<p>I know that when I got mine, I got all excited and told everyone to redirect their e-mails to my new e-mail account. But then I figured out that Gmail was really better (since it didn't take up the limited disk space the institution alloted me, and due to Gmail's search). And I get to keep my Gmail 4 years from now, even though I don't keep my institutional e-mail account for those 4 years. So now I use Gmail almost all of the time now.</p>
<p>I noticed the same trend among a lot of people as well. They seem to use institutional e-mail for a while, and then go back to Gmail.</p>
<p>well at my school we're required to use the school email address because that's the address listed on class rosters in case a prof has to send out a mass email that class is cancelled, plans have changed, etc. some students have chosen to setup a program to automatically forward their email to gmail, yahoo, aol, or wherever, but my school's program is great. its easy to use, and after graduation we can have all emails forwarded to new address for 6 months.</p>
<p>let me put it this way: if i didn't stay on top of my college email account (checking it 5 times a day), i would have failed a good majority of my classes. The teachers <em>depend</em> on the school email to get information out, and if you check your email and know it...too bad. </p>
<p>if you don't like going to check your college email (mine's easy to use too, and I memorized the link directly to the log in page), forwarding it to another email account is useful, too. A lot of my friends forward to gmail or hotmail, or even graffiti.net.</p>
<p>We have to use ours. Profs send out emails all the time (I get one at least once a day from someone) plus organizations I'm in use email alot too. I have a hotmail I've had since middle school that I use for sign-up stuff if I think it might be junk mail, and yahoo mail for regular mail. TigerMail (school email) is for school stuff only.</p>
<p>I use it for school-related things, like contacting professors, other students, I used it when I was searching for internships, etc. I have a gmail account that I use for everything else. I think we get to keep email access for 1 year after we graduate. I have some professors who send out email 3 times a week, and some who never send emails and don't even check their own. One professor, in particular, has a tendency to email us about stuff 4 hours before class, or email us an assignment for a paper 3 days before it's due, etc. </p>
<p>There are a couple people who seem to refuse to use their school emails on some matter of principle..."the interface is junk" or "it's slow and useless" or "I have 5 other email accounts already, why do I need that one", etc. The professor will ask the class if everyone got the email and everyone nods except that one person, who then acts all offended that he was expected to check it in the first place, and even more offended that he's somewhat in trouble over it. Even if you don't want to use it (no one ever said you had to), you still need to be aware that that's where all the important stuff is going to be send. No need to be stupid about it.</p>
<p>I forward all my emails in my university email address to my gmail account, then send emails under the identity of the university email address. I get to use the university email address but still get to keep gmail's functionality.</p>
<p>i use it, but the 50MB storage limit is getting pretty annoying, and i often end up cleaning it out at least once or twice a semester. our school's e-mail service offers forwarding to any other e-mail service, i've been thinking about making the switch to gmail.</p>
<p>You have to check it for the occasional important email from a professor, the university, etc. so many people just use that as their main email address. Then some who get way too much email just forward everything to a Gmail account or something similar. I think generally one of these two things tend to occur.</p>
<p>i use mine. I have it come into my mac mail interface. If I only used it on webmail, I would definitely forward to gmail. I will be using gmail after I graduate (I got it freshmen year), and will likely keep my .mac account.</p>
<p>I think I get an alumni email address after I graduate, but I'm not sure. </p>
<p>They give me plenty of space, too, but the reason I forward school email to gmail and send email from gmail through my school address is because my school deletes messages that are 1 year old automatically, even if you have enough space to keep them. Since I want all my back email, I send it all through gmail.</p>
<p>I forward all my emails in my university email address to my gmail account, then send emails under the identity of the university email address. I get to use the university email address but still get to keep gmail's functionality.</p>
<p>Old geezer checking in ... I know a bunch of school buddies (20+ years out of school) who use their school email as their outside contact ... they then automatically forward the email on to their regular account. They do this to 1) actually process the mail in their day-to-day email account and 2) have an email address the world sees that is stable (switching from gmail to yahoo to etc is a pain in the butt for the people who need to contact you).</p>
<p>If you're using Gmail, you can actually import your school email into the Gmail interface. This lets you send and recieve the emails from your school account while retaining access to the emails to that particular account. That way, you only have one place to check for all of your email :)</p>
<p>I just set up my USC account, and my e-mail address LOOKS absolutely hideous; I thought it was just <a href="mailto:firstnamelastname@usc.edu">firstnamelastname@usc.edu</a>. But instead, they spelt out half of my name, half of my middle name, and 1/3 of my last name. It looks REALLY wierd, and I guess I'm stuck with it now. </p>
<p>So far, I'm not impressed with the "Sun Java System Messenger Express"</p>