My kids (twins) found out and told me. I look at this as their adventure, so no need to share the exact moment.
My D’s acceptance to her #1 choice was delivered on Xmas eve. I found it in the mailbox, wrapped it, and put it under the tree. She unwrapped it Xmas morning. It was a small box including confetti, a little pennant, etc. Biggest Xmas smiles ever!
Every other announcement she has found herself, via email or a portal.
My daughter is at boarding school so for her first acceptance I got a very happy giggly phone call. It was an early write so it was unexpected. The rest I have gotten an instant message from her. Except for one that had a three step process that completely frustrated her so she had me open the portal from home. It was an acceptance so that was fun doing it long distance together.
Interestingly she has had 5 acceptances and only one school has mailed anything out so far.
We’re in the eastern time zone so I think it’s easier for us, so D checked the mail after school. When we thought something might come I would refrain from peeking at the mail until she came home from school. She wanted to open it with me. The email one we waited for was the same, she didn’t check email at school, waited till we got home to check, even wanted to hold hands & call my boyfriend at work on speaker phone so he could be a part of it, she also called him every day waiting for the mail. She got bad news from the ED1 email but good news from the ED2 mail.
There is no right or wrong way, just however your D or S feels the most comfortable. If it were me, I’d want to be alone! Yes, very different from the days when we waited for the thick or thin envelope!
In case anyone thinks over involved parenting is a new thing…my father showed up at my HS with a dozen roses and had my acceptance to GW announced over the intercom. This was in 1989. Yes. Really.
@CValle Your dad rocks! Love it.
I went to boarding school in the late mid-1980s and we used to post our thin-envelope rejections on a “wall of shame” in the school post-office for all to see - it was all in done in the best spirit of camaraderie and not taking ourselves too seriously. These days it seems like (at least in my D17’s class) that the seniors don’t even tell each other where they are applying and don’t share any news until they make a final decision.
My son did not know the day when his first-choice college (our state university) would sent out its online acceptances. He received the e-mail and came downstairs looking stunned – not by the acceptance, which he was expecting, but by the fact that all the hoopla of the college admissions process had ended just like that – with the click of a mouse.
When my daughter got her ED acceptance, I was in the hospital after having surgery for a broken leg. I think I was her first phone call, but I’m not sure, and I will never ask.
This past December when my daughter’s ED decision was released, she was at a sports practice. So she told the team that she had to check her decision and went a little out of sight to go check. Meanwhile, at her direction, I was at home with my son, checking the decision at the same time. So we found out basically at the same time but not in the same room. Then celebration via texting ensued. And she returned to her practice.
My older son wanted to be alone while he checked his ED results. We waited in the hall and helped him celebrate when he opened the door to tell us he got in. I’ve been in the room with my younger son as he checked all his acceptances on his laptop. My husband has always been at work (so far). For the reach EA school in December, my son and I passed the last half hour before the decision was posted watching Suits in the living room (we both love the show). Great memory as he did get in!!!
Love reading the stories from other families!
Well I’d like to add my son’s technique from a few years ago. It contrasts sharply with the mostly genteel accounts given here. My son was a football player for 4 years and a good student, a fairly tough and a little rough around the edges kid. The winter/spring he received notices of admissions decisions was very cold and snowy and we had a wood stove running in the family room almost every day. He received a rejection the first week of February from a school to which he had applied EA but was unable to get its act together to send out the EA responses timely. A bullet dodged in my opinion. Anyway, when it and another written rejection came, with me present, he would spit on the letters then toss them in the stove. Honestly, he didn’t give them another thought after that. But it was somewhat cathartic, even for me as a bystander, to see this happen. That EA school had been a “match” recommended by his GC as a likely admit. Turns out twice as many kids from my sons class applied there as had the year before, so hedge your bets.
Here was my younger daughter’s experience. Applied to UPITT and Michigan and a bunch of other places. . Pitt application was sent in August. During September she received mailing after mailing “apply now!” Obviously right hand didn’t know what left hand was doing. She told me to just toss them as they came in. Late September rolled around. Standing at mailbox she got two Pitt mailings. I stand at recycling bin sorting out the clear windows that go in trash. Open then toss. First " apply now!" Second " Congrats you’re in!" What??? Omg.
Michigan: counselor had assured us she’d be waitlisted. No thoughts about early admit. At grocery store in December. Daughter calls. She never calls. " what’s wrong" “I got in!!!” Me " huh? Where?" “MICHIGAN!!!” OMG!!
We had some great snail mail moments with both college and honors program acceptances.
We also had one Huge college mail disappointment. Big Box arrived one Saturday morning while D was at work. We did not text her, but both H and I were about to jump out of our skin waiting for her to get home.
This was not general college acceptance, but program specific with large scholarship that stacked on top of other Aid at her school. So, it was huge to realize she got in.
Only the Big Box was not an acceptance notice. It was a “thank you for being patient as we finish all our interviews” Box of goodies. What a huge letdown.
It would be several weeks before D finally got the thin envelope welcomIng her into that program.
Our son didn’t care whether we opened the mail or not. In some cases, the schools take care of it. One of the items had an overstuffed envelope with “THIS IS YOUR BIG ENVELOPE” on the outside cover! We didn’t have to open it to know it was an acceptance.
Our daughter insisted that we not open any mail sent to her from colleges. So we just put the envelopes on the staircase and stared at them. They were all acceptances anyway.
We only had one that arrived by physical mail this past year. The rest were all web portals.
My S’s were all mail notifications and either he or I would open them. Otherwise they might set for a couple of days until he would actually open it. It was no big deal.
Its now been two years but D wanted to open them together, just her and I. She applied to 1 ED and 7 EA schools and many of those decisions came via email and she just relayed the information to me. The only one she was excited to know was the ED (rejection), the rest were basically safeties. The remaining 11 school decisions were opened together. Depending on the decision, we had two tubs of ice cream: Martha’s Vineyard Black Raspberry for the rejections because that is D’s favorite and Green Monster Mint for the acceptances! Eleven schools, eleven scoops of ice cream. It was a fun way to celebrate and, in a few cases, a way to get through the tears.
@NEPatsGirl , that’s so cute! But was green monster mint a punishment for being accepted? 
No, that’s her second favorite. Figured she needed the big guns for the disappointments! Funny that you responded, the one WL that brought tears was Bates…
Years ago when many colleges were transitioning away from snail mail to online, some friends of ours daughter applied to MIT, which was then still a snail mail hold out. A fat envelope arrived in the middle of the day and the dad took it down to the high school and met his daughter as she came out of class just before the lunch period. She opened the envelope and screamed in joy. Her friends all huddled around and read to letter too. The friends then picked the girl up on their shoulders and carried her across the quad shouting “M - I - T!, M - I - T!” in celebration.