IT Info for Graduating Seniors

Plan for your Information Technology needs after Amherst

Once you graduate from Amherst College, your access to technology services will cease on a phased schedule. Some services will end at graduation, so you will want to have a transition plan in place before then. If you are an "E", phasing out of services will be on the same schedule as the May graduates with the same class year as yours.

Transition to a personal, non-Amherst email a few months before graduation

Access to your Amherst email will end several months after graduation, but plan your transition to a personal, non-Amherst email provider well before that. Get a Gmail or other similar type email account by the second semester of your senior year. Stop including your Amherst email address on applications and resumes well before your access ends or include both addresses and make the non-Amherst account the primary one. Don't provide prospective employers or graduate school admission offices a single email address that will not work after December.

If you have used your Amherst email to sign up for online services--Apple ID, Twitter, Instagram, github, online banking, the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), among many others--make sure to change the email address associated with such services. Once you no longer have access to your Amherst email, you will be unable to change your password or perform other account-recovery operations with these services if the Amherst email is the only one they have for you.

You retain permanently your Amherst College username and password. You will use these credentials to access the Alumni website and Alumni Directory.

Also, as an alum, you will continue to have access to some Amherst online resources including some online journals.

When Services Go Away

At Commencement | Six Months After Graduation | One Year After Graduation


At Commencement

Dropbox

Amherst College will return your account to Dropbox, also known as "de-provisioning." Your account will become a personal, private account and will be bound by the terms and space limitations of a non-Amherst Dropbox account.  After Commencement, you will receive a message from Dropbox with instructions on how to access the account since it will no longer be bound to your Amherst College credentials. Make sure you have a personal email set up so that you can update your contact information for Dropbox.

Network Storage

Access to any files stored on Amherst College servers and services ends. This includes personal userfiles (U: Drive), Amherst network shared folders such as fs005 and fs011, the Amherst website, the R/RStudio server and Linux servers, and any project and research files on the Storage server. Before you graduate you should copy the files you want to keep from their network locations to your computer's hard disk, to an external hard disk or flash drive, or to a cloud service (iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc.) that you set up using a personal email account, not your Amherst email account.

on-campus Printing

The only place you can print on campus after your graduation date is the public printer on the first floor of Frost Library (not A Level). Visit the library front desk to buy a printing card. This service is only available when Frost Library is open to the public.

Software

Kurzweil: If you obtained free Kurzweil software through the college's license, you are no longer eligible to use the software after graduation. 

MS Office: If you obtained free Microsoft Office through the college's license with Microsoft, you will no longer be able to use the license when you cease to be a student. You enter a grace period where your software will continue to work for an indeterminate amount of time. At some point you will be unable to use the software unless you pay for a personal Office 365 subscription.

Student Software Discounts: When you cease to be a student, you cease to be eligible for student discounts on software purchases.

VPN

Your Amherst VPN service ends at graduation. If you require a VPN service for any reason after graduation, you should consider purchasing a subscription from services such as NordVPN, Private Internet AccessExpressVPN, 12VPN, or VPN.AC, among others.


Six Months After Graduation (early December)

Google Accounts for Alumni

Amherst College Alumni have previously enjoyed continued access to Google services like their student email address and Google Drive. However, due to Google's new storage restrictions, we are no longer able to offer these services to alumni. Google accounts will expire 6 months after graduation.

What should I do?

Download or copy all of your important files from Google Drive or email.

  • Check your Google storage - Verify the amount of data you have stored in your Alumni Google account. It is recommended that you clean up any files that are not needed before migrating or archiving your data.
  • Migrate your Alumni email and Drive data - Google allows you to migrate your email and Drive data from your Amherst Alumni account to another personal Google account. (This option does not work with other email services.) Be mindful of the storage space in your Alumni account before migrating, as most personal Google accounts only include 15 GB of total storage space. If you need more storage, please refer to Upgrading Google Storage. Any files that have been shared from your Alumni Drive account will lose their permissions and will need to be re-established once transferred.
  • Archive/download your Alumni account with Google Takeout - Takeout should be strictly used for archival purposes for long-term retention or to be used with another service. Be mindful of your storage requirements when exporting/archiving your data for long-term retention.

Is your student email address associated with other accounts?

  • If you used your student email address to open accounts with other websites or services -- Facebook, LinkedIn, shopping sites, etc. -- update your communication preferences for those accounts, with a personal email address.

One Year After Graduation 

ACDATA and Workday

Because ACDATA (acdata.amherst.edu) and now Workday (workday.amherst.edu) store tax information you may need the year following graduation, you retain access to those for exactly one year after graduation. Before you lose access, be sure to do the following:

  • Download any information you need to complete your tax return.
  • Get a copy of your unofficial transcript
Once you can no longer access unofficial transcripts, you must request official transcripts from the Registrar’s Office.