<p>D says she will wait for the paper mail to come and not check the website. Not sure who will get home first on the appointed days, but will let her get the mail out of the mailbox. Two more weeks to hear from her early choices.</p>
<p>yes, ctyankee, both results must be “embraced” in the sense that neither is a make or break decision for life and we learn from it all. Doesn’t mean that we mustn’t acknowledge the disappointment one of the outcomes can bring. But we know (and can’t say at the time) that there are lessons there, as well.</p>
<p>I truly believe that things happen for a reason. But that doesn’t discount the complete disappointment and dejection that will come with bad news if it comes (hope not!). When that happens you have to acknowledge their feelings, but my guess is that kids put it behind them quickly and move on (probably faster than parents do). I know several parents whose kids did not get in where they wanted, and were completely devastated. However, running into them midway through their kid’s freshman year at their “second choice” college, the kids were loving it and wondering why they ever wanted to go to the first choice college. Hang in there and have faith that there is a bigger plan out there.</p>
<p>D’s school released admission decisions at 5:30. (I did not know this was her first choice.) She came home, was totally stressed out and decided to go to the gym befor checking results. She came home, went to her room to check and I stayed in the kitchen. A few minutes later, she screamed,“I GOT IN!” This was an uber-reach miracle for her. As a result, I literally could not speak for a fw minutes. I have never seen her so happy.
S on the other hand, simply checked results was neither terrribly dissappointed with his results nor completely thrilled. Different kids…but it all works out in the end, really.</p>
<p>For each of the first three kids our entire family surrounded the computer and our screams could have been heard down the street. For the fouth child, our sons who were all away at school had all called and were on hold waiting for the results. We all screamed together. Happy memories…</p>
<p>I have been instructed not to get the mail before she gets home from school. She wants to be the first to know and I fully support that - she’s the one who’s done all the work to get where she is! </p>
<p>We’ve heard that the letters from her ED school went in the mail today, so we should know by Friday. We’ll be on pins and needles til then.</p>
<p>I’m already crying just reading this thread. How do you keep it together? I’ll cry hardest if the answer is yes. But at least she’ll just laugh at me.</p>
<p>5 days 22 hours</p>
<p>I remember it so clearly. There I was in Macy’s buying lingerie. Shirt off, and I get a call on my cell phone. My son called to say he got into Northwestern. I was in absolute shock. I kept repeating, “I don’t believe it, over and over and over again. I don’t believe it.” I didn’t know what else to say, because I (we) never expected it. By then, I thought someone in the store would come in to see what was wrong. Half naked and repeating, “I don’t believe it.”</p>
<p>I finally got dressed, found my H in the men’s dept and rushed home. My S was bursting with excitement when he told his dad. Then my son and I had a bear hug.</p>
<p>4 days 7 hours 33 minutes</p>
<p>It’s an awful feeling; both my children received their ED deferrals by regular mail but my D got an online RD rejection from one of her top choices and that was possibly even worse than the ED deferral since it was the last decision to be received and followed a series of wait-list letters from her other top-choice schools (and was posted during the school day so she had to use a library computer to check the decision). In retrospect things worked out well enough for both children even though neither got into their ED school in the regular decision round either–it is the moment that is difficult, not the long term. </p>
<p>I also remember with continuing satisfaction the glee in my daughter’s voice when she got a not-completely-expected online RD acceptance from one of her mid-list schools and called down from upstairs (it was a Saturday morning) “I got in!” There is almost always some good news in the overall process. It would be fun to have an ED acceptance, but if your child does not, a year from now it will not matter.</p>
<p>3 days 6 hours</p>
<p>We all waited for the mail to come and allowed my daughter to walk out to the mailbox alone and then listened to her screaming for joy all the way back to the house. </p>
<p>It came on a Saturday, so we were all home. She asked me not to check the mail, so that she could find it on her own and I respected that. It was HARD, but I wanted her to know first.</p>
<p>It was just about a year ago when Georgetown’s EA decisions came out. S2 had decided that G’town was his first choice school. Georgetown only notifies by snail mail, and we figured that the envelope would come on a Saturday (which it did). </p>
<p>S2 and I were at a debate tournament. I texted S1 at lunchtime, and yes, there was a Georgetown envelope that had come in that day’s mail. I asked S1 if he could tell it there was more than one piece of paper in it, and he said he couldn’t really tell, but maybe…? S2 said that absolutely he did NOT want his older brother to open the envelope, so he had to wait until we returned home that evening. </p>
<p>When we got home, we were the only ones there. I gave the envelope to S2 and watched while he opened it. Thanks to CC, I knew that he was in as soon as that blue slip slipped out. A big grin spread over S2’s face as he said wonderingly, “I got in.” </p>
<p>What we didn’t know at that time was that it would be until the first week of April that we got his finaid award letter. And we didn’t know that his dad’s business would be looked at the way it was (we hadn’t had to fill out the CSS Profile for his older brother’s state university). So he didn’t end up going to G’town.</p>
<p>Two days later Notre Dame’s EA envelope came. That one was a big thick envelope, and by scrunching up the transparent film, I could read the word “Congralations.” </p>
<p>The other acceptances (and rejections, and waitlists) were by e-mail. So Georgetown’s stands alone as the real mystery envelope. It was an exciting day!</p>
<p>D’s ED letter came by snail mail…she happened to be home from school due to snow that day. It was an acceptance…evidently she ran screaming around the house twice in the snow, in her pj’s and slippers. When she called my office to let me know, it took a minute for me to understand WHAT she was shrieking, and decide whether she was laughing or crying! It was a good day… 
good memories!</p>
<p>We’ve enjoyed the ups and the downs of ED/EA decisions. S1 (back in the dark ages of online communication…2002!) had to wait for his Chicago decision to come via snail mail. He stalked the postman for at least 3 days, waiting as the mail was delivered each afternoon. On “that” day he spied the large envelope being placed in the mailbox, rushed out and hugged the mailman! S2 was out and had heard the Wash U decisions had been released. He asked me to check (online this time) and I think I heard him fall on the floor at Old Navy when I told him he got in. Two years later D1 checks online and is crushed when she is rejected, online, from Northwestern, my alma mater. Adding insult to injury was language in the letter implying that the rejection was even more painful, because she was a legacy. Oy. It took a few hours and a hot fudge sundae for her to come around and get excited about Wisconsin (dad’s alma mater), to which she had already been accepted. A week later, she’s looking out her bedroom window and she too spies the mailman leaving a large envelope in our mailbox. Running out to the street I swear they could hear her in Chicago when she came running in with that wonderful acceptance letter from Chicago in her hand! Her brother (a Chicago senior at the time) greeted her exuberant jump into his arms with, “You had any doubts? I knew you’d get in!” And whoever said it is just as nervewracking with grad/professional school decisions, you are so right. We went through it with S1 last year with law and graduate school decisions. It seems like there’s a decision for someone just about every year! At least now, we’re experts.</p>
<p>I remember that March 2007 “Black Thursday” very well (the day when all the Ivies posted online at 5PM EST). I was on my way home from work early so I could be with my son when he logged in. Fortuantely, because we live within 10 miles of Harvard his Harvard acceptance package mistakenly arrived via the mail that day (a day early) so his Harvard acceptance was in his hand before the 5PM posting time. Good thing too because at 5PM he logged in and got five rejections from other Ivies.</p>
<p>hoping4duke I have my fingers and toes crossed for you! My son goes to another college, but oddly is the world’s biggest Duke fan (basketball). He has gone there for a game and will go again this year for his birthday when he is home over the holidays (it’s like his mecca). He is nowhere near a good enough student to go there and he knows it but that doesn’t stop him from jumping in on the fun at Duke with his Dad. He’s a perfect fit at the college he’s at. Good luck! Please keep us posted.</p>
<p>collegemomof2 . . . thanks so much for your good wishes. You are very gracious and with about 22 1/2 hours to go, I can use all of the kindness in the world.
You stated that your son is nowhere near a good enough student to go to Duke, but he sure hit the jack pot with an understanding mom and a really fun dad! Congrats to you on getting him up through the college years and thanks again for the crossed fingers and toes.</p>
<p>only about 20 hours left! I can do this!</p>