<p>Ran across a few newspaper articles that at some HS students are posting copies of their rejection letters on a wall at school, a so-called "rejection wall". One article talking about this is at Wall</a> Of College Rejection Letters: How Kids Cope </p>
<p>Wondering -- are they doing this at your school?</p>
<p>Not at my school, but it sounds like an awesome idea. Everyone only talks about where they got accepted, not rejected, so it’s really easy to feel like you’re the only person getting rejected from places.</p>
<p>We’re not doing this, but it’s definitely a great idea. I’d participate.</p>
<p>This is an annual tradition done every year at my school. While it may seem like an outlet for insecurity and bitterness, it does well in terms of boosting student closeness. People will often post comments on the letter such as “You’re better than this school. I love you!” which lessens the sting of rejection when you have friends supporting you.</p>
<p>Yes, there are nasty comments posted about the schools themselves on the letters including offensive plays on the name, but this is minor and not taken seriously; the biggest and most important issue is that the students themselves create a support circle.</p>
<p>This is a cool idea. I sent the article to my son’s GC. Thanks for sharing it with the community OP.</p>
<p>This sounds like it would be mad fun.</p>
<p>Just saw another article about this in the paper so I guess this happens at a number of schools.</p>
<p>I wish. I brought up the idea but our ASB shot it down. I would’ve brought the ashes from my rejection letter in a plastic bag!</p>
<p>We had a rejection wall in our senior lounge in '07. It was like First describes. Everyone was very supportive.</p>
<p>@lyrabelacqua, I love your name :)</p>
<p>My school has done this on and off over the past few years. It seems to have died down a bit though as more and more rejections are email only.</p>
<p>I don’t like the idea at all and wouldn’t want to participate. One, I still like the schools that rejected me quite a lot and realize that my rejection was not personal, so I don’t really see it as traumatic or particularly upsetting, and two, I’m a private person and would rather not share pieces of my personal life with everyone like that. I don’t subscribe to the whole communal healing process notion. Because there’s nothing to heal in the first place–rejection is part of the application process–and the whole idea reeks of emotional exhibitionism anyway.</p>
<p>That being said, if it helps some people feel better about themselves, then I of course have no problem with that. It’s just not something I’d do.</p>
<p>A teacher at my school has one of these (I think it’s entitled “The Wall of Broken Dreams”). There are even some burned letters up there. I think it allows people to deal with the rejection and even find some humor in what can seem like a bad situation. Many people also write supportive comments to other rejectees (“They’re crazy to reject you!” etc.).</p>
<p>@lostmortal, then I like your taste in literature! ;)</p>
<p>College admissions isn’t that big of a deal at my school, so I don’t know even if we could do that.</p>
<p>There is one at my kids’ high school.</p>
<p>It seems to reduce some of the stress and anguish to see that you are not the only one to get rejected somewhere, especially when even the academic powerhouses get rejected too. When that 2380/4.9 WGPA kid goes down in flames, you realize maybe it’s not statement about you when you get rejected too.</p>
<p>Plus I think it is somewhat freeing to publicly post your “failures”, I think it makes it easier to move past it. It’s humanizing to admit you aren’t perfect.</p>
<p>^Agreed, though I think this works better at prep schools, where everyone is looking at a certain set of schools, than at your run-of-the-mill public high school. Most kids at my school only apply to in-state publics that they’re fairly certain of getting into, so I’m not sure it would work at my school. Great idea though.</p>
<p>If my urban public magnet high school is still like it was when I attended in the early-mid '90s, no one would go for it. </p>
<p>The levels of cutthroat competitiveness and one-upsmanship were such that kids brave/insane enough to do so would be cruelly teased for those rejections by more successful classmates and even some jerkish teachers. </p>
<p>I’d doubt anyone…myself included would volunteer to paint a giant bullseye on ourselves for the teasers from the top 25-30% of our class and a few teachers. Especially when this backbiting BS still happens with a few classmates even after 15+ years.</p>
<p>My D’s high school doesn’t do this. Instead, kids make a posters of where they ARE going (whether it be college, the military, or to work). The posters start appearing as soon as the ED decisions come out, and they stay up until the last day of school. I imagine dozens will be put up this week and next - my daughter’s included.</p>
<p>We would all just read our rejection letters to eachother, sometimes they were pretty funny. Like from W&M, they made a big deal about how one or maybe even two people had personally read your application. Ha. Glad to know they cared enough to let a second person maybe read my application.</p>