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Check your email! A crucial habit for college applicants

January 21st, 2020

In today’s world we are always connected. Cell phones have created a new way to communicate and respond immediately that is much faster and quite frankly more enjoyable than the way things used to be. Long gone are the days of “snail mail” where response time could take almost a week.

For teenagers, email is typically not the first means of communication and understandably so. Sifting through junk mail to find the important pieces of communication can be a turn-off, and replies don’t arrive as quickly as with texting!

Photo by Stacey Westcott via Chicago Tribune

However, email is still a very important way to communicate in the world of school, work, and especially college admissions. In the article linked below, the Chicago Tribune helps you understand the importance of staying on top of all the information being sent your way so that you don’t miss anything.

Article referenced below from Chicago Tribune, published December 19, 2019 written by Dawn Rhodes

Teenagers don’t use email — colleges do. That’s a problem during college admissions season

Amber Fitzgerald never uses email.

When the 18-year-old started applying to colleges this year, the crush of messages flooding her inbox made her stop checking it.

“I get 10 emails a day just from two colleges,” said Fitzgerald, a senior at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. “If I go a week (without checking) we’re talking 100 emails easily from schools I’m not even interested in.”

Email is not the default for most teenagers, but it remains the primary avenue for colleges to communicate with prospective and current students. That can mean aggravation for college-bound teens and their families at the time of year when schools send critical admissions and financial aid information mostly via email.