“Otherwise, each college can see the other colleges the student is following (and likely applying to). Following schools on Twitter is useful because sometimes they have admissions Twitter chats.”
Schools with 30,000 applicants have the time to check what other Twitter accounts their followers follow?I don’t buy it.
There is a gmail trick that can be useful for sorting mail. You can add a + that gmail basically ignores, but still shows up in the email “to”.
Example - if my email address is WhateverYourEmailAddressIs2015@gmail.com, you could use the address WhateverYourEmailAddressIs2015+CollegeConfidential@gmail.com
This in effect can create multiple email accounts since you can sort on each one. So you could even have ReallyCoolHighSchoolStudent2015+CollegeOfYourChoice@gmail.com
we set up an email with our last name and the word college; used that for their AP/PSAT/ACT. We have thousands of emails. It comes to a home computer; the kids dont look at this account much.
when they’ve applied for colleges and scholarships, or have found a college they are particularly interested in, they use their own personal email account.
They can’t, if your Twitter account is private. So just have one account and keep it private imo… although I think it’s a stretch that just following other colleges on Twitter would influence anything
We set up a gmail acct using S name in the address for common app and signing up for lists.
He took sat and act with his real email. I have access to the college one, but of course not his real one. I keep track of all his logins and passwords in a good old fashioned notes book:)
I was planning to direct S2 to set up a new, separate email acct for college admissions. But he took the initiative to write in my private email address on his PSAT registration.
I am dreading the deluge of spam in 2 weeks time…
Some really great tips. Thanks everyone! I thought the Twitter idea was quite smart at first, but yeah, I don’t see colleges having time to pry/spy. I think I should probably setup a Facebook page for college ‘liking’ as well. I imagine it’s the same issue as far as sharing who her ‘friends’ are.
I set a gmail account up for my 11th grader and 9th grader with their names and middle initial. But I don’t check it every couple of days I just have the emails forwarded to my account…
I am also dreading what is going to happen with the PSAT BOTH of them gave my email address for it. Not sure how that is going to work…
You just have to be a brutal “unsubscriber” when the emails start flowing. If you immediately unsubscribe from emails from colleges that your child will have no interest in, the volume of email drops precipitously. It also cuts out the regular mail that comes to your house.
Gmail has all sorts of useful features that can be used here. Three specific ones come to mind.
There’s plenty of help online for these things so I won’t go into a full blown tutorial.
I love gmail…I’m always discovering new ways to use it.
As for the original question–I think a separate “college only” email is a good idea (wish we had done that!). And probably a good idea if you have the password (or set it up to forward email to you, so you can help keep on top of things if your kid wants your help).
When DS14 was going through the process, we didn’t set up a seperate email but used mine for Common app, scholarship and college communications. For DD17, we promptly set up for a separate email address for her college, summer program, scholarship etc… purpose.
This is one of very helpful advisor I took from cc.
Also, thanks to posts above with helpful gmail account features.
" I think I should probably setup a Facebook page for college ‘liking’ as well. I imagine it’s the same issue as far as sharing who her ‘friends’ are."
When DS13 was applying to colleges I went through his FB account and had him delete a couple of stupid comments in it that he had made back in the 9th grade. He thought it was highly unlikely that any colleges would bother to look at his FB account. Fast forward 3 years. He is now in a co-op that requires a security clearance, with finger prints, interviews with people he knows, where he has traveled and lived, even stuff about us… My point is I would not be surprised if they checked out his FB account. So I would recommend that everyone make sure that their kids aren’t posting stuff on FB or Twitter that may potentially cause them problems down the line.
@baltimoreguy - kid can opt out of receiving college communication when taking standardized tests.
@MichiganGeorgia Better yet, set Facebook privacy preferences to “Friends Only.” Then colleges will not be able to see anything he or his friends post – except for his profile photo and cover photo, which are always public.
True about schools with 30,000 applicants. But if Swarthmore or Hamilton is your first choice, all bets are off. They would be interested in if your application list is Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Swarthmore. Or if it is Swarthmore, Middlebury, Haverford, Colgate, and Hamilton.
If the college follows you back, I’m almost positive they can see who else you are following and who is following you. anyway, just a suggestion.
It’s starting-- the college solicitation spam to my inbox, bcs S2 wrote in my email address on tbe PSAT. Thanks, kid…
:-w
^ hey, at least it means he did well!
Don’t fill out the survey info when signing up for standardized testing and don’t check off the box to receive info from schools when signing up for standardized testing, then you won’t get all the spam stuff.
It also helps in getting your child to focus on schools they are interested on based on family research.
Hi everyone,
I’m specifically interested in knowing how the email on the college board site is linked to college visits. For example, my son went to visit a few colleges that he was interested in and used his personal (they had him sign in and sent thank u emails later)… But later when taking the PSAT, we created a new one to use for everything. If he applies to the 2 schools he visited, will they know he visited? How? Do they key off name and address or email? When we eventually set up the common app, should we use the personal or will that gen spam too? Should the testing emails (SAT, ACT) be the same as common app, or do they link the data in other ways?
DS set up a separate account just for the CA, a handful of schools that he was really interested in, scholarships he is actually applying to and Naviance. Our school requires Naviance to be linked to the same e-mail as the CA. I do have access to it. Don’t put the CB on it if you are checking off the box that you want to receive info from colleges. You will get too much junk mail that way. The separate address really helps ensure that important messages will not get lost among tons of e-mails.