The moment a student gets accepted to his or her dream school, financial aid forms, housing forms, orientation forms and registering for classes may overwhelm him or her, and the lack of information students receive in these topics can result in them not attending college at all. This is called the “summer melt.”

Assistant professor at the University of Virginia Benjamin Castleman told VOX, “Students encounter financial and procedural obstacles that they didn’t anticipate, and they lack access to professional help or support to deal with them.” These students are usually part of low-income families who aren’t fully informed on college financial procedures.

So, Castleman suggested a new way to provide students with an easier transition into college: text messages.

Yes, texting essential information to students can address the “summer melt” problem. For example, sending personalized texts to remind students of dates and deadlines complete with web links can “take a really complicated information and consolidate that into timely bursts. Now a student doesn’t need at the start of summer to read through whatever package a college has sent.”

For a generation that’s obsessed with technology and notifications, this new form of counseling may just do the trick. “[Texting] doesn’t require the student to pick up the phone or go to the school,” said Castleman. "Writing back to a text message saying ‘Yeah, I do need help with financial aid’ is quite a bit easier.”