Applicant Advice: Check. Your. Email.

Chicago Tribune: "Email is not the default for most teenagers, but it remains the primary avenue for colleges to communicate with prospective and current students. That can mean aggravation for college-bound teens and their families at the time of year when schools send critical admissions and financial aid information mostly via email ... If students aren’t in the habit of sifting through their clogged accounts, they could be missing looming deadlines, to-do notices to complete their applications and announcements about financial aid, scholarships and awards."

"This dynamic can be confounding for adults because teenagers typically are nimble with technology. But some say email aversion has less to do with mastering the mechanics of it and more to do with learning executive functioning skills they need for college and beyond. Thus, it falls to teachers, counselors, mentors, parents or even email-weary older siblings to send up flares, smoke signals, whatever it takes (other than email) to get the message across: Check. Your. Email."

"One suggestion is students should establish a separate, dedicated email account just to gather the college information ... Another idea is create a shared email account both a student and parent can access. Continue to use that throughout college to collect important notices — like tuition payments ... All else failing, it could come down to old-fashioned pestering by parents — and patience. Some parents text or Snapchat their teens to tell them to check their email. As a last resort, some screenshot emails and text those to their kids."

Which Colleges Are Most Underrated?

Patch: "The University of Mary Washington lacks huge brand recognition but employs a roster of top-notch professors and offers a high-quality academic environment for its students. For these reasons and other metrics, UMW topped a new list of the most underrated colleges in the country. Released by Great Value Colleges (GVC), the list highlights schools that stand out for what they offer in higher education, but whose size and other factors can preclude them from rising to the top of big-name national rankings."

"UMW was ranked the most underrated college, with Ithaca College in New York, Yeshiva University in New York City, Santa Clara University in California, and St. Olaf College in Minnesota rounding out the top five." Others on the list include: Muhlenberg, Bentley, Babson, Providence, George Washington, Virginia Tech, Clark, Trinity, Fairfield, Elon, Rutgers, Emerson, Sarah Lawrence, University of San Francisco and UMass Amherst.

Though UMW doesn't make the top 50 of any of the general best college lists, according to GVC, it has an impressive statistic that many institutions on those lists can't hope to match: an 87-percent four-year graduation rate. Eight UMW faculty members have won Fulbright Awards, and 86 percent of faculty members have a doctorate or an equivalent level of degree. In another metric that makes UMW stand out among lesser-known schools, the university also gives out $41 million in financial assistance every year.

The College Cost v. Quality Conundrum

Forbes: "It turns out the cost of a college does not predict higher alumni ratings about the quality of their education," according to a study published in The Journal of Consumer Affairs. "In fact, the opposite is true: total cost of attendance predicts lower ratings ... The good news is there are a lot of high quality, affordably priced higher education options out there. As a consumer, it may not be very easy to discern which colleges and universities represent this value – but students and parents will surely get wiser in figuring it out."

"Extensive research about the drivers of quality in higher education point to “how you do college” more so than “where you go” – and include critical experiences such as feeling the professors cared about you as a person, having a mentor who encouraged your goals and dreams, being able to apply what you’re learning to an internship or job and working on a long-term project. Students and parents should look for colleges and universities where relationship-rich and work-integrated education is a strong and highly visible part of the culture."

"This research does not suggest that every higher priced college suffers from lower alumni ratings. There are certainly examples of more expensive institutions that deliver a high quality experience with highly satisfied alumni. But they’re more of an exception than the norm ... No one needs to get worked up over trying to stretch their finances and plunge deeper into debt to reach for that pricier college just because we have always believed it is better."