Get/Use Alumni Email Address?
I just got an email from my alma mater, the University of Toronto. They're letting me know they are shutting down my old email address, "@mail.utoronto.ca". They are offering to give me a new email account that ends with "@alumni.utoronto.ca".
I don't foresee myself ever needing this alumni university account. I haven't used my old uni account much in the 6 years since I graduated. Still, the thought occurred to me, could it ever be valuable to have a different account other than my personal gmail one? I suppose if I graduated from a world-renowned school like Harvard or Stanford there would be a more compelling reason to keep an alumni account - after all, that carry status no matter what stage of career you're in. In my case, U of T does have some clout (it's generally considered a Top 20 school and is the largest school in Canada), but not enough that I ever think I'll use it again.
Does anyone have thoughts on using email accounts in general and on my situation in particular?
Thanks!
Discussion
(3 comments)- 5
6 months agoHelpful TarodactylTaro CommunityYou should take up the offer on getting a new email. There's no downside to it (it's unlikely it'll be flooded with emails and cost of maintenance is low). While you're at it you might also want to ask UT admin if emails to your @mail.utoronto.ca will get forwarded to your @alumni.utoronto.ca account. You should also set up mail forwarding from your alumni account to your personal gmail. As an alum of my undergrad, I sometimes go through these emails of my alma mater and might see something interesting - networking events, emails from students etc.
- 1
6 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroI would just take the email. Sometimes websites will have discounts and special perks for students, and they often verify that by asking the user for a school email address (usually a .edu address though, so I'm not sure if yours would work). Regardless, it's low cost with potentially some meaningful benefit.
- 16 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
It's worth grabbing the alumni address, but I'm unclear if there's a huge value. I haven't seen too many people who use an alumni email account, so purely based on that, I'm skeptical if there's a large benefit.
I was going to say that the main benefit is having a .edu email address to gain access to "student" accounts, but it doesn't look like you ever had .edu in your email 😳
(In fact, if the people who use the alumni email addresses are the "pay-to-play" students who are part of the extension schools, it might even be a negative signal.)
If there's a specific job or program where being affiliated with UToronto is valuable, it might help. But otherwise, I'd stick with your normal email and embed your university affiliation if valuable.
