<p>My son is applying to graduate programs, and is in the period where he's hearing back about interviews. I had that parental sixth-sense feeling that he should have heard from one of them by now, so I called him to make sure he'd really checked. He'd been checking online, but after the call he went to his mailbox and found a letter that had probably been sitting there for a week. It was good news, but it meant that he had to run around to make travel arrangements. If he'd left it there for another week, he might have been out of luck.</p>
<p>So: tell them to check the actual mail frequently, even if they are expecting electronic notice.</p>
<p>So agree. Honestly, my older boys simply do NOT look in a mailbox. I literally have to text them and tell them to go look in their mailbox when I send them anything via UPS, or FedX or USPS. “We” parents forget that kids don’t use mail services much anymore and looking in the mailbox is not part of their normal routine.</p>
<p>The college sends my daughter notification for packages but she is supposed to check her regular mailbox herself. Since she is in MA - I told her to be on the lookout for possible jury duty notice and therefore to check her mailbox regularly.</p>
<p>LOL, the year my kids lived in a dorm “regularly” meant “whenever I think about it” and generally once a month. So different from “our world” when you stopped my your mailbox every day because there was a sheet of “college announcements” or a flier about something, or a note (with money) from your parents…different world now.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh, checking my mailbox was the highlight of the day in college. We’d check twice because the US mail was delivered in the morning and campus mail in the afternoon :)</p>
<p>I’m waiting to hear from grad programs right now. I check the mail box every single time I go past it- which is probably 6-7 times/day until I get the mail for that day. As an anxious applicant, I couldn’t imagine NOT checking the mail! lol</p>
<p>What grad programs send important things by U.S. Mail?</p>
<p>It’s so rare that anything significant gets sent by mail anymore, we (parents) miss things all the time. My wife tossed the envelope with my new health insurance card because it looked like junk mail.</p>
<p>My son is waiting for grad school word, too, but he is confident it will come (if it comes) by way of e-mail or a call to his cell phone. Once that happens, he will look for the official paperwork in the mail.</p>
<p>This is an ongoing battle in our house. My wife will recycle anything that looks remotely like “junk mail”. I insist on making sure that it actually is junk mail. When our son was in college, we would always alert him to the fact that he was going to get mail from us. If we really wanted him to check his mail we told him we sent him $$ (and would send a check for $10 with whatever important item was enclosed).</p>
<p>Near the end of freshman year, they were cleaning their room and “discovered” an unopened Fed/EX box (not small either). My son did not seem at all surprised that there would be unopened mail in their suite.</p>
<p>He also never listens to phone messages, but that’s another story…</p>
<p>Lol… snail mail? What is that? Must admit, D2 CANNOT open an envelope without shredding it. This is a skill I guess she is going to have to work on before moving out (she has swimming and driving a car under her belt now, so we will move on to this).</p>
<p>Ha, Hunt. I was being sarcastic. Just saying that D2 barely knows what it is… Have to say that D1 has also had issues (did not know when she sent out internship applications that different sized envelopes, especially heavier ones, require more than one stamp!).</p>
<p>Well last summer my daughter had to mail off an enrollment form for a sports camp and asked me where she should place the stamp on the envelope. She wasn’t kidding!</p>