Advice for college students by a straight-A college staff 01

Hello- I am Hanna, an editor of SEVIS SAVVY and as you know already I work at a university.

Just to give you more background about me-I studied Communications for my Bachelor’s and Higher Education (which is a fancy word for college and university) Administration for my Master’s. My academic background combined with my work experiences made me start off the new series about how to have a successful college life.

It seems to me that very few students have a comprehensive understanding of how important communication is. In this new series, I will share important communication tips and attitudes that all college students must have.

Specifically, In this blog post, I will share common mistakes college students shall avoid to better communicate with people who work in the college like me or professors which could, in turn, benefit students even beyond their college years.

Here’s the bottom line: Develop a habit of checking your email inbox regularly and reading them thoroughly.

Why it is important to be diligent checking your school email inbox

And here’s why:

You may have read this article featured in New York Times, NPR just to name a few and it is basically about a professor who hid $50 on campus and noted the written instruction about how to claim it in his syllabus. He was testing out to see if his students read his syllabus and unfortunately when he checked back the locker at the end of the semester, $50 was sleeping there- no one claimed it.

Whether you realize it or not, communicating well with college advisors, administrators or professors is a starting point for your successful college life.

Why? Because they do have information that you need.

Information that you need to find internships, on-campus jobs, academic policies and to get good grades! And even though social media is popular among the MZ generation, email communication is still at the center of official communication. Your university may have social media like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, etc but the most important news and messages that you must know will be sent out to you via email.

However, it’s surprising to me to see how many students are not reading these important emails. It seems to me that they don’t pay attention to the emails because they think it’s just a group message. But think about it, even if it is a small college, there are hundreds of students, and so college staff cannot simply send individual, customized messages to you all the time.

As a matter of fact, even if you receive group emails or automated emails, they contain important information that includes academic policies, what to do next, internship, or assistantship opportunities, office hours, and how to reach out to your advisors. What is more, if you didn’t do well last semester you might receive probation warnings through emails as well.

6 BAD scenarios that college students can encounter when they do not check emails regularly or read them thorughly.

Here are examples of what would happen to you if you don’t check emails and if you don’t read them thoroughly.

1. You would drive to the college during the move-in week before the new semester but couldn’t check in on campus because you were academically disqualified. You didn’t check the email so you were ignorant that actually you cannot study anymore.
2. You didn’t complete all the pre-registration steps according to the instructions written in emails so you couldn’t register for classes even in the first week of the semester.
3. You walk into the office seeking assistance but it was outside the walk-in hours so you had to go back during the walk-in hours or leave a note.
4. You are not sure how to apply for credit-bearing internship opportunities or OPT for international students when the information is already delivered to you via email multiple times.
5. There is a timeline that you need to do something and you found it out when you have only a day left or so.
6. It turns out that you wasted your time, emotion and energy to figure out something that was already sent to you via email.

I can go on and on and on and on and on and on. I’m telling you- this happens a lot and that’s why I am so convinced to start this series off by emphasizing how important it is to check your email regularly and read them thoroughly although it may sound like typical advice for college students.

Students who don’t check their emails also tend to rush

So remember this rap and make your first step today for your successful college life and beyond.

“Check check check your email every weekday, click, open, read until you understand them. oh oh oh~”

OK I shared my rap so now it’s your turn to share this post with your friends so that all college students can watch this blog post.

They may say “dude Im good at checking ma emails” but you know them they would feel appreciated deep inside of their heart and you are helping them to not make mistakes of missing any important communication.

Also, if you already have this habit, please share how you manage your time to check emails or remind yourself to do so. I believe there will be many students who would be benefitted from your tips.

Colleges do see how often you are connected with the college as predictive measures

If you still think it is too much to connect checking emails to having a successful college life, look at this article! There are colleges that measure the risk of dropping out by checking how often students are connected to school’s wifi or how often they log into the school’s computer system.

Honestly, I believe checking emails and spending a good time digesting all the information can be one of the predictive measures for students’ completion or graduation rate.

Remember, you or your parents poured thousands of dollars for you to make your college life possible. So why don’t you use the reminder app, notification, or write it down somewhere to develop or continue this important life habit?

Now, college students may have questions like “ok I understand that but how do I confirm that they have received my email?” Well, add the webpage to your favorites list, sign up for the newsletter, and stay tuned.

Lastly, if you are an international student, check these pages where I share OPT, STEM OPT, F-1 and J-1 visa information in Korean, plain English and Chinese.

Thank you!