<p>I was posting on another thread when I realized (for any of us old-timers) that this could be a humorous one if we would describe our personal reactions to our children's acceptances to colleges. I for one took my S's EA admittance letter from Harvard and ran up to his HS one afternoon...he was at wrestling practice...waving the letter over the top of my head..I raced through the halls, kissing and hugging the HS principal, stopping every teacher who ever had him congratulating them on their fine job...and then ultimately streaking into the gymnasium with him lying on the mat in a compromised soon to be pinned position..( he was an "awful" wrestler, poor thing) , jumping up and down in place yelling "YOU GOT IN! YOU GOT IN!" He had no idea what I was talking about as he didn't have the foggiest notion that the letter was to arrive that day. To this day he reminds me of one of my most embarrassing moments!</p>
<p>sgio-</p>
<p>Sounds like the entire school knew before your son! I don't think I would do that...but I would definitely blow up his cell phone if the fat envelope arrived one day while I was at home. I would also have to make myself very busy so as not to call the grandparents while holding the envelope up to the light. Today's environemnt is different because of the internet decision notification. My son is such a prankster that I have already decided to hold off on an immediate reaction to his telling me of the decision after he reads it online - it'll be interesting to see Mr. Nonchalant react to any admissions that are coming - ED or otherwise.</p>
<p>Now that I have truly dated myself...there were NO cells phones, they did NOT notify with email...AND the EA admit letter is THIN.... two paragraphs..first saying, Congratulations you have been admitted to the CLASS of 1998....etc. I should NOT have told the whole school before him....you're absolutely right...but then again, I have one of those effervescent personalities! My husband says I should NEVER play poker. No harm done...my children accept me for who I am..thank G-d!</p>
<p>My daughter got a likely letter from Dartmouth in March. She was going out to walk the dog, I heard her walk out of the door. Then she walked back in. She came upstairs to my bedroom and she was crying, I did not see the dog behind her, so I asked, where is the dog? Through her tears, she said, I got in. I said you got in where, She said, Dartmouth. I hugged her, congratulated her. She said thank you for all of the days that she felt I was getting on her nerves. She was still so nervous, and kept asking me if it was for real. I said yes sweetie, its for real, but where is the dog?She called the dog upstairs, then her grandparents, my sister and her best friends.</p>
<p>By the time they got to school on monday the whole first period AP English class knew. She said the principal yelled her name in the hall (she was a little shocked by this) then ran over to hug her and congratulate her.</p>
<p>SYBBIE: your account made me cry! Very touching...happy for you all!!!!!</p>
<p>My son got into Swat in the RD round but was notified early on March 12th. He called me to say he got in. He had a roomful of friends who were waiting for acceptances, so he was discreet about it - called me from the bathroom! I later called him back (after the shock had worn off) to tell him how proud I was of him. I am not an emotional person, so he was very happy, I guess. Then I went home early and hugged him and jumped more up and down than him or his dad. I was still in a daze next morning, still jumping up and down, enough to make me dizzy! My son was surprised at my reaction...he and I are close and I'm not given to such displays. I still feel the same way about Swat so many months later.</p>
<p>Achat, I guess that's why we can't wait for them to get home this week. </p>
<p>I remember one day walking down the street and it stood there so grateful for how D was so blessed in the admissions process and it hit me that all we have been doing for so many years was just preparation getting us ready for this moment :)</p>
<p>My daughter's acceptance letter arrived on a Saturday. We were expecting it because we knew (from CC) that ED acceptance letters had been mailed from Phila. on Thurs. and had begun arriving on Friday.</p>
<p>My daughter and her best friend had taken the train into Cambridge -- I forget exactly why, I think they were going to a play or something that evening. We had discussed it ahead of time and, after some thought, my daughter finally told me to call her if the letter arrived.</p>
<p>I had decided to only call if it were good news. Fortunately, I was able to hold it up to a light and see the first word, "Congratulations". So, I called on the cell phone. My daughter and her friend were shopping at Newbury Comics, a large CD store in Harvard Square. </p>
<p>I opened the letter, read the first sentence and my daughter immediately started screaming, "I got in! I got in! I got in!" right in the middle of the store. All I heard was two teenage girls screaming for about a minute.</p>
<p>Her friend had already been accepted to her first choice school EA, so they were able to celebrate unbridled. Like Achat's son, my daughter tried to be discreet around the rest of her friends.</p>
<p>My wife was at some kind of work function nearby, so my daughter went to find her, and share the good news in person.</p>
<p>It was the most excited I had ever seen my daughter.</p>
<p>Sybbie, you are right, I can't wait to have him home! And I am grateful that we had a good admissions season (year) and came out sane and even liking each other at the end of it.</p>
<p>My daughter didn't really react very much.
Senior year she had applied RD to 4 schools and was admitted to all, but she decided to take a year off to volunteer with Americorps. The next year she applied RD to the same 4 schools ( they wouldn't hold her slot) plus a reach. In March she recieved a big folder including her acceptance and financial aid offer from her reach school. SHe was pleased, but the generous offer had taken us both by surprise and now put the school in the running whereas before her acceptance I think we both had assumed she was going to go one of the schools where she had applied the year before.
She was excited but I think also stunned and a little worried.</p>
<p>"The next year she applied RD to the same 4 schools ( they wouldn't hold her slot) plus a reach. In March she recieved a big folder including her acceptance and financial aid offer from her reach school." </p>
<p>It just goes to show that in the end they end up where they need to be. Those were not her schools (Reed was just waiting on her)</p>
<p>Ours was anticlimactic to say the least: early writes from Dartmouth, Williams, Duke in Feb, as well as a couple of rd on 4/1, and wl at Stanford, April visits to the first 3 to help decide, much discussion, much wavering by son, finally a deposit sent to Duke, a collective sigh of relief from the whole family that the process was finally finished, then a couple of days later a call from Dean Mamlet at Stanford, saying he was in off the waiting list and had a week to decide. Collective response: "Aw, geez..." but he got on a plane Sunday, took the redeye back Monday for the big baseball game Tuesday (K'd first 2 times up), then announced he was going to Stanford.</p>
<p>Idler: that's a great story! to have Stanford call you like that! Very impressive.</p>
<p>interesteddad ,</p>
<p>where is your daughter at now?</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>where is your daughter at now?</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Well, I was going to ignore this thread, but my wife just handed me an envelope addressed to our son, she asks me, "Should we open it"? I say, "Sure! would you stop being so melodramatic???" so I grab the envelope, and the letter began, "Congratulations....." so I am sitting here crying. You don't understand (well, maybe you do). It's not HYP, it's not a top tier LAC, but it is a very very nice small college that we visited (one of more than a dozen) and my son liked. The question at hand was never "could he get into XYZ" but could he get into ANY college. Next hurdle will be if he can survive in college, be we will take it as it comes. This is very big for us!</p>
<p>OH NJres!!!! SOOOOO great! Congratulations to you and your son. He will do fine with parents as loving, supportive, and "emotional" as you. GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>NJres,</p>
<p>Such a moving post. Congrats to you and your family, just another thing to give thanks for this season.</p>
<p>Most recent one: I was out working in the yard about 10:30 a.m. when the special delivery guy showed up with a fat package from Juilliard. I was shaking, and babbling in English to the poor delivery man who just wanted my signature. S was in the US finishing up high school. We are six hours ahead, so I couldn't call him for a couple hours. I called my husband while I was opening the package then read the letters enclosed. He stood up and yelled, so everybody in his office knew something was happening. First I read out the "congratulations on your admission" letter. Then I found the scholarship. Then I found the award of "Presidential Distinction." I kept reading them over and over, saying, "Oh my gosh. I don't believe it. Can you believe it? Oh my goodness." (My husband, who is less verbose than I, just kept saying, "Oh wow. Really? Oh wow.") I then sent S an email with a subject line that said "read this right away," just in case he got up early and checked his messages before he left for school. But then I couldn't wait, and called him at 6:30 his time. He was groggy, but had just opened the email. He was trying to understand it, because I had neglected to tell him which school! (He was still waiting to hear from one other school.) We could "hear" each other smiling ear to ear. I then scanned the letters and emailed them to him; he printed them out and took them to school. After school, he called his private teacher, then a friend, who had been admitted to Juilliard a few days earlier.</p>
<p>I have relived that day so many times! </p>
<p>My oldest S was in Peru on a missions trip when his letter arrived from Penn. He had already received a big scholarship to UGA, and we expected him to go there for financial reasons, although he didn't want to. But when the Penn letter came, which was his first choice, it carried a Trustees Scholarship that made attendance feasible. We couldn't reach him in Peru. Sent a brief email to someone who forwarded it to someone else, and so on, that said, "Penn wants you. We're willing." He came home very happy.</p>
<p>That is great news, NJres.
Two years ago, about this time, a friend called to ask if we had heard any news about our daughter's ED app. No, I said, it's supposed to be out online tomorrow. Nope, she said, so-and-so's daughter just checked and it's up NOW. I still remember the plaintive, barely audible "awwww........" coming from our study after our daughter raced in, logged on, and found out she had been deferred. Spent our holiday season cranking out the other apps and being somewhat anxious and irritable (all of us).</p>
<p>Discovered CC that winter, hoping to find out more about "likely letters" after reading a Wall Street Journal article on the subject. Didn't get any. Longest winter of our lives.</p>
<p>Toward the end of March, some acceptances started coming in. What a relief. At the very end of March, she got an acceptance from the school I really had hoped she would go to. I went out and took a long weepy walk with our dog, and came home and wrote D a love letter, because it had really sunk in that it was over, and she'd be moving on. Can't wait for Thanksgiving.</p>