<p>I bought my Stanford sweatshirt the day after I got my acceptance. I live only 30 miles from Stanford, so it made a fun trip.</p>
<p>My parents said they were too expensive, but I got them to buy me an MIT cap and some mittens, along with a tee from another university. They bought some for themselves which I didn't quite understand?</p>
<p>I borrowed a USC t-shirt from a friend whose dad worked there the day after I got the letter. I never expected to actually go there. When I officially got my scholarship and decided to attend, I was actually on a spring break trip. My mom told me the news on the phone, and I accepted! By the time I got back home, she had a sweatshirt, t-shirt, and license plate holder arrayed around my room, with the acceptance letters on the door. It was awsome. That way, we didn't spend money on a college I wasn't going to go to.</p>
<p>Okay, so now that the Early Decisions are in, did it affect the outcome in your household? If you bought a t-shirt at your kid's first choice school, did s/he get in ED? Or did it jinx the outcome? (I'd like to know before RD rolls around.)</p>
<p>worrywart--this reminds me of how superstitious baseball players (and their parents) are! Somehow I suspect that the outcome has little to do with the presence or absence of a tshirt. But try telling a pitcher that the sequence in which he showers/eats/dresses for a morning game, or the quantity and type of cereal he eats for breakfast, or the manner in which he puts on his baseball cap, doesn't make a difference in the outcome of the game......and try telling a parent that the clothes she wears to the game makes no difference....yeah, right!!</p>
<p>It's so hard not to be in control :(....</p>
<p>patient, As I was reading through this slightly old thread, I was thinking:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>mini needs some remedial internet training (just kidding :D) , and</p></li>
<li><p>I was thinking about baseball... how when there is a World Series game 7 they make up championship hats for both teams. What ever happens to those loser/wrong hats? I figure they are immediately sent to the shredder, but who really knows?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yea Steve and Barry's have lots of college shirts. They're all great prices too. Nice store.</p>
<p>patient, maybe it's because I'm the parent of someone who has played baseball year-round for the past 12 years! I'd still like to know everyone's results.</p>
<p>NJ, from what I'm told (have a sister who works retail) the stuff remains at a distribution point near the projected sale site. Like this year for example, she had to get up and be at a warehouse at like 4AM after the Cardinals won the World Series to pick up the stuff. This limits the chances of the "wrong" items from getting out to the public. </p>
<p>The other stuff is destroyed. However, sometimes a few of those items somehow make their way thru the shredder;) and get sold on ebay!</p>
<p>On the original topic:
I have 3 shirts from USMA and a sweatshirt as well as a ballcap. I have since decided not to attend West Point, but you'll still see me wearing those items quite a bit.</p>
<p>As of now, I don't have any apparel from the school I have decided to go to. Seems backwards, doesn't it?;)</p>
<p>Oh, and the baseball superstition thing: you don't mess with a ballplayer's superstition. I have a hat that I wore all spring and summer last year that is absolutely filthy. It hasn't been washed and will NOT be washed. Keeps people from trying to borrow it;).</p>
<p>None here. Daughter got a nice hoodie on sale when she was up at Carleton and wore it a lot. She also has an Oberlin T shirt. She wore the hoodie to school the day after her acceptance to Carleton to celebrate. We might have worried more if she had put the hoodie aside but it just became a piece of wearing apparel.</p>
<p>Worrywart--yes, that might have something to do with it! </p>
<p>Hops_scout--you definitely don't mess with a ballplayer's superstition. You also don't talk out loud about it in their presence. Their rituals are their own. And I think there is a certain noble beauty in the swirling patterns on those well-worn baseball caps ;).......</p>
<p>I still think you'll find very random results, but if it helps any, I think that I waited until I knew, not that I can remember for sure that far back. This time around (for girls next year) I will DEFINITELY wait. My daughters are much more changeable in their fancies and hopefully neither will put all their eggs in one basket.</p>
<p>No jinx here, either! I bought a T-shirt from my first-choice school over a year ago and just received my acceptance letter!
I also proved another superstition wrong by submitting my app on Friday the 13th. So there, fates!</p>
<p>Buy a big-enough shirt---
I sneaked and bought S a tee shirt during 2nd visit to his ED school this fall when it was plain that he loved the place, and hid it away until his acceptance arrived the other day. Unfortunately hadn't counted on him growing this much in a few months and now it's barely big enough. He'll wear it a few times, though.
Hats off to the kids of ocmom and the others for their sensitivity. It must be very hard for the kids who did not get good news that day. We were in luck this year. After a night of IM-ing, all the ED kids had good news to report -- almost the opposite of last year. Principal and guidance dept thrilled as well.</p>
<p>It's bad karma. :(</p>
<p>At my school I swear we had the "Sweatshirt Curse". Everyone I knew who bought a college sweatshirt was always rejected from the school on the shirt, even though in some cases they got into every other school they applied to. When my mom tried to buy me a Wesleyan shirt junior year I was completely terrified, that's how paranoid I was. So yes, bad karma, but apparently only at my high school.</p>
<p>well, I ordered D sweatshirts a while back for her to EA schools....the large kids size..cheaper and fits!!! She got into both today and will wear them around the house...she won't wear them to school yet...maybe after EA ED stuff settles down but before April 1...or just with family...she doesn't want to hurt any feelings...</p>
<p>I figured if she didn't get in, then they would be my dog walking sweatshirts- yeah I CAN TOO fit in them
sorta</p>
<p>Well.... If Im rejected from Notre Dame.... and I were to throw away all of my Notre Dame apparel...... i wouldnt have any clothes</p>
<p>I guess that means that its time to order soem State U shirts.......shorts......sweatshirts....... shoes ( yes I have ND shoes)</p>
<p>D had a hankering for my alma mater. For years she wore the gear. After sophomore year, she stopped wearing it out of the house and rarely wore it at all. Sometimes she'd say how much she missed it.</p>
<p>Over the summer, we were at the college and saw a really nice hooded sweatshirt that I liked much better than any I had seen before. So I bought myself one and loaned it to D, who wore it outside when we were out of town but only wore it in the house when we were in town.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, our knuckles got a bit raw from knocking on wood.</p>
<p>And now she's in and I've given her the hooded sweatshirt. She happily wears it outside the house now. BUT she won't wear it to school for the first few weeks after they go back, as many of her classmates had disappointing ED and EA results. It just seems too "in your face." Maybe the very subtle silly school socks but no major gear for awhile.</p>
<p>I was touched by the thoughtfulness of the "Podunk U" story above (assuming that no one in the boy's class aspired to or seemed fated to Podunk U).</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have good reason to surprise my son with the t-shirt I've had stashed away since our campus visit this fall.</p>
<p>At my D's school, the students wear uniforms but on Fridays they can wear their HS sport team shirt, a school pep shirt, or a college sweatshirt (this seems to have morphed into a college t-shirt as well). As such, most of the kids have a variety of college shirts. It's a nice idea in that the shirts get worn and the students are exposed to lots of school names. D purchased shirts at several of the schools she visited and wore them quite often - including the one from the school she got into ED. However, I noticed that she stopped wearing it when she decided to apply ED - until the acceptance arrived.</p>