January 8, 2008
Ask SFist -- Abandon Your College Email Address?
Let's get right to the question for it is most pressing, shall we? An SFist reader asks:
When should you give up your college email address? I see this from friends who graduated years ago, and it's annoying.
Agreed. While not on par with the war in Iraq or the under-salting of dishes, people who insist on keeping their alma mater's email address, ones usually containing a prestigious suffix, should give them up, say, no later than a year after graduation or dropping out. After that, it's a virtual Lexus emblem.
Any thoughts?
| Advertisement: SFist Continues Below!
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
I never used mine, not even when I was in university. Whenever I get email from someone @harvard.alumni.edu I think about how small their penis must be.
I never used my college email when I was in college!
You need a new professional address for interviews/resumes even before you leave college.
only if it can be forwarded to a new address. It annoys me when I try to get in touch with college friends and their umail is defunct. Who bothers anymore to tell friends you have a new email address?
When I was at SFSU in the 90's, I bought my own domain name for email. 13 years later, I still have the same email address.
I used it back when it was my first real email address (at UCSC), but they didn't let people keep them after graduating back then (and I'm not paying my alumni dues), so I was forced to get a real address. In grad school (SFSU), nobody used the school address because we all knew it wouldn't last.
@TheCharlie
Hello there, fellow Banana Slug!
I think UCSC strips you of your diploma as well if you don't pay alumni dues. At least, I wouldn't be surprised if they did. They're worse than my creditors. Wait, what?
maybe i'm missing something, but why is it "annoying" to see people still using their college email? When you reply to the message does the fact that you notice that @mycollege.edu really make ones hair stand on end? what if your friend is just lazy and hasn't bothered to change it?
i'm going to keep using mine until i can get @itotallyliveinsanfrancisco.com
Agreed incandenza. But, I am the exception. I use my harvard.edu address but have a very large penis. Go figure...
I think the real issue is undersalting of dishes.
I never used any school e-mail addresses. I agree though, if you've graduated and you're not part of faculty or staff, it's time to move on.
@we_are_kevin
oh my.
Yeah, I'm surprised any college lets people keep their .edu addresses permanently... unless that's recent with the gmail revolution.
I used my Stanford alumni address when applying for my first job out of college, specifically as a way of prestigious name-dropping. I mean, you can't blame a kid who just graduated and has nothing else on their record. Now that I actually have a resume with stuff ON it, I use my gmail.
On an awesome/depressing note, I once had to read resumes for my old job and saw MORE THAN ONE with return emails like "sexychk6969@aol.com." Dealbreaker for real.
I was forced to get a Smith email address to join the Smith network on Facebook. I was on the network for two days and then left. Now I have this dumb old Smith address. Anyone want to buy it from me?
All that matters is your lineage and whether you married into a family of greater social standing. You can't buy class and display it on your license plate holder, bumper sticker, hoody, or in this case, email address. It's instant ostracism for those who mention their alma mater within the first fifteen years of knowing me. Let's face it, if you have to go to college to learn something, then you're a bit dim to begin with, aren't you? Some are born to rule, others to serve.
Brock: I believe the phrase you're looking for is "pics or it didn't happen"
I use my berkeley.edu email for any school-related stuff -- it gets mail read faster in some cases, and once it's deactivated, any potentially annoying people I have worked/will work on projects with will no longer have my email after graduation. It all gets forwarded to my gmail anyway, cause holy crap CalMail's web interface sucks balls.
"@" Spencer -
I'm not exactly methuselah but I didn't get my first email address till I got to college and they gave me one - and I wouldn't have had any idea how to get my own even if I'd realized I should have one. I don't think Yahoo was around then or if it was it hadn't made it to cornell - the San Jose of the Ivys.
p.s. follow up questions to babycarrot@smallpenis.com
The University of Michigan has the right idea .... allow folks to use it forever and ever as a forwarding address... best of both worlds, eh?
i stopped using mine when i graduated because gmail was so much better.
I don't understand why anybody would want to keep their UC account. As a current user, I can tell you umail SUCKS.
I'd rather see a college address than a ton of emails from friends saying they've switched from yahoo to gmail or vice versa (I don't know anyone who would switch to gmail though). I like my alumni address for the fact I can change my email address behind the scenes without anyone knowing I have a "new" email address. I hate it when I have a friend with two addresses and I never know which one to send it too. Hotmail? Yahoo? Work? etc. I'm sure they are annoyed I send it to both emails. So I'm all for the forwarding email address and the college ones are the most common I think.
I know there are other forwarding emails out there, but I don't think LunchBoxBiscuit@beer.com has the best ring to it.
rachdiggs - you are so right!!! When screening resumes, I wanted to email back to some of those people - like "glittergirl@aol.com" & suggest they get a "professional" type email address for applying to jobs with! Or just send them the link to "job hunting for dummies" on Amazon!
good God this question makes me feel old and I'm not really that old anyway...when I went to UC Santa Cruz, most people didn't have email addresses unless they were a "Unix B Geek" or in the sciences and used one on one of the terminals around campus.
I remember at one point signing up for one, but since I didn't have a modem on my crap-tacular Mac in my stupid dorm room, I never really used it, and they were really pesky about access once you left campus.
and brock I agree, re; the alumni association, they repeatedly beg me for money and whatnot and I keep resisting...
oh deborah, why you gotta hate on momma sophia's email addresses? she just wants to love you, and get you to walk in the ivy day parade.
yesyes - I've got mad, Quad Riot, Mountain Day-like love for Sophia. @smith.alumnae.net is a little bit long and pretentious...no?
well, yes. i, uh, never use mine either. WHATEVER.
you totes lived in the quad, didn't you?
You know it. Wilder represent!
i just bought the two of you tickets to see ani defranco as well as a reservation for a private hot tub at osento.
Brock - Hopefully, you will join us for drinks at the Lexington afterwards.
dude, brock, i am SO a le tigre lesbian, NOT an ani difranco lesbian. DIVERSITY PLS.