ShepCarlin Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 At the risk of sounding like a grade A worry wart (which I am)....what is the current opinion on emails for students? My 14 yo son has had the same email for years but it has the word "lizard" in it (he wants to be a herpetologist). I am thinking he needs a more mature sounding address of just his name@gmail.com but I have a friend who has older kids that says colleges want to see something that describes them like "lizard". Does this really matter? I know I have bigger things to worry about but I'd imagine it's one of those little things that does reflect upon the student. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) I prefer an address that has student's name, to make it easy for who the college admissions people who may want to contact him. yes, there are databases - but it is way easier to see the actual name as part of the email address. I also consider this a professional interaction and would want a professional sounding email address. ETA: I disagree with your friend. Colleges do not want to see cutesy email addresses. Most likely, they don't care - but an unconventional email address does NOT give you bonus points at admissions. Edited October 24, 2018 by regentrude 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 He probably wants a new email for this purpose - you get SLAMMED with emails during the college search! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 It is neat having an account assigned to just college application related e-mail because the volume is truly staggering. I really doubt a college cares what your e-mail address is as long as it's not profane or inappropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milknhoney Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 I work in college admissions. While there may be more selective universities out there that care, we don't. As long as it's not offensive or inappropriate I think it's fine. My university is niched and... you'd know exactly what we specialize in just by looking at the personal email addresses of our students. If we offered herpetology we wouldn't bat an eyelash at "lizard". I'll tell you what we DO care about, and that is that whatever email he puts on his application, that's the email that he 1) checks regularly and 2) emails us from consistently. We track communications that we have with students and it always gets more complicated when they email us from a different address than what we have in their record, or register for an event with a different email. Or, they regularly use a different email than what they gave us, and then they don't read information that we send them. And then they're lost and confused and call us all upset because they think we never gave them the information. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 3 hours ago, Milknhoney said: I work in college admissions. While there may be more selective universities out there that care, we don't. As long as it's not offensive or inappropriate I think it's fine. My university is niched and... you'd know exactly what we specialize in just by looking at the personal email addresses of our students. If we offered herpetology we wouldn't bat an eyelash at "lizard". I'll tell you what we DO care about, and that is that whatever email he puts on his application, that's the email that he 1) checks regularly and 2) emails us from consistently. We track communications that we have with students and it always gets more complicated when they email us from a different address than what we have in their record, or register for an event with a different email. Or, they regularly use a different email than what they gave us, and then they don't read information that we send them. And then they're lost and confused and call us all upset because they think we never gave them the information. This. I interview for my alma mater. I have had students who put down an email that they then don't check. After a few attempts to contact them, I mark them as unresponsive. I try to use both email and phone, but I know that sometimes the phone messages don't make it to the kid, or that they are well intentioned, but don't call me back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch at Home Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 When my kids started doing college visits, they got an email address which somehow reflected their name. They use it both for college admissions and job searches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Good idea to have an e mail just for the college stuff, given that they will check it regularly as others have said. I do sometimes suggest that kids from our area add the state to their name in the e mail, because it is somewhat memorable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 As far as checking the new email goes, you can just have it forwarded to your standard email and then filtered to a specific folder. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 DD has one of those email names that reflects her interests mostly just for college emails. She checks it often, but when a college emails you all.the.time, it is hard to distinguish between a form letter and one where the adcom actually wants a response. DD had one of the admission counselor wanted her to respond to that she blew right past. When she received a personal call, I checked the message. It looked like all the other form emails the college sends 4 times per week (it seems). Insert name - graphic - text paragraph - Click here for . . . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoMom Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 My daughter got what she figured was a junk email in February, before she had even been accepted. It was from the Alumni Scholarship, for which you need to apply (but they send it to only the top SAT scorers). She never opened it. Realistically we know she probably wouldn't have gotten the scholarship AND she's on the GI bill which doesn't stack scholarships.... but it has made us much more careful about check emails thoroughly! She was told by her high school to make a professional email for college and job applications. So her's is just her name@gmail.com 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 ACK! We've started tossing and deleting with abandon. I guess we need to at least give letters and emails from target schools a quick glance to make sure it's not just yet another form letter or email. Good to know! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 (edited) A few years ago DS was absolutely snowed under with all the emails. I had delegated access to his account still and with his permission went in once a day and unsubscribed from colleges he wasn't interested in. Then I would use the search box to find everything from that school and put it into the trash. It cleaned up his inbox after a few weeks. ETA: A student isn't obligated to give the same attention to every school. Every school isn't entitled to consideration. Edited October 25, 2018 by Sebastian (a lady) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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