Information for Students

• Students now have a 5 gigabyte (GB) storage limit in Google Workspace (Google Drive).
  • If your Google account has over 5 GB storage, it will become read-only until you reduce storage below this limit. 
• Students still have access to Google Workspace tools including: Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites, as well as Google Groups.

• Student email and calendar services are provided through Exchange Online (Outlook). 
• To access your email, log into Exchange Online at my.office365.vt.edu using your VT email address and password. For help accessing your Virginia Tech Exchange Online account, please see this article.
• Gmail and Calendar apps are no longer available through your VT Google account.
• Your VT Google Drive is still available at drive.google.com.

At Virginia Tech, recent graduates are still recognized as students in university systems for a period, while a number of steps occur in the background to move your status from ‘student’ to ‘recent student’ and then to ‘alumni.’

Because of this, 2023 graduates are in a unique position of being moved to Exchange Online for a period. This also means that 2023 graduates retain their student Google storage for a longer period than anticipated. The following article further explains this transition:

• Understanding VT Google Workspace and VT Microsoft 365 Service Eligibility

When your affiliation with the university changes to “alumni,” your Virginia Tech email service will move back to Gmail, and you will lose access to calendar service, in accordance with alumni service changes. Note that when this occurs, your old emails will not be migrated into your new Gmail account, so you may want to save copies of emails that are important to you.

We recommend that you start planning for alumni service changes as soon as you graduate. Move any files you want to retain out of your VT Google Drive to a different service, and find a different calendar service if you currently rely on your VT-provided calendar.

• Students may no longer create new Shared Drives in Google Workspace.
• Beginning June 3, 2024, student-managed Shared Drives that are not sponsored by a department will be deleted. Note that this deadline has been extended by one week from the originally stated date. 
• Please read our Shared Drive guidance for more information.

• The Google Photos app was turned off on Jan. 16, 2024. This means you can longer access this app through your Virginia Tech Google account.

All students will receive Microsoft 365 services, which include: 

• 10 GB* of storage for use within the environment (including OneDrive and Exchange Online). 
• Microsoft Office tools including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Forms, etc.
• Storage resources include OneDrive (comparable to Google My Drive), SharePoint Online (comparable to Google Shared Drives), and Teams. 
• As of Aug. 16, 2024, students can no longer create new SharePoint or Teams sites or Groups.

*The 10 GB Microsoft storage limit for students will begin in 2025.

Email and Google service changes for students are complete as of July 1, 2024.  Microsoft storage limits will be applied in 2025 (see timeline for details). Moving forward, students should:

• Keeps tabs on Google Workspace storage to ensure you stay below the 5 GB limit. If you reach this limit, you will be prevented from creating new files.
• Assess your Microsoft 365 Online storage usage. Both Exchange Online (Outlook) and OneDrive utlize storage. Starting in 2025, the combined total in these apps may not exceed 10 GB.