Admissions@ The Most Dangerous Inbox on Campus
On every campus, there’s one inbox that everyone checks but no one really owns. It’s friendly, familiar, and dangerously convenient.
It’s Admissions@
For years, shared email accounts have been the backbone of admissions offices. Easy to manage, easy to monitor, and easy to explain to anyone who walks in on their first day. Need to coordinate with the registrar, a transcript vendor, or a counselor? Just send it from Admissions@. But somewhere along the way, that convenience turned into a liability.
The Hidden Cost of “Shared”
Shared inboxes and common logins aren’t just a communication habit. They’ve become embedded in how admissions teams access portals, track applications, and coordinate external data exchanges. And that’s exactly where the cracks start to show. When Admissions@ (or any shared account) is used to log into portals, request records, or verify credentials, accountability evaporates. Over time, those accounts become a revolving door of access with staff, student workers, and sometimes even vendors using the same credentials.
When someone leaves, the password might stay the same.
When systems change, the old logins still exist.
When an email shows up that looks trustworthy, everyone assumes someone else has already vetted it.
That’s how “Admissions@” the symbol of teamwork quietly becomes the biggest security gap on campus.
Convenience Over Control
Let’s be honest. This isn’t happening because people are careless. It’s happening because admissions is busy. Shared logins are easy. Personal accounts require setup, permissions, and IT coordination. Password management feels like a distraction when application season is in full swing. Even as more institutions implement dual-factor authentication (MFA), shared accounts often slip through the cracks. Some are set up before MFA became mandatory. Others are exempted because multiple people need access and managing individual tokens feels cumbersome.
And even when MFA is enabled, if everyone uses the same device or shares the same secondary authentication method (a text, email, or app prompt), the extra layer of protection quickly becomes a shared one, too. That means MFA reduces risk — but doesn’t eliminate it. Especially when the account itself is communal.
Offboarding: The Forgotten Step
Ask around campuses, and you’ll hear the same story. Someone who left months ago still technically has access to an admissions email or portal login. Sometimes it’s because their credentials were shared with others; sometimes no one even realized they had access in the first place. Without a clear offboarding checklist, one that includes shared accounts, portals, vendor systems, and CRM access former employees can retain entry points long after they’ve moved on. Even if they’d never use them, those orphaned accounts are open invitations for phishing and impersonation attacks.
The more hands that touch Admissions@, the more invisible those hands become.
What’s Really at Risk
A fake transcript or unauthorized record submission is serious but often, it’s the least of an institution’s worries. The bigger threat is the link itself. A convincing phishing message sent to a shared inbox can deliver malware, harvest credentials, or redirect users to spoofed login pages. And because everyone uses the same email, no one can pinpoint who clicked what or when the breach began.
When that happens, an innocent click in Admissions@ can become a campus-wide data incident.
Rebuilding Trust in Access
Protecting admissions systems doesn’t mean slowing them down. It means rethinking how access is assigned, managed, and retired.
Every user should have their own login.
Shared accounts should be read-only or tightly delegated, not open doors.
Passwords should rotate, expire, and vanish with staff transitions.
And most importantly, accountability should be designed into every process — not bolted on afterward.
Because in a world where so many systems intersect portals, credentialing vendors, SIS integrations, and CRMs trust without structure is just another risk vector.
A Final Thought
Convenience is easy to share. Accountability isn’t. Every admissions office wants to move quickly and serve learners well but that starts with making sure the systems behind the scenes are built on trust, not tradition. Admissions@ may still be the friendliest address on campus. But until institutions rethink how it’s used, it might also be the most dangerous.
