E-mailing Colleges

Any contact you have with the admissions office of a school will leave an impression.  You do not want to be remembered as the student who misspelled the name of the college!

Follow these suggestions and you won't raise red flags:

• Keep it short!  Focus on your questions, not on yourself. There will be plenty of time for you to concentrate on personal attributes when you complete the application.
• Minimize the number of questions you ask.  You can always make a few more inquiries later, after you've built a relationship with the admissions office.
• Give your name and high school graduation year.
• Give the name and city of your high school.
• Be sure to include your home address.
• Make sure you have no spelling or grammatical errors. First impressions matter.
• Make sure your email address is not juvenile or offensive (i.e. thug_killa@review.com or fly girl@review.net). You may need to create a new e-mail for college correspondence.

Whenever you contact a college, they will respond according to your graduation year.  If you are a freshman or sophomore, don't be surprised if you don't hear back right away. You may not receive any material until you are a junior or senior. Don't forget that admissions requirements and scholarship criteria can change over time, so make sure all the information you have is current.