Email Information for First Years

Trinity College Account Information for New Students

First Year and new incoming students have the ability to activate their accounts before they arrive on campus. By activating their accounts, students will have access to their Trinity e-mail, the campus portal, Blackboard, and TCOnline.

All students are required to use their Trinity e-mail address for correspondence during their entire tenure at Trinity. However, students may forward their Trinity e-mail to another address if they wish. Much of the communication between faculty, students, staff, departments and programs occurs via Trinity e-mail addresses, in particular, time-critical information. More information on Trinity e-mail can be found at http://www.trincoll.edu/RaetherCtr/ComputingCenter/GeneralServices/E-mail.

The campus portal: http://my.trincoll.edu lists all of the information you need in one convenient location. Here you can find links to:

Blackboard (http://bb.trincoll.edu), an online course management system used by some faculty on campus to post class materials, hold on-line discussions, conduct online document exchange, and many other features. The instructor determines which pieces of the system to use for any given class. More information on Blackboard can be found at http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/cc/documentation/Blackboard/Blackboard6.
TCOnline (http://tconline.trincoll.edu) the official student record system which is used for registering for classes, viewing unofficial transcripts, and other student data maintained by the Registrar's Office. Instructions on how to use TCOnline can be found at http://www.trincoll.edu/Academics/Registrar/students.

Activating your accounts before you arrive

Students can activate their e-mail and other Trinity accounts generally two weeks after the Admissions Office has received notification that the student is attending Trinity. However, early decision candidates may only begin activating their accounts in April. Accounts can be activated via the web. Students will need their Trinity Student ID number in order to activate their accounts. First Year Students' ID numbers can be found in a letter e-mailed to you separately from the Computing Center (it is not included in the First Year Starting Out packets), an example of which is available at http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/cc/documentation/email/sampleIDletter.htm. If you have already arrived to Trinity, your Student ID number is the 7-digit number printed on the front of your Trinity ID card.

Trinity e-mail addresses are typically in the form of Firstname.Lastname@trincoll.edu

NOTE: If the addressee's name contains apostrophes or hyphens, they should be omitted. People are also listed by full legal name, so nicknames should also not be used. For people with the same name a number may be added: john.doe.1@trincoll.edu, john.doe.2@trincoll.edu, john.doe.3@trincoll.edu. For graduates of Trinity College, the year of graduation is added: john.doe.1995@trincoll.edu, jane.doe.1988@trincoll.edu.

To activate your accounts:

Go to http://mail.trincoll.edu and select the link "Activate Your E-mail, Blackboard, and other Accounts (New Students Only)".

When prompted to authenticate yourself, enter in your Student ID number and your last name exactly as they are printed in your letter from the Computing Center.

Please note your Trinity account username and password during the process.

If your Student ID number is not accepted, or you have lost the letter you received from the Computing Center providing your Student ID number, please e-mail consultants@trincoll.edu.

Your e-mail password is also your password for other systems on campus, such as Blackboard and TCOnline.

Please note changes may take up the 24 hours to take effect on all campus systems.
If you'd like to change your settings, you may run this activation script over again to select different options. (Again, it may take up to 24 hours for your changes to take effect.)

Having problems activating email? Try the following:

Try resizing the window to activate your accounts so you can see the Next and Back buttons on the bottom right of the screen (sometimes if your window is too small you cannot see them).
Be sure to capitalize the first letter of your last name when prompted.
Some AOL browsers have had problems accessing the activate web site. Using a clean version of a browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, etc.) generally works. If you cannot install another browser, use another computer (a friend's, public library, etc.).
Make sure you have cookies enabled on your browser. Most Trinity online systems require cookies.

Forwarding your Trinity e-mail to a different e-mail address

If you prefer to use another e-mail account, you can have your Trinity e-mail sent to another address. When you activate your Trinity accounts, you will be prompted to enter the forwarding address where you would like you Trinity e-mail to be sent. If you decide to change your forwarding address, you may run the account activation script again to change the settings. (For security reasons, please note that you will also be asked to change your password again.)

Checking your Trinity mail from off campus

First Year Students will use the Outlook e-mail program on campus to check e-mail. This will allow you to keep an unlimited amount of e-mail and attachments which will be stored on your personal computer or disk. To check e-mail off-campus from home, (and in-between classes once you're at Trinity), you may do so via the web.

To check your Trinity e-mail, go to http://webmail.trincoll.edu. Login with your username and password. Instructions for using webmail are available at http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/cc/documentation/webmailguide/default.htm.

Changing your passwords

If you wish to change your passwords, go to http://password.trincoll.edu. Login with your username and your password when prompted. Follow the instructions in choosing a new password (note the conventions).