College Will Teach You A Thing Or Two About Email

Email in college is no joke. That’s not to say that it was a joke while you were in high school, but college life also prepares you how to professionally manage an inbox. During high school, you truthfully might not have used email much, as that inbox probably mostly filled up with promotions, giveaways, and the occasional email actually worth opening. In college, that’s not the case.

That inbox of yours can be compared to being a new pet owner, such as a dog owner. What was before a cute animal that you’d occasionally pet and visit now requires full-time energy to maintain, respond to, and necessitates that you stay up late at times to tend to it. Yes, that’s your new college email, and, no, it won’t be cute. While you won’t be flooded with emails like some working professionals, you’ll get you’ll fair share, and more than your fair share of ones worth opening.

All this emailing will be good practice for the real world. While hopefully you already know how to use email, managing your inbox is great practice for life after college. First off, you’ll need to responsibly check your email, which means more than giving it a quick glance once a day like you might do with your personal inbox. From updates from teachers, to messages from group project participants, to, yes, an email from your parents, you can’t use the excuse that you missed an email because you failed to check. That’s so ‘90s.

After all, if you can’t be trusted to be reasonable about checking your email, it’ll be a bad sign if you can’t handle that small responsibility. Fortunately, the task isn’t difficult. Responding, however, can be a bit more of a challenge. You’ve heard that you shouldn’t treat formal emails like text messages, and it’ll be good practice on how to get your message across politely and concisely, which is an underrated skill that college email can teach.

Email can also teach you a thing or two about organization. For the first time in your life, you might be in a situation where you have to find an old email. Have to—as in, your grade depends upon it! Hopefully you’ll quickly find that it’s to your advantage to keep email organized, as a messy inbox will make sifting through old emails a miserable task. Just as a clean dorm room will result in more convenience and less wasted time during college life, the same holds true with your inbox.

And if nothing else, using email will teach you the need to learn to type properly if you’re a two-finger typist. That’s a skill that will be useful for life, and will be something worth learning while in college.

Angels Are Real With In-State Angels

Congratulations, my friend! You have success­­fully navigated the treacherous waters of growing up and graduating high school. Now, here you are at college, far from home, out from under the thumb of your parents, free to become the person you’re going to be.

Not entirely free however, owing to that whole “out-of-state” tuition issue. Everyone was so impressed when you defied the odds and earned admission to this revered public

institution, envious of the great experiences available to you in distant lands. What is less impressive is the tuition bill that arrives each semester, requesting payment usually 3 or 4 times higher than “in-state” students.

If you’re lucky, you have parents willing and able to offset a significant portion of this sum. Not everyone is so blessed, and even so, in this economy, can you afford not to reduce the cost of college as much as possible?

Enter In-StateAngels (ISA), an organization dedicated to earning qualified students in-state tuition as fast as legally possible. Whether you’re just starting out, or are a couple semesters deep into college, ISA can save you tens of thousands of dollars by helping you make the switch to in-state status.

If you thought BioChem or Chaucer were complicated, try navigating the nebulous bureaucracy that is the university finance department. Given that there are literally millions of dollars on the line for schools, the system is not exactly designed to be simple and easy for students to make the switch.

The rules are constantly changing, often without notice, and each university may interpret these rules differently. The consequences of a misrepresented application can include criminal charges, retroactive reclassification of residency (i.e. you owe a ton of money all of a sudden), and academic disciplinary actions, such as expulsion or revocation of your degree.

That’s scary stuff and justifiably acts as a barrier to entry for many students, even those who have legitimate qualifications. These risks disappear when you have an Angel on your team.

Once ISA accepts you as a qualified candidate, they handle all the hassle and you pay nothing until you’re benefitting from in-state tuition. They do all the legwork, all but signing the forms for you. They are professionals experienced in managing all kinds of cases, meaning everything is above board, completely legitimate and legally beyond reproach. Your personal Angel even sticks with you throughout your college career to make sure you maintain that precious in-state status.

Circumstances always vary, but everyone deserves a great education, and no one wants to graduate burdened by massive amounts of debt. There are thousandsof strategies for reducing the cost of college, and a lot you can do to avoid excessive debt.

Qualifying for financial aid, discovering scholarships, getting a job, and frugal living are cornerstone tactics. Now, imagine if you were to employ these strategies but had only to pay half, or one-third the tuition? Would that be helpful?

If so, it might be worth a moment of your time to invoke your local In-State Angels. Between trying to graduate, figuring out what to be, who to be with or, perhaps most importantly, what to eat, you already have plenty of stressors to occupy your mind.

In-State Angels exists to remove “tuition” from your list of worries. Angels are real, and they are ready to help at a moment’s notice. All you have to do is ask.

-  David McConaghay

   InStateAngels.com

David McConaghay is a writer and professional enthusiast based in Boulder, Colorado. He supports In-State Angels based on his passionate belief that everyone deserves affordable access to higher education. You are invited to follow him on Twitter @DaveTelf.