Do’s and Don’ts on How to Write an Email to College Admissions Officers

Here is a summary of how you should (and shouldn’t) write an email to a college admissions counselor:

Do

1. Use a formal tone to demonstrate your respect and ability to speak to adults you do not know.
2. Develop a helpful subject line to grab the reader’s attention.
3. Edit your email carefully…no grammatical mistakes or syntax errors!
4. Be concise: don’t use 10 words to say something you can say in 3.
5. Be patient in receiving a response: admissions counselors get hundreds of emails a day, so don’t expect an answer immediately.

Don’t

1. Use an unprofessional email address.
2. Be rude or disrespectful.
3. Neglect to edit your email.  Really.  No mistakes.
4. Mark your email as urgent (not worth annoying your recipient).
5. Ask a long list of questions.
6. Forget to say “please” and “thank you.”

Reasons to Write an Email to College Admissions Officers

Students may have different reasons to write an email to college admissions.  Some of the most common include:

• A request for particular information about academic offerings, such as the viability of pursuing particular double majors, the availability of certain kinds of courses, or the process for creating a personalized major;
• An inquiry about your status on the waitlist;
• An expression of continuing interest after being deferred in the early admissions rounds;
• A request to connect with student leaders of particular organizations or groups;
• A question about financial aid eligibility;
• An inquiry about special scholarship programs;
• Confirmation of the receipt of all materials by admissions offices–if there is reason to believe there is a problem;
• Specific questions about research opportunities;
• Requests to connect with learning support services for people with physical or learning differences;
• a thank you note to an admissions officer after visiting with them.

Sometimes, you may also be responding to an email that an admissions officer sent to you. Later in this article we’ll address how to write an email to a college admissions counselor if you find yourself in this situation.

The point is that you really do need a good reason to write to an admissions officer. Some students and parents have heard that it is important to demonstrate interest when applying to college.  It’s true: you need to show some love to admissions offices to let them know you are really interested in attending.

However, you also want to avoid being annoying.  You want to demonstrate interest, but you don’t want to cross the invisible line that leaves the admissions office to think you are a nuisance. You want to ask good questions, and you want to be respectful of the time of an admissions officer. You want to get the information you need in a way that conveys interest without becoming a distraction.

Do Some Homework Before you Write an Email to College Admissions Officers

So before you actually write that email, you need to make sure you’ve done all you can to ensure that you can write an effective email that will get you the response you need. Here are some things to think about and research before you write:

Look at the college website

Colleges and universities maintain comprehensive websites that contain information for staff, faculty, and students, in addition to providing information for prospective applicants. Use the search function to try to find an answer to your question.  If you do find the answer, perhaps you can rephrase your original question in light of this information.  Can your question get even more specific? If it can, you will demonstrate that you have done your research and may just impress your admissions officer.

Find the appropriate person

The admissions website will usually (but not always) list the people in the admissions office. In most cases, the admissions counselors are assigned different geographical areas (or “markets,” in business terminology) for which they are responsible for expanding the applicant pool and addressing prospective applicants’ questions. So take a few minutes to figure out which admissions counselor is assigned to your state, your city, or even just your school. That is the person who will likely first read your application, and who is most interested in seeing your application.

5 Steps on How to Write an Email to College Admissions Officers

Once you find the right person to address is your email, now you have to think about how to write it.  Consider these five essential elements.

1.  Consider the Subject Line

When an email appears in a person’s inbox, the subject line is an important indicator of the contents.  So use the subject line to ensure that your email gets opened.  You might want to use the words “prospective applicant” or “applicant for the class of 2030.” You could make it more specific:  “Question about financial aid from prospective applicant 2030.”  No matter how you formulate it, don’t neglect the subject line in capturing the attention of the admissions officer.

2. Address the Admissions Officer Respectfully

Address the admissions counselor respectfully.  Don’t say, “Hey, Sally!” Use formal address.  Usually that means using the word “dear”, as in “Dear Mr. Jones.” Some young people have difficulty with that level of formality, so it might be acceptable to open the email with “Hello, Mr. Jones.”  You probably learned proper etiquette for writing a formal letter back in elementary or middle school. Use that knowledge when addressing the admissions officer in a fairly formal tone.

3. Introduce Yourself When You Write an Email to College Admissions

Be sure to tell the admissions officer a bit about yourself, not so much to give them your life history but to be able to place you and remember you. You could start by saying something along the lines of, “My name is John Doe and I am applying to Colorado College for fall 2026.” You might give a few other essential facts, including the name of your high school and town, the major that most interests you (if that is relevant to your question), and–if you have it–your ID either for the Common App (known as a “CAID”) or your ID number for the particular school to which you are applying (this number is given to you after you apply…usually through a “portal” for the university that you will log into).

4. Be Concise as You Write an Email to College Admissions

Don’t get into long preliminary explanations: get to the point immediately.  State your business. If you’re asking a question, ask it.  If you need information, ask for it specifically.  As you write the question, think about how the admissions officer might respond.  If you find that the question you ask would require a lengthy, complex response, consider writing the question that would require a simpler, more succinct answer. You want the admissions officer to be efficient.  You want that person to offer up the answer you need without having to spend an hour crafting a complicated response.

5. Say Thank You and End with an Appropriate Closing

As your mother always reminds you: “say please and thank you!”. Be sure to thank your counselor for their time and consideration. Then sign off in the same formal way in which you began. Closings like “Best regards” or “Yours truly” or “Sincerely” all may sounds terribly old fashioned. But they’re a whole lot better than “Peace out” or “Later, dude.”  Better to err on the side of formality than breezy informality.

Follow with your first name, last name, and phone number. It’s unlikely you’ll receive a call instead of an email, but it’s a good idea to include it anyway.

Sample Emails to College Admissions Officers

If you’re still unsure about how to write an email to college admissions counselors, we offer these templates to help you. They demonstrate both the tone and the brevity of these communications. Feel free to adapt these to your needs.

Sample Email to College Admissions #1

Hello, Ms. Taylor, 

My name is Divya Sharma, and I’m applying to Gotham College for the fall of 2026. I submitted my application and my SAT scores on December 15, but I notice in the Gotham portal that my SAT scores have not yet been received. 

Could you please confirm whether or not the college has received my score report? Thank you in advance for all your help. 

Regards, 

Divya Sharma
CAID 987654 

phone: 555-123-4567

Sample Email to College Admissions #2

Good morning, Mr. Rodriguez, 

My name is Martin Fillmore, and I’m in the process of applying to the University of Los Angeles. I am considering a major in Chemistry, but I also have a strong interests in both Economics and History. 

I am simply undecided about my major at this point. Can you tell me more about how academic advising works at ULA for undecided students like me? Thank you very much for your time and assistance. 

Best, 

Martin Fillmore
Mt. Pleasant HS, Fort Bluff, Colorado
telephone: 999-875-4321

Sample Email to College Admissions #3‍

Dear Dupont University Admissions Office, 

Hello, my name is Ben Harrison, and I was recently waitlisted for admission. I’m writing to ask if you can please tell me where I am on the waitlist. 

My first choice university is Dupont University, and I would love to know my chances of being accepted. 

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, 

Benjamin Harrison
Dupont U ID Number 45hp987
Telephone: 123-555-1234

Need More Advice About the College Admissions Process?

The team at Great College Advice has deep experience in guiding students along the road from high school college. We provide individually tailored, one-on-one advising to help young people achieve their educational ambitions. If you’d like more information about our services, contact us for a free consultation. Or just pick up the phone and call us at 720.279.7577.  We’d be happy to chat with you.

Since 2007, the expert team of college admissions consultants at Great College Advice has provided comprehensive guidance to thousands of students from across the United States and over 45 countries across the world. Great College Advice has offices in Colorado, New Jersey, Chicago, North Carolina and Massachusetts.

In addition to our one-on-one counseling, Great College Advice extends its support through one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families: College Admissions Experts. With nearly 100,000 members—students, parents, and experienced counselors—this vibrant forum offers peer support and expert advice like no other.

The post How to Write an Email to College Admissions Officers first appeared on Great College Advice.

Check this video out to learn how faculty members use the help of TAs to manage large classes:

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************

You may read the transcription below:

I’m here now on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. It’s about 12 miles or so north of Chicago. Great location. If you get out towards the leg it’s, the campus is right on Lake Michigan. You can see downtown from the campus. So it’s another kind of, one of these campuses is like Tuffs, like the University of Chicago where you feel like you’re very much part of the city. But you’re still enough outside of it that you can have this beautiful tree lined campus, green, especially now in the summer.

Probably not so great in the middle of winter. But there are a few things to know about Northwestern. Of course, I can’t sort of in this short video tell you everything. But remember that first of all Northwestern is on a quarter system. So that means that you take only three classes at a time in ten weeks – three or four, maybe four classes – four classes a quarter in ten week quarters. So it’s a little more intensive than at some other places where you might take five or six classes over a 15 week quarter.

A couple of other things. There are about 8,000 students here, so it’s a little larger than some other private universities, the caliber here. But it’s not so large that it’s a great big huge state university. Sort of a nice size in between. This is a size that a lot of students are looking for that is difficult to find. The Admissions Office is telling us also that 97% of the classes have fewer than 100 students. That’s an important figure to know.

That’s probably more important than the student to faculty ratio, which is a 7 to 1. Ignore that statistic. It tells you absolutely nothing about the classroom experience. The percentage of classes that are certain enrollment or less, that’s better. So 97% of the classes here are 100 students or less.

However, if the class is over 40 students then there is a TA for the class that runs the discussion section as opposed to the professor. So we were, our tour guide was from a double major, Bachelor’s in Music and Performance at the Venice School of Music, and none of those classes are large, and so there were no TA’s in that school. But then she also is doing a BA degree in History, and about 50% of the student classes that she had taken in History were over 40 students and therefore had TA’s. Now of course it depends on the classes you pick.

You might be able to take History to find a lot more classes that have a lower enrollment if that’s one of your priorities. To find those classes that have maybe 15 to 20 or maybe even fewer students if that’s a priority. But also remember that the more popular the class. The larger the enrollment and the more likely you are to have a TA.

The post Northwestern University Class Size first appeared on Great College Advice.

The post Campus Safety and The Blue Light Special first appeared on Great College Advice.