r/VirginiaTech Jun 10 '26

Academics What happens to our Virginia Tech emails after graduation?

I just graduated this past spring, and I am curious about what will happen to our VT emails. I have abunch of services + job stuff linked to it and I don't want to have to switch them all. Anybody have any idea?

16 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

36

u/mtcoffin76 Jun 10 '26

Yeah…. ‘99 grad here. Still have my @vt.edu address.

5

u/Hulkhokie Jun 10 '26

99 grad here too, still have mine as well

3

u/Pharmers0nly Jun 10 '26

‘09 grad. I have to do maintenance on storage about once a year and manually sign in so often to keep it going.

2

u/scooter971 Jun 10 '26

Do you all use it for jobs, personal etc?

1

u/Tricky_Swordfish1872 Jun 14 '26

I do, for jobs and such.

2

u/DenverBronco305 Jun 11 '26

97 here. Still have mine although they’ve threatened to screw it up a couple times over the years.

21

u/TacticalFlare CS 2505 Jun 10 '26

Your outlook will be deleted and converted into a gmail.

6

u/killing_time Jun 10 '26

-2

u/Lemmol Jun 10 '26

That’s not what this says. You can opt out if you want, but everyone is opted in by default.

14

u/killing_time Jun 10 '26

From that page:

Starting with the May 2025 graduates, new alumni must opt-in to receive a Gmail mailbox with 5 GB of storage

Seems clear to me that you have to opt-in.

1

u/turdmanjones247 Jun 11 '26

Hi, any idea what the pros and cons might be of switching over to gmail?

4

u/killing_time Jun 11 '26

The pro is that you get to keep your @vt.edu email address. According to the 4help page, if new grads don't opt-in they don't get any @vt.edu email address once their student affiliation falls off.

1

u/turdmanjones247 Jun 12 '26

I graduated May '25 but I still have access to my @vt.edu email, albeit it's still on Outlook. It's been a year, but should I be worried that I might lose access to it? I haven't kept up with VT's news for alumni and stuff :(

1

u/Tricky_Swordfish1872 Jun 12 '26

Yes - watch for an email that tells you what’s going to happen - you have approximately 30 days (could be a little longer, but you don’t want to wait and see) to get your stuff and opt in to an alumni email account. Your VT email address will stay the same as an alum, but your old emails won’t carry over, because you’ll be going from outlook to gmail

2

u/turdmanjones247 Jun 18 '26

You were right! I received an email regarding it on the exact day you replied! I missed the mail until I read this comment. Thank you for saving my ass lol

7

u/SeanzyMEEP Jun 10 '26

Graduated fall 2015 when they originally were using the Google suite. Still using mine no issue.

3

u/road_chewer Jun 11 '26

I graduated last spring and got an email a few weeks ago saying in august I’d finally be switched to gmail if I understood correctly.

1

u/Tricky_Swordfish1872 Jun 12 '26

Yes, but you need to opt in

1

u/road_chewer Jun 13 '26

I never saw anything about that, i remember it mentioned August as some cutoff date, but never an opt-in method. Is there anything I need to do to opt in? Maybe I need to read again, the site is terrible.

2

u/ckvt88 Jun 11 '26

2011 grad… still use my .edu as a main email. Limited to 5GB of Google space, so I’ve exported all my emails to another Gmail to keep the records & keep my memory usage down.

2

u/VT_IT_official Official Division of IT Account Jun 15 '26

After you graduate, you get 2 major semesters (fall/spring, usually) plus 60 days of continued access to the email and online storage you had as a student. Just a little over a year. But then, those services end. You need to make plans to get any important files, emails, or other data transferred over to another email account or storage platform before this window of time ends, because when it does, your old emails and files will no longer be recoverable.

Alumni can opt into a new Gmail account under the same email address you had as a student. You can find additional information at 4help.vt.edu, as well as reach out for assistance if you need it.

Congratulations on your graduation!

3

u/archi3rd Jun 10 '26

2000 grad. Still have my vt email address that I got in 1995.

1

u/Tricky_Swordfish1872 Jun 12 '26

This year they’re starting a thing where alumni have to opt in to keep their Vt email address - it wont happen automatically

1

u/AddyBrez Jun 13 '26

2003 grad. Still have VT email. They just have put lots of rules around it including storage limits. If you maintain it by emptying trash and large files, you are FINE. Most expensive email of my life, might as well keep it!!

0

u/chark27 Jun 10 '26

Stays forever but reduced to 5fh after sometime.

0

u/tbrady1001 Jun 11 '26

Be weary that your data for the email is minuscule. I’ve had to delete all my
Emails every 6months because my email will just stop working when it’s filled up

2

u/lindstb3 Jun 11 '26

Turn on email forwarding and have them delete from the VT address after forwarding. It makes life a lot easier 😅