For many people graduating, the process of looking for a full-time job or applying for graduate school is already underway. Resumes, curriculum vitae, cover letters, and contacts you’ve made that offer your email address to potential employers or graduate schools should be reliable. Interruption in communication can adversely impact your progress, so it’s best to keep an eye on ensuring continuity of your contact information.
Following these steps to help you stay connected to the community for your own benefit, and for the benefit of other alums.
Remember, you have 90 days after graduation. On or shortly after those 90 days pass our systems are tidied up and accounts belonging to members of the community who have graduated are turned off. Although there are a couple months between commencement and system cleanup, time moves swiftly.
Stay Connected to Haverford
Review and update your contact information, and network with fellow alumni, using Haverford Connect.
View other ways to stay involved with the College, including various social media accounts and volunteer opportunities.
Create a Personal Email Account
There are a number of free email services available to you, including Gmail. Since Haverford is a Google-centric school, a transition to a private Gmail account is likely to be the easiest. We suggest creating a Gmail account using your name as you would present it professionally. Use a commonly recognized format, like “George.Fox@gmail.com” or “gfox@gmail.com” if it’s available.
Transferring File Ownership within the College
When you share a file with someone via Google Drive, Docs, Sheets etc., remember that you OWN the file. When you leave the college, the file will no longer be accessible by anyone you shared it with. If the files are needed elsewhere in the College, make sure to transfer to someone else before leaving.
💡 Please note here: you can only transfer ownership of haverford.edu Google files to other haverford.edu users, not to a standard personal gmail.com account.
To retain access to these files, instruct any of your collaborators to follow these steps:
- Select the document within Google Drive and choose to download it. This will keep a copy on your computer within your specified download location.
- Select the document (double-click to view it), choose “make a copy” from the file menu. This will duplicate the file, and allow you to store it elsewhere.
- As the owner, select the document (double-click to view it), go to Share > advanced sharing settings, and change the ownership entirely. This will allow the designated person within the college to retain the document and share it as necessary.
Note: Choosing to “Add to my drive” will still reference the file’s original location and owner and will NOT duplicate this file.
Transfer your Haverford Data to Your Personal Email
- How long does it take? Conservatively, Google estimates that the process may take up to a week. While the transfers often take less time, you should expect that it will take hours if not days depending on the amount of data to be moved. You should receive an email notification when the transfer has completed.
- Signed into Haverford Account? Make sure you are signed in with your Haverford account to do the following.
- Google's Transfer Site. Go to https://takeout.google.com/transfer
- The Destination Account. At that site, you will enter your personal Gmail account, the one you will want to transfer to, and then verify the account by entering the code Google will send to that Gmail account to confirm it.
- Things to Consider When Transferring:
- Make sure you have enough storage space at your destination account. Make sure to verify you have enough storage space in your personal Gmail to receive the data from your Haverford account.
- Got any errors in the process? Try from incognito/private window or alternate browser. Also helpful, if you have any trouble, to try visiting the above link in a private/incognito window and doing the transfer process from there.
- Sending a copy. The transfer process will send a copy to your personal email. A copy will still stay on Google servers until the account is shut down 90 days after graduation.
Download a Copy of Your Haverford Data
- How long does it take? Creating the archive can take hours to days but you should receive an email with a download link when it is ready. Conservatively, Google usually says it may take up to a week.
- Signed into Haverford Account? Make sure you are signed in with your Haverford account to do the following.
- Google's Download Site. Go to https://takeout.google.com/
- Select the data you would like to download a copy of.
- Select the file type of your archive. The .zip file type is usually recommended. However, if you plan to upload to a different mail service than Google please check their support documentation to ensure you download the correct file type.
Some Other Google Transfer Tips
- Having trouble using Google's Transfer services? Another alternative method, specifically for Google Drive files, is that you can, logged in with your Haverford email, visit drive.google.com and manually select all folders and files you'd like to download. Google will process the files into zip files that will be downloaded to your computer.
- Questions about Google Transfer services? Google has a great Support Article on transferring data from a school account to another account.
Update Your Subscriptions and External Account Information
Over the years it’s common to join mailing lists, subscribe to regular emails, and link many external accounts (banking, social media, etc.) to your Haverford email. Spend a few minutes noting the subscriptions and contact information on the accounts you value and be sure to update those with your new email address.
Set an Away Message on Your haverford.edu Email Account
Haverford Gmail provides users with the ability to set an automatic response. We recommend that you create an autoresponse letting anyone who writes to you know that your contact information has changed. When signed in to your email, click the settings gear in the top right corner, click all settings, and then scroll down to the “Vacation Responder” section. For more detailed instructions, please see Google’s instructions on setting an automatic response.
Note: Automatic replies will no longer be sent after your account is disabled.