No, not if you aren’t interested in that particular email (ex: FA info if you aren’t applying for FA), have already completed your supplements, or already did research and made a spreadsheet. Or did your research at a school or library computer. Or have what you need from the 15 pounds of regular mail they sent. Or took the literature from their admissions office. Or had your questions answered by the professor you talked to on campus. Or it got buried in the email from 357 other random schools trying to get you to apply who bought your name from the College Board. Or you meant to click through but you were in class actually doing work and by the time you got to a time and place to read their marketing, once again, it slipped your mind.
I don’t really care that they have the ability to track info, but making admissions decisions based on it seems to once again favor those already in the know. But I guess they all should just remember to always dutifully click.
I just think it’s too much.
There’s an article today in the Chronicle of Higher Ed about colleges tracking their current students to see how much time they spend in the library, etc. I don’t like that, either, but for different reasons.