Email is the preferred method of communication of geezers, dorks and... college admissions. No doubt about it. And teens see email as stiff, lame, a relic.
Every college questionnaire, whether it's for general information (examples here and here) or athlete recruitment (examples here and here) asks for an email address and leans heavily on it. That's not going to change any time soon.
Dawn Rhodes, the higher education reporter for the Chicago Tribune, wrote about the email standoff between students and institutions some months ago. It's a fact that knowing your way around email is a skill useful in the college search, in college itself, and beyond. Furthermore, Rhodes writes, if high school students won't engage in "sifting through their clogged accounts, they could be missing looming deadlines, to-do notices to complete their applications and announcements about financial aid, scholarships and awards."
Parents, listen up -- that's how you convince a student on their college search to include email in their online tool kit. Sure, those emails are sometimes just pretty pictures and enthusiastic prose, but some can carry information about deadlines, admissions policies and financial aid. Especially this year (and next?!) when COVID has led to shifts in the admissions process, it's important to keep up with emails from the colleges that pique interest.
Some high schools offer students email addresses with their name and even graduation year. This would seem to be the ideal email address to give to a college for correspondence. But wait...
You don't want emails from colleges mixed in with homework updates and other high school messages.
The Tribune article suggests students "establish a separate, dedicated email account just to gather college information." Set specific times during the week to scan that account for important news.
Your email address for college outreach can be established with any free email provider (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) And it should be "just the facts" -- for example, name and year of graduation:
If you have to choose another, you might add your home city or high school mascot:
Keep it adult and classy. [email protected] may have its charms, but there will be more appropriate venues in the application process to show your personality.