<p>My main piece of advice would be NOT to post-mortem a rejection or waitlist to death (or beyond). Once the applications are done and sent in, it's out of our kids' hands. I am NOT going to tell my kid, "If only you'd gotten an A instead if a B in XXX, you would have been accepted!" (or if only he'd caught that typo, used a different word to describe something, etc.)</p>
<p>At a certain point, we <em>all</em> have to let go and say "good enough." It pains me to see all these kids on CC saying "If only..." when the reality is that sometimes admissions has nothing to do with the applicant personally. That said, I agree with the other folks who have said it's OK to grieve. In the real world, we don't always get that promotion, etc., and sometimes that's for the best.</p>
<p>One of my kids was recently waitlisted to a program and we got a taste of what college admissions will be like. One thing that struck me was that my kid was far less upset than I might have expected. The other thing was how much I wanted that acceptance for him. It was a good sign to back off. Things work out for a reason.</p>