I want you to imagine, just for a few minutes, a time before the World Wide Web. It’s not as long ago as it seems. Back before electronic messages—wide-spread email, text messages, messenger apps—the two primary ways that written messages could get to people were in the mail, either by postcard or in an envelope. There were phones, of course, but voice mail isn’t much older than than the web. For most messages, it was postcards or envelopes.

Consider postcards. They’re smaller, and they don’t have to be opened. The message is right there on the card for you to read immediately. Because of the size and simplicity, they are easier and cheaper to send. Because of the size, you are limited in what you can say; they have to be more precise. They’re also more immediate—you can read it instantly. But they lack privacy—anyone who gets their hands on it can read it immediately as well. So postcards are best for short, superficial messages. Postcards are definitely more fun than envelopes, though. One side usually has some kind of picture, and they’re great for sending friends notes while you’re traveling. In fact, tourist shops all over the world still have plenty of postcards.

Now think about envelopes. They’re not nearly as fun as postcards. They’re not as immediate. They’re not as cheap. They’re inferior to postcards in most ways. But here’s the thing about envelopes: they’re private. You can tell if an envelope has been opened, so most people are really good about not opening envelopes they’re not supposed to. Anyone can see what’s on the back of a postcard without really trying, but nobody accidentally opens an envelope and reads your mail. And another thing: envelopes hold a lot more message. While a postcard is limited to a few sentences, an envelope can hold many pages. Privacy and volume are the only advantages of envelopes, but they’re major advantages. Postcards are great for fun things like “I’m having a great time in Chicago but I can’t wait to see you again!” But you really need envelopes for things like “Please read this attached important legal document, sign it, and return it.”

It makes complete sense to prefer postcards over envelopes. They’re more fun, more immediate, more likely to be from friends than strangers. Envelopes require more effort, and they’re more likely to be junk mail. But still, it would be absolutely crazy to only look at postcards and refuse to open envelopes. You’d miss really important mail. You’d miss bills that need to be paid; you’d miss checks sent to you; you’d miss longer, more personal letters. Before online applications, you’d miss your college applications and you’d miss college acceptance letters. Just saying “I don’t open envelopes” and expecting any kind of success would be unthinkable.

And yet, in these more modern times with the internet and smart phones, too many high school students do the same thing. They’ll read texts, Twitter DMs, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp…almost anything but email. I’ve heard way too many high school students casually say “I never check email.” And I want to make clear that never checking email and expecting any kind of success is equally unthinkable.

Texts and messages are like postcards: they’re quick, easy, and fun. Email is like envelopes: it has to be opened, and it’s not as easy to tell what’s junk. But to ignore your email during college application time is seriously unwise. You need email for the same reason you need envelopes: privacy and volume. Schools can fit “check out our new video” or “don’t forget the application deadline is coming up” into a text, but they can’t fit a rundown of the items still missing from you application or financial aid information into texts or DMs. Colleges need to use email, whether you like it or not, and students applying to college need to check their email, whether you like it or not.

Here is some advice for handling email.

Set up a good account. If you don’t already have a good email account for college interactions, set one up. Your email address should be something generic and professional. It should not be the same email address you use for social media accounts.

For any college you’re possibly interested in, sign up for their email list using this email address. Even if you’re already getting emails from them at some other account, and especially if you’re getting and ignoring emails from them at a different account, sign up with your generic, professional email address. This does three things. One, it ensures that all your college-related emails are coming and going from the same place. You don’t want to have to juggle between several inboxes. Second, it’s your way to signal to the colleges that you’re interested in them. And third, it allows you to walk away from this address when you’re finished with the college application process. It’s a disposable email address, and you won’t still be sifting through occasional college emails for the next three years.

Once you have that email set up and you’re getting email from colleges, check your email daily. If you can’t handle daily, at least check it three times a week. Look at all the emails in your inbox (there will be fewer if you do this daily and don’t let them pile up) and quickly place them in three categories.

Trash. Delete email from schools you are actively uninterested in. (The fact that you haven’t heard of them doesn’t count as being actively uninterested—do some looking before you decide they’re off your list.) Don’t unsubscribe or mark them as spam, just delete them.
Follow Up. Act on emails from schools you are currently interested in. Open the emails. If it requires you to do something, do it. If it has links, click on at least one. If you’re at all concerned with Demonstrated Interest, this is how you can demonstrate your interest—by paying attention to their email. They can easily check to see how many of their emails you opened and how many times you actually clicked on a link and looked on their site. Make it easy for them to understand that you’re interested.
You may not act immediately on an item in your follow-up folder (you should make a follow-up folder), but don’t let them go for more than a week without actually following up. If it’s a school that you say you’re interested in, but you’re not interested enough to actually open an email or follow up on something, then you’re probably not really that interested. See “trash” above.
Archive. Archive emails that are neither in the delete or act categories. Once you’ve acted on an email and no longer need it in your follow-up folder, archive it. You can go back to these later if you need to. Deleted emails usually disappear forever after 30 or 60 days. Archived emails will be around as long as you need.

To stay at Inbox Zero in all things for the rest of your life is overwhelming. To set up an email account specifically for college applications, and use the trash-follow up-archive method daily to stay at inbox zero for around a year is completely manageable.

Every year thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of college-bound students don’t get the interview, don’t get the audition call-back, or don’t get called from the wait list simply because they don’t check their email. In the case of schools that factor in demonstrate interest, there are hundreds, probably thousands, of students who don’t get accepted simply because they don’t check their email. Decide now that you won’t be one of those students.

You want the privacy of envelopes. You want the volume of envelopes. So don’t demand that you only get postcards. That’s just not going to work.

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Check out these related Apply with Sanity posts: Taking control of your communications, Please, please, please answer your email!, and What to do with all that mail you’re getting.
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Photo by Angela Elisabeth.