<p>I'm curious. Recently, after applying to the UCs, I realized I'd made a mistake on my application. I was told to mail, in writing, each campus I had applied to to fix this.</p>
<p>My question is... what difference is this compared to a simple e-mail? I don't think it's more secure because I could pose as someone else even through mail by writing their name on the envelope. </p>
<p>Also, when they say contact in writing through mail, does that mean to literally handwrite it or just type up a hardcopy? (I'm pretty sure they mean typed hardcopy, but why would they say contact in writing through mail. Isn't that redundant? Yeah sure, I'll send it to you by mail in electronic form.)</p>
<p>Ah, what the modern age has wrought. Back in the Stone Age, meaning before the invention of personal computers, internet, email, cell phones, and text messaging, people communicated distances either by mail, telephone or telegraph. To “send in writing by mail” was a term commonly understood to send anything, either handwritten or typewritten, via the US Postal Service in an envelope with a stamp on it. That is what you are being asked to do and thus you should construe the word “writing” broadly to include anything typed. They prefer mailed letters in this situation because it assures it will not be overlooked and will make it to your file which is something not guaranteed to occur if you were to send via email to an an email address that likely gets several hundred if not thousands of emails a day and it may not get read or could be accidentally deleted.</p>