Who are you online?

I was recently at an admissions event when the dean of admission mentioned inappropriate email addresses that the college routinely receives. You know the ones; partygirl@xxx or icarryguns@zzz. The dean made it very clear that they routinely reject such applications based simply on the applicant’s email address.

Yes, I know people like to be different and sometimes shocking with their email addresses. But when you are applying to a college that is not how you want to be thought of. Colleges are looking for interesting students but that doesn’t mean they want to admit someone who they feel might be a security risk talking to a student who will spend all of their time partying. If you want an interesting email address, use some version of your favorite activity as your email name. laxguy123@zzz if you are an avid lacrosse player for instance. This has the added advantage of letting the college know that you really are serious about your activity if you use an email address such as this.

For college application purposes, and later in life when you are looking for a job, having a more routine email address will make life much easier.