<p>The OP mentioned Washington University (?in St. Louis?) specifically: that institution is notorious for blanketing the country with marketing letters. </p>
<p>At the time I was applying for college my father was covering part of the back yard in wood chip mulch and wanted to lay down a layer of slick paper (such as magazine paper) between the mulch and the soil underneath. As a joke he reserved one large area of the yard to be covered only in WUSTL junk fliers, and to our surprise we nearly covered it.</p>