The University of Utah is going paperless by welcoming incoming students online and via text.

Prospective students will receive text messages at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, and emails early Wednesday, Jan. 15, informing them of their acceptance to the U. This is the first year that students will not receive traditional printed letters in their mailboxes.

While many a tear-jerking television commercial has been scripted to depict the moment a would-be college student opens an admissions letter from their dream school, Mateo Remsburg, director of recruitment at the University of Utah, said paper letters just don’t make sense any longer as more and more people go digital. In the past, admission packets could take several days to land in anxious applicants’ mailboxes.

“Our local kids would get them in a day, but with out-of-state students, it could take three to five days depending on where they were located,” Remsburg said. “This way, everyone will get their notification within the same period of time.”

The university will send out approximately 8,200 emails starting at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 15. Students will be automatically directed to a website where they can confirm their intent to enroll. Remsburg said three admitted students who do not have cellphones will receive personal phone calls from their counselors.

Working with a vendor, the university’s admissions team developed special Instagram and Snapchat filters students can use to announce their life moments.

“We want that excitement to build,” said Remsburg.

The whole process will repeat again in a few months. Students notified of their admission on Jan. 15 applied on Nov. 1. A second group of students will apply before a Feb. 1 deadline. They will be notified—digitally—on March 1.