Let's talk about email addresses...

So here in Admissions we have started the annual task of contacting all of those students who have inquired to NU for the fall 2008 semester. It's a tedious task, but it must be done! We all have hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of calls to make, and I must say that during this time we'll take any little laugh we can get. This is where email addresses come in. I cannot believe what some students have submitted, to a UNIVERSITY, as their email address. Yes, we all laugh over it and share our daily "bad" addresses, but really it's something that we should discuss. In this day and age where you can have as many email accounts as you'd like, please, please dedicate one account to college admissions. This address should be firstnamemiddleinitiallastname@wherever.com. Not only will you have one central place where all of your college information lands, but it allows all of us on the other end to easily identify you. It also saves me the personal embarrassment of having to verify your email address and having to say back to you, "yes is your email address still triplexplayaboy69@yahoo.com?" Really, it's uncomfortable. And you all are young adults. You should have enough knowledge to know whether or not your current email address is suitable to give to a college or university. If you hesitate, if you have to think about it, then you need a new address. However, if your current address is something like crazycat12@yahoo.com, there's no urgent need to change it. Why? Because that's not inappropriate. There are no sexual undertones, no blatant insults, nothing which crosses the line. So please, take a look at your current address and if need be, change it. Whether we should or not, Counselors take notice of these things, and it stays in our heads. 

Comments

[anonymous]

Good points.
Anyone who wants to set up an email address can get a free one at gmail.com or yahoo.com. When you sign up to receive any information from a college, such as admissions decisions or financial aid forms, use this address--and don't give it out to anyone else.
You don't have to use your name as your address, but it should be something simple and appropriate.