Some students admitted to Northwestern University this spring first learned of their acceptances to the school from an unconventional source -- their computers.
According to Rebecca Dixon, associate provost for enrollment at Northwestern, approximately 90 percent of the 4,000 admitted regular decision applicants received e-mails congratulating them on being accepted to the university.
The remaining 10 percent accounts for students who did not provide the school with e-mail addresses.
The e-mails, stressed Dixon, were not intended to serve as primary notification for students of their acceptance to the university. Rather, they were designed to supplement information provided in more traditional acceptance packets sent out earlier through the U. S. Postal Service.
Northwestern University mailed its acceptance letters throughout the last week of March. The congratulatory e-mails were sent toward the end of that week, on March 29 and on March 30.
Some admitted applicants received the e-mails prior to the paper acceptance letters because, "we didn't get the letters out fast enough," Dixon said.
Northwestern first began sending out e-mails, which contain hyperlinks to university websites geared toward accepted students, last year.
With Internet usage constantly increasing in popularity, Dixon estimates that the number of applicants providing e-mail addresses to the university this year is slightly higher than in 1999.
"We are corresponding with students a lot by e-mail. It's become quite normal and frequent and ... [sending congratulatory e-mails] seemed like a natural progression of activity," Dixon said.
Northwestern students, while not completely opposed to the university's new practice, still see merit in the traditional paper acceptance letter.
I think [the e-mails] ... are fine as long as they're sending out paper acceptances to make sure people get them," Theresa Larson, a junior at the university, said.
Freshman Davis Davidson agreed, adding that e-mail acceptance letters are somewhat lacking in nostalgic value.
"It's great to open up the envelope," he said. "Getting the e-mail, you don't get a sense of that excitement. I don't think it should ever fully replace the hard copy."
According to Maria Laskaris, director of admissions at Dartmouth, although the College has also engaged in the practice of sending e-mails to accepted students for the past two or three years, "We haven't communicated decisions to students prior to sending out the hard copy acceptance letters."
Laskaris said he doubts that Dartmouth will ever switch to using e-mail as the primary means of informing students of their acceptance to the College due to students' preferences.
"I think there's value in that personal communication with the student that a hard copy letter [provides] ... particularly when that letter has been signed by the dean of admissions and financial aid," she said.
Laskaris also pointed out that along with a paper acceptance letter, students also receive a formal certificate admitting them to the College, financial aid documents and other information that would be difficult to send via e-mail.
