Managing the Email
By Karen Treon, Senior Editor & College Parent
Is your student overwhelmed by college email? And are you feeling that same state of overwhelm? We are posting this in January, which is a very busy time. Students applying to college have a lot of proverbial balls in the air - working on applications, waiting for decisions on submitted applications, thinking about additional applications, monitoring to do tasks, celebrating, processing disappointment, and deciding. That’s a lot for anyone. We suggest that frustrated parents consider a perspective shift. Colleges send a TON of email. “Common App is open!” “FAFSA is coming!” “Happy Thanksgiving!” “You Would Love it Here!” “Submit your Housing Application!” And somewhere in the mix there might be a “Your Application Needs Attention - Check Your Portal” message. Your student is likely receiving an onslaught of email from many colleges - and it’s hard to blame them for getting behind and perhaps missing an important message. We have some tips for managing that inbox and making sure that your student doesn’t miss the important messages.
Your student should be checking email daily. If they haven’t been doing that thus far, it’s time to start. We suggest 20 minutes a day, and start with the newest email and work backward. It might take some time to catch up.
There a few options for each email:
If the email is from a school that your student has NO INTENTION of applying to, they should:
unsubscribe AND
search for all email from that school and DELETE
If the email is from a school your student has applied to or plans to apply to, they should scan it and do the following:
If the email includes a to-do item, they should do it! Right then! Either complete the task or email the admissions rep with any questions about it.
If the email is informational or promotional in nature, there is still value in reading it and clicking on links. This will help the student learn more about the school and will show demonstrated interest in the school (which some schools track).
Students and families might also consider setting up email filters and notifications to help with managing the influx.
Open admission portals! This is really important. Most schools send out portal access information upon receiving a student’s application. Students should access the portal, set up a password, etc. (They should track login information too - our Decision Tracker is a free tool that students can download, customize and use and it has a spot for this information.)
Students should check portals regularly. This is less overwhelming than checking email, and can help alleviate some of the email anxiety. Students can clearly see if there are to-do or follow up tasks required of them in these portals, and they can see the status of their application.
We suggest bookmarking each portal while applications are pending. Better yet, students can stack the tabs and save passwords on their computer so that they can quickly check them on the regular.
Schedule time with your student to review what’s coming and in and identify to-do items. We suggest 30 minutes twice a week.
Review portals together.
Catch up on email if necessary.
And what about the decisions? Sometimes schools announce a date and time of decision releases. (Again, make sure your student has portal access as most of these decisions are posted in student portals and not in email.) Other schools have a range of decision release dates or are on rolling admission. We suggest that parents talk to students about how they want to process these results. Some students prefer to read the decisions on their own, and others might want to do this with their families.
