E-mail

In the world of adults, email is a very important tool for communication and outreach.  I realize that many of you have not reached the point in your life where you utilize e-mail regularly, however, it is a valuable skill to develop.

Obviously, you each have your own school (wscloud) email address.  From there you are able to communicate with other students and with the staff, but you cannot use this email for communicating with people outside of school.

Having your own personal email account (outside of school) becomes incredibly important when you reach college application time. College applications will ask you for your e-mail address. Often times the colleges will use your e-mail as their way to communicate with you including notifying you of your admissions decision. 

If you don't have an email account yet, then you need to create one. There are tons of free choices available - gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc. It is also important to make sure that your account name is appropriate.  (In other words, is the name of your account appropriate as the college admissions officers will be seeing the e-mail address when reviewing your application... and you'd really do better to change your account if your name is sexkitten123.)  

This is also a key point to make sure that you have your OWN account and are not just relying on your parents e-mail addresses for communications to come to you.  Part of the reason for this (beyond just showing college that you're a mature young adult ready for college) is that your college applications will ask for both your email address and your parents email address.)  

Having a valid and appropriate email address for personal use and for school is the first big step.  The second step is ongoing - you have to actually check both accounts regularly!  You can set them up to come to your phone if you want.  But getting in the habit of checking email and following through on communication you receive about steps to take is important for you academically, for college applications, and in life.  So this is one of those life-long skills that you should start to develop now.

And finally, in addition to having an e-mail account, it is also important to remember to use proper etiquette when communicating with college representatives via e-mail. For example, when you need to e-mail admissions officers for any reason, as well as any other college representatives (advisor, professor, etc.) that you communicate with, please remember that the way you write your e-mail is a reflection of you. Please do not use text talk, avoid ALL CAPS, be mature, and write it in an official format “Dear _(insert their name with Mr/ Mrs)_, Text of your message, Sincerely, _(insert your name)__”.  Please, be sure to sign your name, I can't tell you how many times students have emailed me from a personal email and I can't figure out who they are from the message or their email address.  Eliminate confusion by concluding your email with your name.