A student email signature tells a professor, recruiter or alumni contact who you are before they reply. University career centers agree on the core of it: your name, your school, your major and when you graduate.
What career centers advise
- Tufts Career Center: "Include essential information such as your name, major, school (Tufts) and expected graduation year." It also says to "Limit your signature to 3 or 4 lines" and to "Avoid fancy fonts, colors, graphics, and inspirational quotes."
- Penn Career Services: "Consider adding your personal pronouns if you prefer," and "you may want to include your LinkedIn URL." Penn also notes that some email is read as plain text, so icons and images may not display.
- Wofford Career Center: "Include your full name, university, expected graduation year, major/minor, phone number, and email address."
Student email signature examples
Undergraduate, short:
Jordan Patel | Economics Major, Lakeview State University, Class of 2028
jordan.patel@lakeviewstate.edu | linkedin.com/in/jordanpatel
Undergraduate, with pronouns:
Sam Rivera (they/them)
B.S. Computer Science, Expected May 2027
Lakeview State University | (608) 555-0190
Graduate student:
Mei Tanaka
M.A. Candidate, Public Policy, Lakeview State University
Research Assistant, Urban Housing Lab | linkedin.com/in/meitanaka
Job or internship search:
Chris Okafor
Mechanical Engineering, Class of 2027, Lakeview State University
(608) 555-0133 | chris.okafor@lakeviewstate.edu | Portfolio: chrisokafor.dev
Each one fits in three or four lines, the length Tufts suggests, and none uses an image, so it reads the same as plain text.
Check your university's own rules
Universities set their own rules on branding, including whether students may use the school logo. Your school's brand office or career center page has the rules that apply to you.
Make it once and paste it
A free signature generator turns your name, school and links into a signature you can paste into Gmail or Outlook. When your school's employees share one signature layout, the university email signature page shows how that looks for faculty and staff.
Sources
Checked October 2, 2026: