I loved that CMU sent a large envelope with Congrats on cover. That came early in the process, so there was peace when many rejections came in.
“Just to clarify - the 0/8 is # of notifications for which a parent has been present in the room.”
I think that you better stop being in the room! 
We have not been in the room for any of our daughter’s responses. I think that she has gotten them on her smart phone on her way home from high school. Generally I think that it is up to the kid to decide.
This was a while ago, but it still brings a smile to my face. DS#1 told me the results would be available after 5 on a Friday. He came to my computer and opened it with me at his side. When he saw the good news, after the celebrating, I dashed into and then emerged from the next room with a school tshirt, hat and car window decal for him. I’d ordered it in advance. If the news hadn’t have been good I’d have simple quietly returned the items. Fortunately that wasn’t necessary. Still brings a smile to my face.
I think you have to know your kid. Everyone is different. I get the wanting to share it, I get the wanting to do it alone. With our D, sometimes we knew ahead of time (that massive USC box that showed up on our doorstep); sometimes, we had to wait to hear from her as the email came to her when she wasn’t home. One of the last acceptances - and the one that put the biggest smile on her face - was Cal, which she got on her phone walking home from track practice. Just finishing her freshman year there. Can’t believe that was a year ago! I do like when they send something physical, whether it’s a package, letter or whatever. Makes it very tangible…
Younger s had some glitch with one of his applications, so gave me his pwd/login to see if everything had finally made it into his file. Checked for him in the middle of a school week to see that the file was listed as complete. On a fluke, three days later (that weekend) I logged in to be sure all was copacetic. To my surprise, there was a “CONGRATULATIONS” on the screen. It was like 9 on a Saturday morning. I woke up son, whining that there was some thing wrong with my computer as there was some weird message on it, and could he please check it for me before I had to leave for a meeting (I was, truly, about to head out for a meeting). He groused and complained, but begrudgingly complied, and sat down at my computer, beginning to wake into consciousness to see the “congratulations!” message on the screen. He sat there, speechless. It is another memorable moment.
@Itisatruth we try to be … lol
I wasn’t in the room for any of the notifications. I wasn’t invited. I usually heard about it pretty quickly, though.
My son’s big last day of notifications was especially horrid. He was at some future leaders conference in Washington with two female classmates/friends. They had almost all of their classes together starting in 10th grade. Their class ranks were 2 places apart (4,6,8 out of about 550). They had about an 80% overlap in the colleges to which they had applied. The girls had been classmates for 12 years, and were more or less best frenemies. One had once had big crush on my son for months that he didn’t reciprocate until after she had moved on, and the other was someone my son had had a big crush on for months, without ever reciprocating. By spring of their senior year, they all were well past all that, but it certainly thickened the atmosphere. This was pre-smartphones, and they had one laptop to share among the three of them. With all that baggage, the three of them sat together and looked at all their acceptances and rejections that day together. Very primal. I couldn’t believe they did that.
@DadTwoGirls Not sure I follow your comment above. Or maybe you misunderstand what the 0/8 means?
I picked up my kid after sports on the notification day, drove her around the corner, turned on my hotspot and she opened the portal. Luckily she got in, but I think in her case, she wanted to be with me whether the news was good or bad. Some of the kids that did it alone and got bad news had melt downs. It is such a stressful time. I guess it depends on your kid.
So far I have gotten 4 acceptances and zero anything else. All of them so far happened to be when my parents were away (one call after school, two portal checks, one letter in the mail). I kinda prefer the “dying cat” approach still however just to prepare for rejections. Because I don’t want there to be a huge build up all for a big fat no. However, the instant I got in to the 4 schools, my first reaction was to call my mom and then text my friends and teachers who were part of my college application process! So, they aren’t not included - just they don’t need to be present!
" @DadTwoGirls Not sure I follow your comment above. Or maybe you misunderstand what the 0/8 means? "
I thought that you meant that your child didn’t get into any of the universities where they got the response when you were in the room. Later you said that they did get into some that they got when you weren’t in the room. I understand that whether or not you were in the room does not have any effect on whether they get in. I just thought that a superstitious person might wonder.
It was rude of me to joke about this. Being rejected is not something to joke about.
My son wanted me to be the one to open the emails/portals as he hovered over my shoulder. It felt odd because I’m the kind of person who would prefer to get this kind of information alone. But these were his moments so we did it the way that felt right for him.
He got two rejections that bummed him out. On those occasions, he hugged me briefly and retreated to his room to lick his wounds in private.
A bunch of decisions were expected to come on a Friday in late March when the school orchestra was on a three day field trip in southern California. S had said that he was going to wait until he got home on Sunday to open those but early Friday evening he called to say that he wanted me to open the portals and read the decisions to him.
They were at Disneyland with several hours of free time an he was at dinner with friends who had applied to similarly selective schools. They had decided that they would open their decisions together…then they would go over to Space Mountain where they could scream with either joy or frustration.
My kids were accepted both where all the acceptances came on paper (oldest), to most of the acceptances came via portal (youngest). The oldest I usually knew what had happened because the letters were so obviously different. The worst was Caltech which sent acceptance via Priority Mail and rejections via regular. It took six days for the mail to get to us. Horrible. And thanks to CC I knew others had heard. Carnegie Mellon’s letter came in a huge envelope labeled “The fat envelope” and lots of plaid. I liked that one.
For my younger son, he checked the portals in his room and then came down and told us the news. He’d heard EA from a reach college, so even though he got a lot of rejections it wasn’t very stressful. He was happy with the choices he had.
My D got some through the regular mail and I was there for and some through portal or email that she shared afterward.
My S’s first acceptance (EA) was on the school’s portal. He knew from an earlier e-mail what time to check, so his dad and I were conspicuously in the room at just that time. Calmly he said, “I got in.” I thought he really liked this school, so I asked, “But why don’t you look happy?” He answered: “I don’t know if this is enough money to make it work, so I don’t want to get excited for nothing.”
This actually made a lot of sense. We’d had the talk about how he’d need to get merit/FA for some of his choices to be affordable – but he didn’t know the specifics about what each school cost, so he truly had no idea whether the merit award was “good enough” to get to our bottom line. I took a look, saw that it was sufficient, and said, “Yep, you can go here if you want to!” He did smile at that point, finally.
He’s been the same way with his other acceptances: Hands me the letter and asks “Is this OK?” before reacting. Apparently he took my reminders of, “Don’t get too excited about anyplace until we see if it works financially” quite literally.
Both of my sons would call me into the room when they were about to check their portals for decisions (from all the schools they applied to)… I think they either wanted moral support if they didn’t get in or someone to celebrate with if they did. I think they viewed it like a sporting event and wanted a cheerleader?
Surprisingly (to me), My younger son actually made my husband and I both take off from work on the Fri of Penn ED decision day so we could all be there for the decision. If he got in his plan was to immediately drive to Philly (an hour away) to go to the bookstore to buy a logo sweatshirt and celebrate at a fancy restaurant. If he didn’t get in, he wanted us to take him out to a local fancy restaurant to commiserate and drown his sorrows…
Decisions came out at 3pm and literally we were in the car on our way to Philly by 3:15 to celebrate 
I’ve been in the room for all 3 so far for our youngest, mom none, mostly because I kept track of the dates and he didn’t. All our kids made a College4Mag-son type email for college stuff to keep it separated from daily stuff. He won’t typically check it unless I remind him.
I hope he has a good memory of jumping around his bedroom like a crazy man when he got the “Welcome Home” from Notre Dame REA, while he sat there passively watching me. He forgot to tell his mother until two days later.
I enjoy reading everyone’s acceptances online while I wait for my son to get home from track practice on days decisions come out. I live out my excitement through the CC kids. Once he gets home I let him know decisions are out and wait for him to check. Once he tells me I jump on the portals and read everything lol. Takes a lot of restraint but I want this to be his thing. Having the kids share on here helps.
Some of your stories are amazing! My kids wanted me six million miles away when they logged in to check the portals.
My oldest got his two dream/reach school notifications on the same day. Being the bad dad that I am, I knew his logins and checked the results before telling him that the decisions were out. He was accepted to both but I never let on that I knew ahead of time. He did make me and his little sister and her 12 friends leave the room while he checked. He gave me a 5 minute long hug afterwards and cried for the first time since he was about 2. Pretty awesome memory.