeboard.com/higher-ed/recruitment/sss]SSS[/url&lt;/a&gt;] for more information.</p>

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<p>bumped by Moderator to restore page one status to this thread</p>

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<p>My D used my email address to register for the PSAT - hers was suffering from sluggish service and spam problems. I got lots of email from schools after that. Whoops, she should have just opened a new gmail account. So yes, lots of it comes from ETS selling your data.</p>

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<p>High schools also sell student lists to raise money.</p>

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<p>And still nothing, not even a postcard or email, for S....</p>

<p>:: sob ::</p>

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<p>Owlice, don't read too much into this. My son has gotten mail from the most improbable places which clearly indicated that is it NOT a targeted message. For example, his profile is not ivy but two days ago he got (for the first time) a brochure from Cornell and yesterday the application. Now seeing how deadline is 1/2 there is clearly a misfire somewhere. I wish they would save the money on these mailings and put it towards scholarship funds!</p>

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<p>It most likely originated from the College Board. I know this because, when I took my SAT, I gave them a traceable e-mail address (I own a domain name, so I receive all the e-mail that gets sent to <anything>@mydomain.com). I specified my e-mail address as <a href="mailto:sattest@mydomain.com">sattest@mydomain.com</a>. Over the next several years, I got hundreds of e-mails from random colleges and organizations addressed to <a href="mailto:sattest@mydomain.com">sattest@mydomain.com</a>.</anything></p>

<p>Even though you're talking about physical mail here, I'm still pretty confident you're getting it from a list from the College Board.</p>

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<p>It doesn't end. After we paid the first semester tuition, within days we got a solicitation to donate to the college's "Parents Fund."</p>

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<p>S is away at college already and he's still getting mail from Colgate.</p>