Using my gmail account or my school's email account?

[Strangefox]

Hi everybody!

Here is my question. I have a gmail account which I have used for several years and I really love. Now that I was accepted to a grad program, I have an account from them too. And I have a dilemma. When exactly should I use each of those? I understand that it's very subjective but anyway I would like to hear your opinions.

Of course I will use the school's account in situations when it is important for me that a recepient would see at once that I am affiliated to that school. But frankly I don't want to switch to the program's email account completely. I will not be in this program forever and I assume when I am gone the account will be gone too. And all important correspondance will be gone with it, which I of course would like to avoid. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely going to use my program's email when I send letters to profs outside the program, for business cards if I get those and so on. But for less official stuff inside my program and even outside it (let's say, if I become friends with somebody from another school, be it a student or a prof) I would prefer my old gmail account, I guess.

So what do you think? May be I get it all completely wrong?

[Phyl]

I exclusively use my gmail account and have my school email forwarded to it. I hate checking multiple email accounts, and it was a pain in the butt to make sure everything was switched from my undergrad email to my gmail.

I'm in a masters program, so I knew I'd only have my school email address for 2 years at most, so when I attend networking type events I'd rather give out a more permanent address. My gmail is myfirstname.mylastname which I think is better for people to remember rather than firstinitalabbreviatedlastname. My email signature includes the school I'm from so I'm not losing that.

Gmail also works a lot better and I prefer their search feature over the service the school uses so when I need to dig up something someone sent me last semester it's easier to find through gmail.

[gellert]

Most school webmail systems will allow you to change your settings to forward all mail sent to that box to a secondary address (e.g., your Gmail account). Typically what I do -- and what most grad students I know do -- is send the first email from the school account, then all subsequent emails from their Gmail account. Seems to work pretty well from what I can see, as long as your Gmail handle is your name or includes your name.

[lambspam]

Most school email systems can forward mail from that address to another email address. Many schools also allow you to keep the institution's email address for as long as it remains active; check your school's computing/webmail page to find out what their policy is. I use my school address when it's relevant and my gmail for everything else, but I have it all sent to my gmail address. That way it all stays in one place so I can search everything at once.

If you decide to forward school mail to your gmail address, make sure you set up gmail so you can send mail from your school account directly from gmail. To do that:

Click the gear icon in the upper right corner

Click on "Mail Settings"

Select the "Accounts and Imports" tab

Go to "Send Mail As"

Follow all gmail's instructions from that point forward

Then when you go to write or reply to an email, you'll get to select which address to send from using a drop-down menu. It's super-easy.

[Tall Chai Latte]

I also have the same approach as lambspam. You can also set Gmail to send your emails out as your school email address, like lambspam said. I find it to be quite convenient.

[Roccoriel]

The only problem I've found with forwarding to gmail is that you gmail name can sometimes show up on your emails sometimes, so if your gmail is something silly, I'd use them separately, unless you don't care

My gmail is something silly, and I was forwarding school emails directly to gmail all through my masters and no one said anything, but I probably will keep 'em separate for my PhD

[newms]

The only problem I've found with forwarding to gmail is that you gmail name can sometimes show up on your emails sometimes, so if your gmail is something silly, I'd use them separately, unless you don't care

My gmail is something silly, and I was forwarding school emails directly to gmail all through my masters and no one said anything, but I probably will keep 'em separate for my PhD

Hey Roccoriel, do you mean the annoying 'sent on behalf of' that gmail used to insert in the sender field when sending an email from a different account? They did away with that: http://lifehacker.co...-real-this-time I've been using my gmail to send emails from my school address as soon as I got it back in March, and to the recipient, there's no mention of my gmail account in any email I send.

I use the same set up as Tall Chai Latte and lambspam and manage my school's email from my gmail. I have a filter and label set up so that I can easily identify school email, and I have it set up so that when I reply from my gmail to an email sent to my school account it automatically uses the school email to reply, so I don't unintentionally reply with the wrong address.

Edited June 13, 2011 by newms

[fuzzylogician]

I have my mail from my university account forwarded to my gmail. There's a setting that allows you to reply from the same address to which a message was sent to, so if anybody sent an email to my uni account I automatically reply from the same address. I also set my university account as my default account when composing new mail so worst case scenario, my parents or friends get an email from my uni account. I also occasionally email other students from my gmail account, especially it's for non-academic reasons, and my professors know my gmail address and use it sometimes too (it's the same as my uni account, except for the domain). If you share a googledocs document with your professor, they will have to know what your gmail account is; same for dropbox, for me, since my account is set up under my google address.

The one problem I've had is that although I officially send mail from the uni account, I still automatically become "friends" with people I email often--you'll be surprised how many people use a gmail account as their main account. This is not a problem normally, but I do take the time to go over my contacts and block my students every semester. I don't like them seeing when I log on or when I change my status. There is a way to change the how new friends are added to your contacts so that you'll have to manually approve new additions, so again, this is not a big deal.

[Bukharan]

This is probably irrelevant to your question; I just wanted to say that I am super-excited for my new e-mail, and I will only be using my new schools e-mail for the next 5+ years. For absolutely everything. Fail.

With regards to your question, surely, using your gmail account is absolutely fine. Just get everything forwarded there. I know lots of people using their gmail account instead of the school one.

For God's sake, my current school (which has apparently been implicated in a massive scandal with regards to that 'Syrian gay blogger') assigned me an e-mail with numbers rather than my name.

[Eigen]

You should ask your school for some details... Especially if you're teaching.

Many schools require *any* student-teacher communications to go through your official school e-mail address, simply for FERPA reasons.

I have several e-mails... Two different g-mail accounts, an e-mail through my ISP, and my school e-mail. I use my school e-mail for nearly all of my professional correspondence, as the @XXSchool.edu adds credibility when I'm sending "cold" e-mails to people.

I use my g-mail accounts mostly for signing up for things- they provide great spam barriers.

And I use my ISP e-mail only for personal communications.

I just route all of the e-mails into MS Outlook- that way when I send a new message, I can choose which account to send it from, and when I get messages they all automatically partition into the proper Inbox, but are all still easily visible at once.

[robot_hamster]

I don't have gmail, but I have a main email account that I use. I use my school account all the time for school related stuff though. I simply have everything from my school account forwarded to my main account so I'm not constantly checking more than on account. If something needs a reply, then I do log into my school account and reply from there. My school account is also automatically in the system at school, so mass emails about job positions and whatnot come there (which is awesome).

[MoJingly]

I just set up my gmail account to get my school email yesterday! It makes life easier.

This being said, and I know it's been mentioned, some IT centers don't like that method because they don't think gmail is secure enough (they ESPECIALLY) don't like the idea of forwarding your email to your gmail account. So you might want to double check to make sure you aren't stepping on toes.

[wtncffts]

I must be weird because I actually like having and checking multiple e-mail accounts. I guess it's a ritual or something. I have a gmail account for general use: signing up for things, linked to my socjal networking stuff, etc. Then I still currently use my master's program e-mail, which they assign you for life, so I could still conceivably use it through my PhD. I've used my new school's e-mail address a few times for recent correspondence with my new program.

But yeah, you definitely use your school address, whether it be through gmail or not, for any intra and inter school communication: prof to student, among colleagues (I guess unless it's purely personal), with your own students if you TA, and any interaction as a student with other institutions. There are many ways to save and maintain your records if your e-mail account does expire, so I wouldn't worry about that.

[hahahut]

Just go to "Mail Settings" and "ADD POP3 email account". Most email systems support POP3 and SMTP so that you can receive email using applications such as Outlook. Just look up for your university's email Help or FAQ pages. After you have the details, follow Gmail's straightforward configuration wizard. There are settings where you can make sure the address you receive the email would be used when you reply and what name to appear. I manage all my emails coming from various email providers (multiple gmail accounts, my undergraduate email account, my hotmail account) this way. It is very easy and intuitive. Give it a try and see how it goes.

[Roccoriel]

Is there some special setting I need to accomplish this? because I just checked an email I sent this morning and it still says "sent on behalf of ridiculousname@gmail.com". I'm not too worried about it, but it would be nice to know my future advisor isn't having to stifle a snicker when my emails come across

Hey Roccoriel, do you mean the annoying 'sent on behalf of' that gmail used to insert in the sender field when sending an email from a different account? They did away with that: http://lifehacker.co...-real-this-time I've been using my gmail to send emails from my school address as soon as I got it back in March, and to the recipient, there's no mention of my gmail account in any email I send.

I use the same set up as Tall Chai Latte and lambspam and manage my school's email from my gmail. I have a filter and label set up so that I can easily identify school email, and I have it set up so that when I reply from my gmail to an email sent to my school account it automatically uses the school email to reply, so I don't unintentionally reply with the wrong address.

[newms]

Is there some special setting I need to accomplish this? because I just checked an email I sent this morning and it still says "sent on behalf of ridiculousname@gmail.com". I'm not too worried about it, but it would be nice to know my future advisor isn't having to stifle a snicker when my emails come across

Yeah, you have to set it so that you use your school's SMTP server to send emails rather than gmail's (which is the default). This link has a good description of how to set it up. Also see gmail's instructions here. You can search your school's webmail instructions or FAQs to find out what's their SMTP server.

Edited June 14, 2011 by newms

[hejduk]

My school uses Gmail as well, but I also have Gmail for my personal accounts. I've used an exchange account at previous school, and upon calling my new school, I was told I could get an exchange account if I got the right person involved (read: person with clout in my dept).

I'm going to go for the exchange account. Everything in exchange is just so much more seamless, and I can still use Outlook to interact with my classes.

I guess it's just easier for me to keep my personal and school email separate by going with Exchange, rather then getting another gmail account.

[Strangefox]

Everybody, thank you very much for the advice! Actually I was thinking about forwarding emails from my school's account to my gmail account but I was not able to do that at first. However after all your explanations I did it. Yay!

[breakfast]

My university's email system is run by google, and my personal email is gmail, too, but still, I just use them separately. If I am emailing somebody about a university related topic, I use my university email account. If it is something non-academic or personal, I use my personal email address (which is still professional - first initial, middle initial, last name). It's not that difficult to check two email accounts, and by doing this I maintain some sort of barrier between my academic and personal lives.

[Strangefox]

Click the gear icon in the upper right corner

Click on "Mail Settings"

Select the "Accounts and Imports" tab

Go to "Send Mail As"

Follow all gmail's instructions from that point forward

Then when you go to write or reply to an email, you'll get to select which address to send from using a drop-down menu. It's super-easy.

This is a great advice! Thanks

[Strangefox]

There is a way to change the how new friends are added to your contacts so that you'll have to manually approve new additions, so again, this is not a big deal.

Great idea, thanks!

[Strangefox]

For God's sake, my current school (which has apparently been implicated in a massive scandal with regards to that 'Syrian gay blogger') assigned me an e-mail with numbers rather than my name.

BTW may be you can bypass that. My school has also assigned me an email with letters and numbers but on their website I could choose an alias. Like, the email by default is abc123@school.edu but I could also choose name.surname@school.edu. So while the email address is still abc123@school.edu, after I changed the settings everybody to whom I send an email will see my address as name.surname@school.edu. May be you can do that too!

[Strangefox]

Is there some special setting I need to accomplish this? because I just checked an email I sent this morning and it still says "sent on behalf of ridiculousname@gmail.com". I'm not too worried about it, but it would be nice to know my future advisor isn't having to stifle a snicker when my emails come across

I have just sent an email to myself this way and it does not say that it was "sent of behalf" of my gmail account. So you can definetely accomplish that!

[Strangefox]

My school uses Gmail as well, but I also have Gmail for my personal accounts. I've used an exchange account at previous school, and upon calling my new school, I was told I could get an exchange account if I got the right person involved (read: person with clout in my dept).

I'm going to go for the exchange account. Everything in exchange is just so much more seamless, and I can still use Outlook to interact with my classes.

I guess it's just easier for me to keep my personal and school email separate by going with Exchange, rather then getting another gmail account.

What is an exchange account?

[studentaffairsgrad]

My school offers lifetime e-mail. When you graduate, you have the option of keeping that e-mail for life. It is convenient, but I stuck with my gmail and use my old school e-mail as junk e-mail

Edited June 18, 2011 by studentaffairsgrad