Decision letters at St. John’s have started rolling out, so if you have completed your application, you can expect to receive a letter from us in the near future.

This is definitely an exciting time of year for college admissions officers. We’ve completed the fall recruitment season, survived the holidays and at some schools the early decision and early action deadlines, and we’re now hunkered down reading mounds of applications. We’re also preparing for on campus events this spring, while also making sure that you’ve been notified of your decision.

So with that, let me ask you a question that we debated in our office prior to the Christmas break: how would you like to receive notification of your decision? Traditionally, and this still continues, students have always been notified via a letter delivered to their home. But in this instant gratification society we live, are you ok receiving your decision via e-mail, text message, on a microsite, or a Facebook message? Ok, so I’m kidding about Facebook right now, but you never know what the future might hold. It wouldn’t surprise me if in the future a college’s primary source of communication with students was through Facebook or other social networking sites.

I’m a bit of a traditionalist, though. My favorite baseball stadium is Fenway Park, yet I’m a diehard Yankees fan. I believe you should always put your Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, not a deep fryer, and you should call your mom everyday, not text her. But until I got my iPad last week, I always thought reading the newspaper was better when you had the real version in front of you. Reading the New York Times on the iPad was like the reading the real thing, just without the paper spread across the kitchen table. Thus, I’m starting to wonder if notifying students of their acceptances into a college via e-mail will be just as exciting as opening a letter delivered by snail mail.

With that, please comment on your opinion of receiving a decision letter in the traditional form or instantly via e-mail.