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.
- Open College Board account privacy settings and sign in to the student's own account.
- Find the Student Search Service preference 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.
For brochures, use the Student Search preference, not an account-deletion request. College Board's account closure and deletion guidance explains the wider consequences. Deleted account data, including scores, cannot be restored.
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.
If the student cannot access the Connections opt-out in the app, the same instructions give College Board customer service at 866-630-9305 as another way to leave Connections. Ask specifically about that program.
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.
The form asks for the student's name, city, state or province, and date of birth, with address and email fields to identify the enrollment. Enter those details only on ACT's official form. Do not send a date of birth, testing password, score report, or other identity document to Junk Mail Magic.
For Recruit Me questions, ACT publishes 319-337-1270 on that opt-out page. The published opt-out instructions use the form. If the form is unavailable or you cannot match an enrollment, ask ACT how to complete the request. Do not use College Board's Connections number for ACT.
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. Stopping recruitment mail does not require deleting the student's testing account.
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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