Thin envelope, but not THE thin envelope

<p>Today is at least the third time since Fang Jr submitted his application (a week ago!) that he has gotten a thin envelope from Beloit. This one was an acknowledgement that they have his entire application, plus some random marketing stuff, and the two last week were just random marketing stuff.</p>

<p>This is nerve-wracking. Not for Fang Jr, who seems unfazed, and who moreover can open a suspicious thin envelope as soon as he has it in his hand, but very much so for his nervous parent.</p>

<p>I remember the feeling. I tried to be nonchalant, but I think my heart pounded more than my daughter's whenever the mailman walked up the front steps.</p>

<p>When I was in college, I applied to Oxford for grad school and received the thinnest, smallest, lightest envelope I had ever seen. One airmail sheet! I remember snatching it out of the mailbox in the central location of our dorm, taking it into a quiet study room with my hands shaking, not wanting to open up this rejection in front of all my friends, and then SCREAMING when I realized it was the world's smallest, thinnest, lightest ACCEPTANCE. I still remember one of my friends saying "I thought someone had died when I heard you yell like that." So apparently there CAN be good news inside a small, light envelope (particularly for those overseas admissions -- so don't panic!)</p>