"We don't know anything about a person until they actually contact us," says Lewis Cohen, who is the head of database marketing for Citibank.

Allen Alias, the corporate communications director for Providian Financial Corporation, a credit card provider, says his organization primarily makes use of lists produced by credit bureaus. Although these lists may sometimes contain the names and addresses of students, Alias says his company makes every effort not to solicit individuals under the age of 21.

"College students have a lot of burdens in terms of spending time hitting the books instead of taking on jobs. We're trying not to put individuals in that age group in debt before they even hit the workforce," Alias says. "That's not to say that if an individual who's over 18 picks up an application, we won't consider it."

A Never Ending Stream

Unlike regular mail, which usually tapers off after students move into the Houses, credit card offers and other junk mail for College students continue to pile up in the Harvard Yard Mail Center (HYMC) even after those students leave the Yard, says HYMC employee Nassim Kerkache.

Kerkache said last spring that it takes his staff hours to deliver the mass-mailings that swamp the mail center several times a week.

The situation at Harvard is indicative of larger problem for direct mail marketers--a low response rate among college students.

Citibank's Cohen says that of all the credit card solicitations that Citibank sends out to college students, less than 1percent engender any sort of response--and only half of the students who respond actually sign up for a credit card.